ST. PETERSBURG, FL, USA – The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), the world’s leading global sport for women, announced today the four Candidate Cities that are bidding to host its prestigious year-end WTA Championships for 2014 and beyond. Based on their applicant files, the cities of Kazan, Russia; Mexico City, Mexico; Singapore and Tianjin, China have been selected by the WTA to enter the final phase of the bidding process. The four candidate cities were selected following an initial phase that saw 43 interested parties expressing interest in hosting the WTA Championships. The winning city will be announced in the Spring 2013.
The WTA’s year-end finale – with a global audience across 167 countries and a storied forty-year history of being hosted in a handful of iconic places – features the world’s top eight singles players and, beginning in 2014, top eight doubles teams competing for one of the most coveted titles in women’s tennis and a share of the multi-million dollar prize.
“The WTA Championships is today recognized as one of a handful of truly blue chip international events, currently delivering over $140 million of economic and media value to the host city,” said Stacey Allaster, WTA Chairman & CEO. “Our plans for developing additional interactive events including a three-day fan festival will ensure the benefits to our next host city partner are even greater. We were delighted with the 43 initial Expressions of Interest we received and in finalizing our Candidate Cities, we now believe we have an outstanding shortlist from which we will find the next host for the world’s premier sporting event for women.”
“A trip to the WTA Championships, and the right to battle for such a prestigious title and possibly the world No. 1 ranking is the goal of every single player,” said World No. 2 and four-time Grand Slam Champion Maria Sharapova. “Having only the best of the best together always makes for an incredibly exciting finale to each WTA season. And having the chance to bring our best event to new cities is always exciting for the players and fans.”
The 2012 WTA Championships – sponsored by BNP Paribas and its Turkish partner Türk Ekonomi Bankasý (TEB), as well as Rolex, Sony Xperia, Oriflame and others – has taken place in Istanbul this week where it has been a hugely successful event. This year, it registered the highest attendance in 13 years and set record broadcast and digital audience milestones. The TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships also broadcast more than 500 hours of coverage in 167 countries through 22 international TV broadcasters, the widest reach of a WTA Championships to date, delivering over $100m of global media value and more than $40m of economic impact to Istanbul, the host city. The WTA Championships will remain in Istanbul through 2013.
London-based international sports marketing agency, The Sports Consultancy, is managing The Championships bid process on behalf of the WTA and will shortly be visiting all Candidate Host Cities to review their bids, leading to the final selection in Spring 2013.
