The ATP Tour and Girls’s Tennis Affiliation (WTA) are pushing forward with efforts to merge the industrial and media rights of the lads’s and girls’s tennis excursions, bringing in an exterior adviser to check choices, three folks accustomed to the state of affairs mentioned.
The teams, that are run by representatives of the gamers and tournaments, have employed consultancy McKinsey & Firm, one of many folks mentioned. A second individual mentioned the appointment occurred earlier this yr.
A deal may worth the rising entity at round 3 billion kilos ($3.84 billion), two of the folks mentioned.
The ATP and WTA mentioned in an announcement that they’re “exploring discussions that will allow us to leverage property throughout each Excursions by way of the creation of a brand new joint industrial entity, delivering extra worth to gamers, tournaments, and followers, whereas remaining as separate Excursions”.
The talks are nonetheless within the preliminary phases, they added.
The transfer would carry all of the industrial ventures into one entity, with the intention of finishing a merger in 2025, the primary individual added, talking on situation of anonymity as a result of the matter is non-public.
A deal would enable the 2 teams to cut back duplication of their organisations and to extra successfully market themselves to broadcasters and sponsors, the individual added.
It could construct on a deal performed final yr between the WTA and personal fairness fund CVC, which gave CVC 20 per cent of a brand new firm overseeing the broadcasting and advertising and marketing operations of the ladies’s tennis affiliation known as WTA Ventures, they mentioned.
CVC and McKinsey each declined to remark.
Extra monetary funding may very well be required as a part of the merger, two of the folks mentioned. The game has additionally drawn curiosity from Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund (PIF), which final month signed a multi-year strategic partnership with the ATP.
PIF can also be serious about investing in a event, an individual with information of the plan mentioned, probably an addition to the prevailing 9 ATP Masters 1000 tournaments that characteristic the top-ranked gamers within the tour.
The ATP declined to remark additional, however ATP Chairman Andrea Gaudenzi mentioned in January that he had held talks with PIF about potential co-investments within the tour’s infrastructure, expertise and occasions, in accordance with Sportcal.
The WTA mentioned it’s “partaking actively with the opposite governing our bodies {of professional} tennis, (and) present and potential industrial companions, to discover whether or not we will carry higher alignment throughout the game, whereas lowering the fragmentation that exists at current”.
It mentioned there was no consensus over any most popular consequence.
Media hypothesis that the season-ending WTA Finals may very well be shifted to Saudi Arabia has intensified in latest months, and it’s broadly anticipated to be held there regardless of notable opposition from Grand Slam champions similar to Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert.
The WTA mentioned it was presently working by a course of to pick a number venue for the WTA Closing. “There was no last resolution right now,” it mentioned.
A merger of the ATP and WTA has been mentioned for years, and has had the backing of tennis greats similar to Billie Jean King and Roger Federer.
WTA chief Steve Simon advised the New York Instances in 2020 that they compete in opposition to themselves and different leagues for followers, sponsorships and broadcast.
Tennis followers want completely different pay-TV platforms to observe matches, and a merger may simplify tv contracts and sponsorship offers.