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7/22/09 9:51 PM | Johan Lindahl
Organizers of the downsized Hamburg event are dealing with a decline of ticket sales as well as a massive loss of promised sponsorship money.
The city of Hamburg failed to come good on 200,000 euros it promised to support the beleaguered event.
With its longtime status as an ATP Masters event now just a memory, the 500 series tournament where Nikolay Davydenko and Robin Soderling stand as the top remaining seeds is facing a crisis.
Officials said around 25,000 tickets were sold through mid-week, compared to twice that number at the former Masters, when the top players were required to play and the event stood as a key clay test prior to Roland Garros.
Tournament director Michael Stich - whose publicity stunt of playing doubles with 20-year-old Mischa Zverev ended with a first round loss - had expected to shift around 50,000 tickets.
Perhaps even more serious is the loss of Hamburg's promised money, which the city refused to pay after originally vowing to contribute some of the estimated 450,000 euros lost when an administrative court ruled last week that proposed sponsorship of online Bet at Home violated a German law which gives the state a monopoly on gambling.
The city of Hamburg originally said it would give 200,000 euros, then changed its mind. A tenuous lifeline is still provided by the emirate of Qatar, but that money cannot be counted on indefinitely.
The only thing that remains the same at the Rothenbaum club seems to be the rain, which is easily handled by one of the first of the movable roofs now becoming a part of the tennis landscape.
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I'm pleased God's justice has been partially done with Hamburg present woes.
It's where the organisers never protected Monica Seles when she got stabbed by that "Steffi Graff fan" nutcase.
noleisthebest , 7/25/09 7:13 PM