Big-time Tennis Comes to Beijing

Economic development is not usually a topic to make the pulse quicken and the forehead sweat, but don't tell that to organizers of the inaugural China Open tennis tournament in Beijing.

The Open's organizers know that the eyes of the world - and not just the sports world - will be on them when tennis's most glamorous stars begin service at the Chinese capital's new US$15 million, 10,080-seat Beijing Tennis Centre stadium in the city's Fengtai District on September 10.

More than 600,000 tennis fans are expected to attend the event. Millions more across China and worldwide are expected to view more than 150 hours of live coverage and broadcast feeds provided by China's CCTV-5, a tournament sponsor. SOHU.COM, another tournament sponsor, will provide real-time on-line and wireless Internet information and webcasts of the event.

Tournament Director Lincoln Venancio said, "We're ready. This event had to be first class, and it is."

Venancio is the managing director of Media Serv Asia Pacific Limited under Hong Kong's TOM Group Limited, which is providing organizational and management support for the Open.

He said, "The clear objectives of the China Open are: to develop it into one of the world's top-five tennis tournaments, along with Wimbledon, the US, French and Australian opens; to make it Asia's premier annual sports event; and to ensure that it is a great asset to China's preparations for the 2008 Olympic Games…We are confident about achieving these goals."

Although the China Open was organized by the General Administration of Sport of China, an organization under China's State Council or central government, and the People's Government of Beijing Municipality, and although the Open will be symbolic of Beijing's ability to organize and conduct a major international sporting event leading up to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, it is being treated as a "stand-alone" business deal by all concerned.

Mu Dawei, deputy director of the Beijing Tennis Association and vice-chairman and executive deputy secretary of the China Open Organizing Committee, said the Beijing Municipal Government gave the go-ahead for the China Open in 2003.

He said a decision was made to treat the China Open as an independent, market-oriented business venture from the beginning.

"We learned from the West to set up a company to treat this not as a governmental affair, but as a business affair."

Mu was referring to the event's "patron partners," the Hong Kong-based TOM Group Limited, which has secured the rights to host the China Open in Beijing for 10 years, and to the influential Beijing Youth Daily Group. TOM leased the rights to stage tournaments to China Open Limited in which TOM owns a 49-percent share. The Beijing Youth Daily Group holds a 51-percent share in China Open Limited and is listed as a second patron partner of the event.

Venancio, who "has an interest" in Media Serv, said, "We didn't choose China; China was chosen by this moment in history. China today is one of the few countries with a major economy that has not had a truly major sporting event. It should have had one, and now it does."

During the 16-day event, hundreds of ATP men and WTA women tour professionals and ITF (International Tennis Federation) junior boy and girl tennis players are expected to compete for cash and other prizes valued at more than US$1.1 million dollars, not counting the bonuses the professionals can earn from their individual sponsors.

Venancio said, "We cannot compare it to the grand slams at this stage, but we're heading in the right direction and I don't think it's going to take very long." He said advanced ticket sales were very strong leading up to the event.

Just prior to the games, Venancio said, "And why not? With the stars we have like Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams, Jelena Dokic, Marat Safin, Carlos Ferrero, Carlos Moya, China's Olympic gold-medal doubles winner Li Ting and Sun Tiantian, and China's Zheng Jie, who did very well at the French Open, it ought to be going well. Right?"

Venancio said the China Open's prize money already ranks it within the top 10 in the world, and he said he expects the purse to grow quickly, thereby ensuring a steady interest in the Open on the part of touring pros.

While the China Open's future as a sporting and commercial event seems secure, the tournament is clearly also a means to other ends.

Guo Jianjun, of the National Sports Commission, said, "After its successful bid for the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing will host many more international sporting events. This event is good to add to our experience for the 2008 Olympics."

A Corporate Sports Marketing Dream:

Venancio said, "We can now see that the China Open is going to be China's biggest annual sporting event for many years and the biggest in Asia."

The veteran of 18 years of sports marketing in Asia said Beijing has picked the right time and the right kind of event to make a serious move in the world of high-level sports.

"I see a strong, viable financial future for sports marketing in China, because sport now occupies a very small percentage of the GNP (gross national product). It's just too low."

He sees a direct link between China's sometimes spotty record in the world of high-level sport and sports marketing in China.

"China has great athletes, as we saw at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, but it has not had a platform to support the advertisers that, in turn, support the development of sports like tennis.

"The China Open gives advertisers that platform, and they are responding."

Venancio said there are several keys to the success of any sports venture.

"First, it has to involve a sport that is popular, but it must also be aimed at people with high disposable incomes," conditions which he said now exist in China with improvements in the public's quality of life stemming from the central government's opening-up policies.

"It must have credibility, longevity and the top players in the world," which the China Open has secured through long-term agreements with the Chinese and Beijing municipal governments, sponsors and players.

