HOME PAGE | EVENTS | BROWSE COMPANIES | BROWSE CATEGORIES | ARCHIVE | ABOUT US | CONTACT US

NEWS BY CATEGORY RACQUETS & STRINGS SHOES & APPAREL BALLS & ACCESSORIES ASSOCIATIONS & ORGANIZATIONS COURT CONSTRUCTION & EQUIPMENT LATEST NEWS USPTA Offers Five National Tournaments to Its Members USPTA members will have the opportunity to test their playing skills in competition and earn prize money at each event, beginning with the USPTA Clay Court Championships from May 5-8. Gamma Names Mark Vandewater RSM of the Year Gamma Sports, makers of the number one rated string product line in tennis, announced Mark Vandewater as the Regional Sales Manager of the Year. Mark services accounts in Western Pennsylvania, Western New York, Ohio and Kentucky. Wilson Hosts First-Ever Racket Stringing Championship Scott Schneider of Las Vegas recorded a winning time of 11 minutes, 14 seconds for completing a full stringing process, which included mounting the racket, opening the string package, uncoiling the string and then passing a quality check. The final round of ‘Wilson World Stringing Championships’ at The Tennis Channel Open will be broadcast on The Tennis Channel in July. PTR Hosts Special Olympics Tennis Championships More than 135 Special Olympics athletes from nine states will compete in singles and doubles match play and individual skills events at the tournament, held March 13-15 at the Van der Meer Shipyard Racquet Club on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. "Koz" Joins Tennis Podcast Team Dave “Koz” Kozlowski, host of The Tennis Channel’s Inside Tennis with the Koz has united with an old tennis buddy to become part of the Kevin McClure Tennis Podcast lineup. The weekly segment will bring its listeners current updates on tennis players, events, and industry components and also tennis instruction.

March 15, 2006             The Deal in the Desert

Hi there,

While temperatures in the desert are lower than usual for this time of year, the Pacific Life Open is packing heat. The out-of-towners are giving no special treatment to the locals as Martina Hingis defeated Lindsay Davenport and Tommy Haas beat Andre Agassi. While tension mounts toward the final rounds, for one set of spectators this is a breeze. It's the calm after the storm. After 10 months of negotiations, an investment group of tennis lovers and legends joined hearts and wallets to make sure this tournament in Indian Wells didn't leave for another desert town of Qatar or an estuary city of China.

Never before has such a strong and varied group assembled for a cause of this scale. As 50% owners of the event, PM Sports Management's Raymond Moore and former No. 1 Charlie Pasarell, who founded the tournament, sought stateside investors to cover IMG's 50% share up for sale. What they found, after some time and alluring bids from overseas, was an unprecedented level of cooperation among industry players. TENNIS Magazine owners George Mackin and Bob Miller pulled in Pete Sampras, Chris Evert and Billie Jean King, and worked with the USTA and Patrick Imeson of Calim Private Equity to make it happen.

While all parties gave much toward the effort, George gave a body organ. Yes, as in surgery, but you can read more about that later. While this unaffected executive is content to sweat it out in the heat of the deal and leave others to bask in the spotlight, he granted one press interview, and I'm thankful for it.

The conversation marks the debut of TENNISWIRE.org's series FIVE QUESTIONS WITH..., which focuses on industry people and their pressing issues.

George told me he was drawn to the opportunity to buy out IMG's share in the Pacific Life Open initially because he wanted to see the tournament stay in California and it would be a great way to leverage his other main stake in the sport, TENNIS Magazine and its related properties. But soon it became about building a coalition of the willing to save the gem in Indian Wells, and the momentum could not be stopped.

"We put an A-B-C list of (potential) investors together ranked by people we know who like tennis and we have good relationships with them," George said. "Basically, we never got past the A-list, and we had about a 92% rate of conversion, which was really fantastic for us."

And while the drawn-out deal proved to be an ordeal at times, George, his partners and the tournament staff and volunteers (many who have served for decades) can enjoy this week knowing that at age 30, this tournament's getting a new start. There's a look toward the future and the past.

"It's the first tournament I took home a paycheck from back in 1993," Lindsay said last Friday. "This tournament has always meant a lot to me."

She's not alone.

Click here for FIVE QUESTIONS WITH...George Mackin.

Click here to view the latest press releases on TENNISWIRE.org.

'Til next time,
Liza Horan
Editor, TENNISWIRE.org
liza@tenniswire.org

From the Tennis Industry Association...

TIA Initiatives: Industry Update Click here for PDF file Latest Research: Tennis Facility Optimism Increases Nearly 75% of facilities that participated in the 2005 TIA Cost of Doing Business Survey rated the future of the tennis industry as high or very high in a recent survey of tennis facilities compared to 54% in 2004. Get the whole report by becoming a member of the TIA. Get the whole report by becoming a member of the TIA. You can join for as little as $100. Click here for details.

Free Headlines: Click here to view how you can add content from TENNISWIRE.org to your website. We offer a few options so your technical team can tailor how the headlines appear for full integration with your own branded site.

TENNISWIRE.org Bulletin is emailed around the 1st and 15th of each month.

To change your email address or unsubscribe, please visit http://tenniswire.org/newsletter.php