Is WTA in Middle East a Mistake?

I don't often take the time to comment on what other colleagues write, but my compatriot Peter Bodo over at Tennis.com and Peter Bodo's TennisWorld blog wrote a column that just got my proverbial goat. I'll paraphrase it here, but basically he said that the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour is stupid to move the season-ending championship to Doha, Qatar and then on to Istanbul, Turkey. I have lamented the move of professional tennis away from the North American continent for a while now, but I cannot disagree with Pete more.

WTA Tour CEO Larry Scott has done miracles for the women's tour. (Yes, Larry, I still think you took my job away from me, but I'm over that now.) From a splintered tour who lost its longest and biggest sponsor and had no clear direction, the WTA Tour is now a thriving (financially) tour with great interest. The stories in women's tennis have shifted away from the American players to a much more global spectrum. Just about every tennis writer this year has written about the rise of the Serbians and Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic are becoming media darlings. Can you blame Mr. Scott and Sony Ericsson for moving the tournament to a place that is closer to the hotbed of tennis right now? I can't.

Peter Bodo tries to make the case that there are still great American and "developed nations" locations for such a season-ending championship. I guess my left coast friend has forgotten how pathetic the attendance at the Staples Center was just a few years ago. There was barely anyone in the stands for the early round robin matches, and while it appeared to be packed for the final two matches, the arena was sparsely populated in reality.

California is still a hotbed of tennis. Los Angeles is still loaded with celebrities and movie moguls who just love sporting events like these. If the WTA Tour couldn't really make it a go there, why does Mr. Bodo think that it would fare better anywhere else? (I'll say maybe New York, but even there, the last few years the early rounds were never filled to capacity.) I know this much, if nobody is going to show up for the tournament anyway, why not go for the money? I would.

The "global media" that Pete talks about in his column that he says won't travel to Qatar to write about the tournament and women's tennis doesn't exist. Tennis writers like myself, Pete, Mert Ertunga, and Ricky Dimon are in the minority. The big media outlets now use AP reports for the majority of their tennis stories. Since there are few tennis-only writers with the big newspapers, tennis coverage is just about nil anyway. The "global media" only travels to the four majors and rarely cover any tennis outside of Wimbledon, the French Open, the Australian Open, and the U.S. Open.

I have been to several smaller tournaments recently and don't see much of a media presence. In New Haven right now, there is a joint ATP and WTA tournament going on and so far my local papers barely mention it. The Roger Federer/James Blake final in Cincinnati was a back pages story. So, I have to ask, does global media coverage really matter anyway?

I'm not sure if the move of the tournament to Doha and Istanbul, with their Islamic traditions and dress rules, is the best for the WTA Tour. I'm on the fence as to if moving the championship to Doha will benefit the Sony or Ericsson brands that much, either. But I am sure that Larry Scott has the best interest of women's professional tennis at heart. Women's tennis will not fall off the cliff and out of the public's interest. Tennis has already been relegated to lesser sport status by the media itself. The WTA Tour's gamble on moving the championships to where the money is is a low-risk move.

Peter, if Tennis Magazine will pay for my ticket and hotel, I'll gladly go to Doha and I'll write as many stories a day as my fingers will allow me to bang out on this keyboard. Heck, I just got back from several months in Kuwait and Iraq. Doha would be like a vacation.