I really appreciate your wording on this entire matter, Ben. Indian Wells will at least have the facilities and hopefully enough fans to make the Finals exciting again. Hope Poland wins the bid for next year!
Interesting choice to use Stadium 2. I want to know what went into that decision. Concerned about not selling out Stadium 1? Cheaper to staff stadium 2? Facility upgrades/maintenance on Stadium 1? Desire to fill up stadium 2 for marketing purposes or variety after this year’s half empty matches on 2?
I was wondering this too! Stadium 2 has a capacity of 8k compared to Stadium 1's 16k. Perhaps they want to take advantage of NOBU restaurant and the broadcast booths? I'm pretty disappointed that the WTA doesn't even think they can fill 16k... especially since the Spectrum Center in Charlotte is at least 14k.
After thinking about it, I speculate that there were 3 reasons, 2 of which you alluded to. As you said, Ellison wants to show off his Nobu stadium, having already hosted a blockbuster women’s final between Sabalenka and Rybakina on stadium 1 this year.
Even though they could probably fill stadium 1 for championship weekend, I don’t think they could fill it at noon on a Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday in early November for round robin play.
Third, probably a lot simpler on multiple fronts to pick one venue for the entire week, rather than moving venues for championship weekend. This provides a good excuse for reasons one and two if anyone pushed back during the planning.
Tickets are (kind of?) on sale, though I get "your session has expired" when I try to click through https://www.wtatennis.com/finals
It looks like they are only selling one session per day with doors opening at 10am for RR days, so I think they are trying to get things done as early as possible.
yeah, it's very confusing. They say immediate presale for unspecified groups (maybe just if you give them your email?), and I can click through to buy but then get that error.
I wonder if they considered pivoting to Jeddah, which is way farther from Iran.
But Saudi Arabia is pulling back on sports broadly, so they might not have had much desire to offer alternatives that kept them burning millions of dollars on this event that's run its course and gotten them what they wanted.
I really appreciate your wording on this entire matter, Ben. Indian Wells will at least have the facilities and hopefully enough fans to make the Finals exciting again. Hope Poland wins the bid for next year!
Interesting choice to use Stadium 2. I want to know what went into that decision. Concerned about not selling out Stadium 1? Cheaper to staff stadium 2? Facility upgrades/maintenance on Stadium 1? Desire to fill up stadium 2 for marketing purposes or variety after this year’s half empty matches on 2?
I was wondering this too! Stadium 2 has a capacity of 8k compared to Stadium 1's 16k. Perhaps they want to take advantage of NOBU restaurant and the broadcast booths? I'm pretty disappointed that the WTA doesn't even think they can fill 16k... especially since the Spectrum Center in Charlotte is at least 14k.
After thinking about it, I speculate that there were 3 reasons, 2 of which you alluded to. As you said, Ellison wants to show off his Nobu stadium, having already hosted a blockbuster women’s final between Sabalenka and Rybakina on stadium 1 this year.
Even though they could probably fill stadium 1 for championship weekend, I don’t think they could fill it at noon on a Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday in early November for round robin play.
Third, probably a lot simpler on multiple fronts to pick one venue for the entire week, rather than moving venues for championship weekend. This provides a good excuse for reasons one and two if anyone pushed back during the planning.
Thank goodness. No more sports washing.
Tickets are (kind of?) on sale, though I get "your session has expired" when I try to click through https://www.wtatennis.com/finals
It looks like they are only selling one session per day with doors opening at 10am for RR days, so I think they are trying to get things done as early as possible.
That said, sun sets around 4:45pm
I saw that tickets officially go on sale tomorrow, July 2
yeah, it's very confusing. They say immediate presale for unspecified groups (maybe just if you give them your email?), and I can click through to buy but then get that error.
So yeah, presumably it'll work tomorrow.
I wonder if they considered pivoting to Jeddah, which is way farther from Iran.
But Saudi Arabia is pulling back on sports broadly, so they might not have had much desire to offer alternatives that kept them burning millions of dollars on this event that's run its course and gotten them what they wanted.
I do wonder if the ATP masters will even happen