INDIAN WELLS, Calif. -- Stacey Allaster has passed her first real test since being appointed chairman and CEO of the WTA Tour last July.
The former Tennis Canada vice-president, and tournament director of the Rogers Cup in Toronto, has been able to keep tour sponsor Sony Ericsson in the fold, even if it's not as title sponsor.
Allaster, who now resides in St. Petersburg, Fla., recalled earlier this week how she brought along the formidable trio of legendary Billie Jean King, superstar Venus Williams and the promising Melanie Oudin when she recently wrapped up the deal with Sony Ericsson management at a meeting in New York City.
In 2005, Sony Ericsson signed an $88-million (U.S.), six-year contract with the WTA Tour as its title sponsor.
There had been rumours for most of the past year that Sony Ericsson might not renew and last week's announcement is a huge relief for the tour and a sizeable feather in Allaster's cap.
The agreement is reportedly for about $15-million (US) annually through 2012.
While the hard numbers are not as high as with the original deal, the WTA Tour's obligations are also reduced so Allaster was able to say, "on the gross, the average net profit we were getting from 2005 to 2009 is not that far off what the average net profit is under this new deal."
Sony Ericsson will have on-court identification on the net but will no longer be the tour title sponsor or the title sponsor for the year-end Championships, to be held next November, in the last of three-year contract, in Doha, Qatar. They will then move to Istanbul, Turkey, from 2011-2013.
About any shortfall between the old and new Sony Ericsson deals, Allaster said, "we can clearly make it up and exceed what we were getting by selling (title sponsorship of) the Championships."
But they cannot sell an overall tour title sponsorship to replace Sony Ericsson. "You could parallel with the same sponsorship model the ATP has: it has Corona (beer) and they're the lead partner. Sony Ericsson is our No. 1 lead commercial partner and no one will be higher than them. (But) we can now go to the market and have discussions with prospective sponsors about being a partner of the WTA Tour versus of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. That will give us more conversations because, when you have the umbrella (sponsorship), ownership is so dominant that companies sometimes shy away from that structure."
Allaster, 46, was in Vancouver for the beginning of the Winter Olympics. "I was a very proud Canadian for six days while I was there," she said. "I remember going into the venue thinking 'how are we going to put on an opening ceremonies like they did in Beijing, the whole world will be watching?' And the athletes marched in and once they got going with the show, I was just blown away. I think the budget was about $30 million compared to Beijing being $300 million. I was as energized with the creativity and the theatrics and the energy from Beijing as I was with what they did in GM Place, a much smaller building.
"Having travelled the world, people have just raved about how great Vancouver was - the 'goodtime Games' and our Canadians who were welcoming and proud and 'owning the podium.' It was ambitious for sport development in our country, but it is about winning. And all the athletes that competed, and those that won, should be incredibly proud."
There was a business component to Allaster's trip. "I spent some time with our good friend Phil King (president) from TSN and, with TSN2 he wants more women's tennis on, definitely," she said.
As far as learning anything at the Olympics that will be applicable to the WTA Tour, Allaster explained, "When you go to events, you're always looking for staging and operations and improvements. The graphic techniques that they used in the opening ceremonies were incredible. You saw the screen that would layer down, the whales were coming out of it. It was incredible, it was a white floor and I remember sitting there and thinking, 'this is a little bit stark.' But they did it all through computer-generated graphics, bringing it to life - the whales were in a tank, the salmon were swimming, the Rockies and maple leaves. It was an incredible use of technology. So, for an indoor venue, and we will be indoors in Istanbul, even for Doha, I was definitely making notes."