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Prize cash to extend considerably as Tennis Canada plots pathway to fairness
The event will undertake a 12-day important draw format beginning in 2025
Tennis Canada and Nationwide Financial institution are proud to announce that the Nationwide Financial institution Open offered by Rogers (NBO) will attain a historic milestone by awarding the identical quantity of prize cash to its ladies and men gamers starting in 2027. The pathway to equal prize cash will see a major improve in earnings for the ladies’s occasion within the coming years.
The Canadian event additionally revealed that it’s going to obtain an improve in standing on each the Hologic WTA Tour and ATP Tour, increasing from seven-day important draw occasions to 12 days beginning in 2025, except Olympic years.
“This can be a actually thrilling day for skilled tennis in Canada,” mentioned Gavin Ziv, Chief Event Officer at Tennis Canada. “Creating a transparent path in the direction of equal prize cash at our event has been years within the making and it required a variety of work. Fortuitously, with the assistance of the WTA and Nationwide Financial institution, that purpose will change into a actuality in 2027 and we couldn’t be extra delighted.”
Pathway to fairness on the NBO
Tennis Canada continues to advance fairness for ladies and women in any respect ranges of the tennis ecosystem in Canada and two extra vital steps shall be taken within the subsequent 4 years that may deliver the Nationwide Financial institution Open even nearer to that purpose:
- Further sources from WTA Ventures: the Hologic WTA Tour introduced it had signed an settlement with CVC Capital Companions to create WTA Ventures. This new entity will centralize WTA business rights and property (broadcast, betting, information, sponsorship, and so forth.), which is able to deliver a gradual inflow of funds for the Nationwide Financial institution Open. Tennis Canada’s plan is to make use of these funds to considerably scale back the prize cash hole between ladies and men on the event.
- Help from Nationwide Financial institution: Nationwide Financial institution, the event’s title sponsor and Tennis Canada’s longtime associate, will proceed to help the federation by offering sources to assist scale back the hole over the following few years and supply equal prize cash to each ladies and men beginning in 2027. Nationwide Financial institution is a key associate within the gender fairness motion at Tennis Canada, each for its crucial monetary funding and as a strategic planning associate, and right now’s announcement highlights its dedication in the direction of creating extra alternatives for ladies and women in tennis, from the skilled excursions to the playgrounds.
“Nationwide Financial institution signed a long-term partnership with Tennis Canada because the title sponsor of the NBO two years in the past,” mentioned Lucie Blanchet, Government Vice-President, Private Banking and Consumer Expertise at Nationwide Financial institution of Canada. “From the very starting, our imaginative and prescient included the purpose of offering equal prize cash. We knew the pathway to fairness would take dedication, self-discipline, and willpower. It requires eradicating boundaries and placing intentional measures in place. We’re very proud that the onerous work we put in with Tennis Canada and the WTA led to the announcement of this important milestone in Canada. It’ll help and profit all tennis gamers and followers, however extra importantly, it is going to empower extra women to become involved in tennis as a result of they’ll know that everybody can have the identical alternatives to develop equally within the sport.”
Within the 4 years previous 2027, the prize cash will improve to cut back the present distinction in pay between ladies and men gamers. Subsequently, the Nationwide Financial institution Open’s WTA prize cash is projected to rise from roughly 32% of the ATP prize cash in a 2-week format to just about 60% by 2025, when each occasions develop to 12-day important attracts, 78% in 2026 and to 100% by 2027. The full WTA prize cash shall be near $10M USD starting in 2027, a 350% improve over simply 4 years.
“Reaching equal prize cash on the NBO is an important milestone of Tennis Canada’s plan to offer girls’s tennis with extra business alternatives,” mentioned Valérie Tétreault, Nationwide Financial institution Open Event Director in Montréal. “We have now invested time and sources into giving the ladies’s sport the eye and place it deserves. Our 2023 advertising marketing campaign stating that the most effective of girls’s tennis is the most effective of girls’s tennis is a transparent instance of those efforts. We have now lengthy believed that gamers on the WTA Tour showcase a few of the highest stage of ability and athleticism now we have ever seen, and with the help of Nationwide Financial institution and the WTA, we are going to quickly be capable of acknowledge that reality with equal prize cash. We couldn’t be extra thrilled.”
The pathway to fairness on the Nationwide Financial institution Open is without doubt one of the important targets of Tennis Canada’s new Recreation. Set. Fairness. dedication. Unveiled in March in partnership with Nationwide Financial institution, the dedication is an bold and holistic technique for creating sustainable change for ladies and women in all areas of tennis, from high-performance and training to management and past. Over the following 5 years, Recreation. Set. Fairness. shall be delivered by 5 key pillars that align with the ITF’s Benefit All Technique, one being the business development of the ladies’s sport. Game. Set. Equity. – Tennis Canada
12-Day important attracts beginning in 2025
Whereas the ATP introduced final yr that a number of tournaments, together with the NBO, will develop to a 12-day important draw occasion and undertake a construction nearer to the one employed by the Grand Slams, the WTA introduced this morning that the Canadian occasion and two different tournaments (Rome and Cincinnati) will even undertake the prolonged format. These modifications shall be accompanied by a rise within the measurement of the participant subject, with the tournaments that includes 96-player important attracts for ladies and men – up from the earlier variety of 56 gamers in every occasion.
“By providing equal prize cash and adopting a brand new important 12-day draw format, the NBO will now be a part of a choose group of tournaments on each the Hologic WTA Tour and the ATP Tour,” added Gavin Ziv. “We wish to congratulate the WTA and the ATP for his or her imaginative and prescient and to thank them for his or her belief. We additionally wish to acknowledge our staff, volunteers, valued companions, prospects, and followers for his or her tireless work and help all through the years. It’s largely due to their steady dedication that our event has change into among the finest sports activities occasions on the earth, and they need to all share in that triumph right now.”
The growth to a 12-day format can also be made attainable because of main funding of almost $20 million by way of the Authorities of Canada’s Main Festivals and Occasions Help Initiative (MFESI). In Toronto, $9.3 million got here from the Federal Financial Growth Company for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), whereas in Montreal, $10 million was acquired from the Canada Financial Growth for Quebec Areas (CED). This funding, introduced on the eve of the 2022 Nationwide Financial institution Open, will show essential in supporting varied event enhancements over the approaching years, equivalent to infrastructure upgrades to accommodate extra followers and enhancements to product choices.
You will need to observe that the Nationwide Financial institution Open, just like the Cincinnati event, will revert to a 7 or 8-day important draw event throughout Olympic years, resulting from a busy summer season calendar. Thus, Tennis Canada and the Excursions determined to implement its new construction beginning in 2025 to make sure three consecutive years underneath the brand new format earlier than the following Olympic Video games in 2028.
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