L.A. or Germany? WTA Considers Move

A potentially close and controversial vote held in Florida?

Well, why not? It has happened before.

The WTA’s board of directors will meet in Miami on Friday, voting on the proposal to move its season-ending championships from Munich, Germany, back to the United States, specifically, Staples Center.

Kevin Wulff, the organization’s new chief executive, has been trying to make it happen for months. The game’s leading players, such as Monica Seles, favor it.

There is a strong sentiment that the 28-year-old Seles, a beloved figure in the game, should have the chance to finish her career playing in the championships. Seles was stabbed in Hamburg, Germany in 1993 by a deranged fan of Steffi Graf, and has emphatically said she would not play in that country again.

The USTA and one of its leaders, Arlen Kantarian, endorses a move that would make the game stronger in this country. Octagon, the management agency, was the co-promoter in Munich and would perform the same role with Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG).

“For the first time, the sport has the opportunity to do something that’s right for the sport,” Octagon President Phil de Picciotto said. “There’s a real collaboration around the move of this event. We, Octagon, have the rights to this event, long-term. We have been very energized by the prospect of this move.

“We’re doing it as a collaborative effort around the best interest of the tour, which is something tennis needs very badly.”

In the vast array of alphabet soup of professional tennis, there apparently is one spot vacant on the bandwagon of consensus.

“Everybody shares it except one group,” De Picciotto said.

That would be Cleveland-based management group IMG, which has made its displeasure known in a series of discussions with AEG. An IMG spokesperson said Tuesday that it involved a rule issue “bigger than IMG,” but declined additional comment.

The crux is a 125-mile protection against competing events, a rule that has been flexible in the past. There are three other events involving women in Southern California: Indian Wells in March, Manhattan Beach in August, and La Costa, which is a week before Manhattan Beach.

One extreme example is in Japan. There are three tournaments in Tokyo, one in February and two in September, separated by two weeks.

Historically, the season-ending championships have not been held to that rule. For example, the tournament in Filderstadt, Germany, falls within the 125-mile range of Munich and was held a few weeks before the championships last year.

IMG is a partner at Indian Wells, along with Charlie Pasarell and his associates, and the company owns the Manhattan Beach event.

“L.A. is an ideal marketplace for a women’s-only indoor event which complements all the other events in the region, rather than affecting them,” De Picciotto said.

Tournament officials at Indian Wells agreed, downplaying the potential impact. The format of the two events is different. Indian Wells is held in a resort community and has large player fields, a singles draw of 96 women and 64 men.

So, on the surface, this dispute could appear to be two powerful management agencies involved in a turf war, fighting over territory. But one source said it involved other issues, not merely a battle between two agencies.

One of those issues is that the vote will represent an early referendum on Wulff’s regime. The former Nike executive took over in January from Bart McGuire and received strong reviews for his presentation at the players’ meeting at the Australian Open in January.

There are 10 board members--six from the United States and four from Europe--and a majority vote is required to pass the proposal.

The player class directors include two former top professional stars, Harold Solomon and Kathy Jordan, and the third is Lisa Grattan, who, incidentally, was one of the first to aid Seles when she was stabbed in Hamburg.

Wulff is the CEO, and the two outside directors are Claude de Jouvencel, chief executive of Grand Marnier, and Jan Soderstrom, once senior vice president of marketing with Santa Clara-based 3Com.

There are three tournament class directors: Adam Barrett, executive vice president of the Miami tournament; Gunter Sanders, a German tennis administrator, and Ivan Brixi, who represents Martina Hingis at Octagon.

The final director is Deborah Jevans, a former top British player, who is executive director of the Fed Cup and women’s tennis at the International Tennis Federation (ITF).

Interestingly, much of the momentum behind a potential move has been fueled by the players.

When the tour decided to move the championships to Germany, Seles was deeply disappointed. When discussions of moving the tournament to Staples Center emerged at Indian Wells last week, Seles became encouraged.

“I would love it,” she said. “I love this part of California. For me, anywhere in the U.S., I would be ecstatic because it would give me the chance to finish my career playing in the championships, which is obviously the key.

“There are so many players from the U.S. who are the best and this is where the future of the game is and they could showcase it the best. I hope.”

Seles spoke to some players who competed in the event last year.

“They mentioned the atmosphere wasn’t the same,” she said. “It felt a little bit anticlimactic. We got so spoiled playing in Madison Square Garden.”

To be sure, the Munich event was hurt in the aftermath of Sept. 11. Also, Venus Williams withdrew because of an injured wrist. Hingis also was sidelined by a torn ankle ligament.

Hingis, who lives in Switzerland and Florida, was willing to go along with what was best for the game.

“Whatever benefits women’s tennis,” she said. “I loved it when it was in the Garden. Munich was very close to my home, so I kind of like that. But the attendance wasn’t as great as expected. If you don’t have any top German players, it’s difficult in Germany.”

She chuckled.

“You know, there is a direct flight from Zurich to L.A., so I’ll be ready for it,” Hingis said.

Seles doesn’t buy the argument that a major event at Staples could have an impact on the two summer outdoor tournaments at Manhattan Beach and La Costa, or even Indian Wells.

“I don’t think so,” she said. “It might take a year or two to build it up so people get used to it. Then the timing is so different. Also, it’s a different format. Here, you are playing the top players.”