"You must also understand that in this time of globalization, sport is not so global. At the highest levels there's basketball in the United States and football in Europe. American football is very popular in the United States, but not elsewhere.

"Of course, people all around the world play basketball, but for top-level play there's only the NBA."

Then, there's tennis.

"With some sports, you can learn to play and practice and become almost perfect, and you can maintain that level fairly easily. But tennis is a sport you have to play a lot, because the other players affect how you play. That's why competition is so important, but this is exactly where the Chinese programmes have suffered."

Venancio's first-hand understanding comes from his coaching experiences in China during the 1980s when he toured the country with his players.

"Tennis programmes in the 1980s were under-funded because they needed more money than the government could provide; they needed sponsorships."

He said the success of the Chinese duo Li Ting and Sun Tiantian at the Athens Olympics and professional star Zheng Jie at the French Open proves that well-trained Chinese tennis players are capable of competing at the highest levels of tennis.

But it's not just the stars of the game that Venancio and Beijing tennis authorities have in mind.

Venancio said, "We are at a point with tennis in China similar to what we saw in the United States with their tennis boom in the 1970s and '80s. Unlike golf, tennis courts don't take up too much urban space. It's a healthy sport and is supportive of a healthy lifestyle. It's relatively inexpensive to get started in the game for ordinary people, and it has come to be the sport of choice for the Chinese middle and upper classes.

"Tennis is more than a sport in China; it is a social phenomenon, a symbol of aspiration. But our success is also going to help all the other sports in China."

Sources said the Chinese Tennis Association already has six million active players enrolled in its programmes.

Neither are these sports and economic realities lost on the China Open's sponsors.

Jerome Bachasson, of French lifestyle brand La Chemise Lacoste, said, "Business conditions are improving tremendously in China. Right now it's in our top 20 markets, but our chairman, Bernard Lacoste, thinks China will be in our top three markets by 2010.

"We are at a point in China now where we're not talking about inexpensive labour anymore; we're talking about establishing headquarters, and headquarters are about qualified people. It is what you can find in China now."

Lacoste, a China Open sponsor, is already a supporter of the Chinese Tennis Association's juniors programme.

"We provide clothing for the teams and some training. This year we sent two players for summer training at tennis camps for young champions in France, and we will send two more in 2005. We're also providing 5,000 tickets for students from 10 schools in Beijing so they can attend the China Open, so that means there will be 200-300 children a day at the venue. About 100 of those will have a chance to visit the players' locker rooms and to chat with the players."

Despite the fact that the China Open was rapidly organized, Bachasson said he never had a doubt about the Open's viability.

"We know that this is a major international sporting event and we feel that Media Serv and the TOM Group are just great. We view them as very strong partners in China and for this event."

Bachasson said the new Beijing Tennis Centre says a lot about Beijing Municipality's commitment to the event.

"The result is outstanding."

Tony Tai, director of marketing for IBM's Greater China Group, said, "We sponsor the grand slams and several other ATP tennis events, so the decision to support the China Open was not too difficult.

"I had to explain 'why tennis and why now,' but IBM quickly realized this was a good opportunity for us."

Coca-Cola spokesman Brenda Lee in Shanghai said, "We believe the China Open is a good opportunity for us. We want to reinforce the uplifting nature of this healthy sport and lifestyle and associate our brand with it."

Venancio said the China Open epitomizes a new mood in China about the viability of public-private partnerships, but he added, "At the end of the day, the China Open belongs to the Chinese people.

"It is their asset."

The co-chairmen of the China Open organizing committee are Yuan Weimin, minister of the General Administration of Sport, and Wang Qishan, the mayor of Beijing Municipality. They were assisted by co-organizers the Chinese Tennis Association and the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Sport.

SOHU.COM signed a five-year agreement on July 6 in Beijing to become the China Open's exclusive on-line and wireless Internet provider. SOHU.COM built and maintains the China Open Web site at http://www.chinaopen.cn.

Promotions are being led by China Open Limited and Media Serv. Marketing is under the direction of: Marketing Favour Company Limited; Pan-Asia Intercommunication Ad Company Limited and Beijing Y.J. Films & TV Advertising Company.

China Open activities are expected to begin at the Beijing Tennis Centre on September 10, with opening ceremonies scheduled for 6:30 p.m. September 14 at the centre. A gala celebrating the event is expected to be held on September 18 at the Shangri-La Hotel, an event sponsor and host-hotel for the Open. Qualifying for the ATP men's professional tennis event is expected to begin on September 12, with finals on September 19. WTA women's qualifying is expected to begin on September 19, with finals on September 26. Three other tennis tournaments, including a Chinese Tennis Association (CTA) juniors tournament featuring teenaged players, will be held at the same time as the professional events.

(Mercy Sun contributed to this story.)