GENOA, ITALY – The recent Davis Cup tie between Italy and France saw the attendance of the ITF President David Haggerty. Despite the electric atmosphere created by the Italian and French fans, Haggerty didn’t seem to change his mind regarding a Davis Cup complete makeover that should occur in 2019. Here is an abstract with the interview that Haggerty gave to Franck Ramella of the French newspaper L’Equipe, while Italy and France were battling for a spot in the semifinals. After some of the answers you will also find my remarks.
Has this week’s excitement changed your point of view?
If every tie was like this one, we wouldn’t need to change anything. It’s exciting to see so much passion and enthusiasm, but our new format will not change any of that. It’s a new chapter, a new evolution that will allow the best players to compete. The new format can easily reproduce the same excitement as we are used to seeing, but it will be in a unique place with 18 teams supported by their fans, who will have the opportunity to watch at least three ties with their teams.
SCANAGATTA’S REMARKS – A team tennis world cup is not the same as a soccer world cup. Soccer fans would travel from all parts of the world to a remote location like Qatar to support their teams, despite the brutal temperatures in a country that doesn’t really have much else to offer. Most soccer fans also don’t mind watching other teams. I doubt that many tennis fans would travel to remote destinations such as Australia, Singapore, China or Qatar to support their teams. It is highly unrealistic to think that 100,000 tennis fans – with an average of 5,500 for each of the 18 participating countries – would travel very far to attend a competition that will probably take place between November and January and will therefore need three giant indoor stadiums.
With so many matches to be contested in so few days, the competition can’t afford to be interrupted for half a day. In order to complete the round-robin stages in three days, matches can’t be interrupted at all, not even for a few hours. Where are three giant indoor stadiums available for the period between November 2019 and January 2020? At the moment, Australia is the only country with such a facility. Another possibility would be to build three brand new stadiums, but what country could possibly take on such a huge project to host the event only for one year? Or will it be for multiple years? Will it be far from Europe, where most of the current top players are from? It sounds like a senseless project.
Do you think that you will find the same atmosphere in a unique place?
I’d rather think in terms of international success. A single Davis Cup tie can’t be watched by a considerable amount of people.
SCANAGATTA’S REMARKS – True. A Davis Cup final almost exclusively grabs the attention of the two countries that are contesting it. If the final is Slovakia vs. Croatia without any star power, no sports fans in the rest of the world will care about it. But the question is: How many fans from the participating 18 nations would travel to a foreign country to follow their teams? Perhaps the event could be relevant on TV, but what kind of appeal would an empty stadium in Qatar, Singapore or China have?
Don’t you think that a Davis Cup tie usually provides a great promotion to the sport of tennis in the host country?
I don’t agree. In my opinion, the most important thing is to turn tennis into a global sport with international impact. Sponsors and promoters want to showcase themselves at a bigger event.
BNPP and BEIN have been kind of quiet concerning the proposed changes, the impression is that they are a little uncomfortable with this new project?
We proposed our changes after negotiating with them…
Are you aware of the protest from some of the players? Pouille talked about a boycott…
There are many countries who are supporting our changes. The United States, Great Britain and many others. The board was unanimous. I have been to Indian Wells and spoken with the players. Many of them are supporting us. They clearly said that they don’t want to play Davis Cup for four weeks a year. Our format requires only one week of competition with a 20-million-dollar prize-money, which can’t be underestimated.
SCANAGATTA’S REMARKS – While it is true that money and a one-week competition certainly excite the players, it is not true that Great Britain is completely supporting Haggerty. Furthermore, most of the French players – including captain Yannick Noah – described Haggerty’s proposal as “disgraceful.”
If the ATP organized its own World Team Cup, wouldn’t the situation become absolutely bizarre?
Tennis doesn’t need two team championships. One is enough, and it should be the Davis Cup. We will speak with the ATP about it.
SCANAGATTA’S REMARKS – The ATP has been dreaming to take control of the Davis Cup and cut the ITF out for a long time. If the four Grand Slams were united and supportive, the ITF could apply a strict policy that would prevent players from competing at the Slams if they didn’t fulfil their Davis Cup duties. It would be a similar policy to the rules that allow the players to compete at the Olympics. The problem is that the four Slams are neither united nor supportive: Each event is managed in its own way. For instance, the anti-trust laws in the United States provide that professional athletes can’t be denied the opportunity to earn money that they are entitled to. In short, it wouldn’t be easy to deal with the legal implications in each country.
Don’t you think that the importance of the ITF will decrease along with the impact of the Davis Cup?
I think that this will make the ITF stronger. With the resources coming from this project, we will be able to distribute more money to our tennis countries and develop the sport.
Can we expect any changes to the final proposal that will be voted in August?
We are currently talking about a few minor changes. The date at the end of November? We’ll see. Nevertheless, we will use the weeks that are available in the calendar.
SCANAGATTA’S REMARKS – Haggerty told me that any change to the original project will have to be forwarded to 147 countries at least a month before the meeting that will take place between August 13th and 16th in Orlando. It is yet to be seen if each country will attend the meeting. Among the 82 countries that only have one vote, some of them rely on extremely poor federations, especially in Africa, Asia and other regions very far from Florida.
CONCLUSION
In order for the new project to be approved, at least two thirds of the votes have to be favorable. A few bigger countries have more votes than other smaller nations: 82 countries have one vote, 25 countries have 3, 14 countries have 5, 7 countries have 7, 14 countries have 9 and 5 countries have 12. Haggerty told me that he can count on the unanimity of the managers that are part of the Board. He thinks that he will start from 120 votes and if he can do a little better than doubling them, the revolution will materialize. I personally think that it will be difficult that the original project could be approved even if the meeting was slightly “manipulated.”
According to Rafa Nadal, “the current Davis Cup format is old, so it is not perfect. The new format is far from perfect as well, so I am not sure that it will work. It is a good thing that the ITF is proposing innovative ideas though, and the sponsors are willing to invest in our sport. I am not sure whether they are headed in the right or the wrong direction, but it is great that they are trying something new. Every event has to be modernized sooner or later. We have to make sure that all of the players can compete, but it is also fair to say that some of the players that are not playing Davis Cup very often are now getting older!”
Here is the original text concerning reimbursements:
“ITF will reimburse $500 per association towards one delegate airfare · ITF will cover 4 nights’ accommodation for one delegate per association Terms and Conditions · Flight and hotel offer not available to nations in subscription arrears at as 1 July 2018. · $500 contribution towards flight will be paid within 30 days of the completion of the AGM to the national association bank account the ITF holds on record. · Hotel dates included in the offer: 12-16 August (max 4 nights). No dates outside of these will be covered. · The costs covered by the ITF Hotel Room offer (max 4 nights for a single deluxe room) will be deducted from your final hotel bill. · Accommodation cannot be split over 2 delegates. · Room must be booked via the online AGM registration site and guaranteed with a credit card. · Room rate only covered, incidentals not included. · A maximum of 4 nights, no monetary value will be offered for stays of less than this. · The ITF hotel room offer is only available for the category of Deluxe Standard room (single occupancy), for ONE delegate from each member nation. · If a Deluxe room is booked for 2 people, any additional occupancy cost will be at your association’s expense. · Only Standard Deluxe rooms are available; the ITF is unable to cover the cost of a higher category room or contribute towards it. · A no show or late cancellation will result in the credit card guaranteeing the booking being charged 100% of booked room nights (non-refundable by the ITF).”
Ubaldo Scanagatta in collaboration with Laura Guidobaldi
(Article translation provided by T&L Global – Translation & Language Solutions – www.t-lglobal.com )
