MY RECOMMENDATION IS A STRONG NO!

By Javier Palenque

My good friend from the west coast let me know that one of the master’s 1000 was up for sale, the Western & Southern event in Cincinnati. I lived near Cincinnati for a couple of years when I was a kid and worked recently in nearby Dayton. This event is unique in many ways, first, it can be considered “the tennis event” for the Midwest, and let us not forget how big the Midwest is so it is like a few countries in Europe. Therefore, it has all the elements to succeed as a great event. This event is well managed and the only asset that USTA has that makes money. Most USTA assets lose money due to poor management and visionless leadership. I know, you hate it when I use those words, but let us go asset by asset and let the facts speak, not your emotions.

When you look at the table below, please notice the green cells. The Cincy Open has roughly as EBIDTA $6M per year, which is a very decent sum as I imagine it is not burdened by exorbitant salaries and an unreasonable number of people. It is in the middle of the country where the weather is not kind, so there are a lot of clubs that feed into the tennis culture that is required for any tennis event to succeed. So, this property is a gem to keep, not to sell. Also, consider that the ATP has agreed with the players to share 50% of the profits and be transparent with the accounting in the M1000…