| ATP Tour New Release: 9 JUNE 2022 ATP LAUNCHES ‘ONEVISION’ STRATEGIC PLAN LONDON – The ATP has announced Phase One approval of ‘OneVision’, a long-term transformational Strategic Plan designed to take tennis to new heights from 2023. With tennis boasting more than a billion global tennis fans, an emerging generation of superstar players and a content offering perfectly suited for the digital age, OneVision establishes robust foundations for future growth of the sport. In development by ATP leadership since 2020, the ambitious plan introduces a groundbreaking set of reforms across the ATP Tour, reducing fragmentation, aligning interests between players and tournaments, and repositioning tennis within the increasingly competitive entertainment landscape. OneVision is made up of two independent phases and centres on three core principles: driving unity, enhancing the fan experience, and leveraging scalable growth opportunities in media, data, content and tech.    Andrea Gaudenzi, ATP Chairman, said: “Our sport has huge upside and stands on the cusp of a new era of growth. Fulfilling our potential requires us to be united, pursue new growth opportunities and focus on what matters most: the fans. OneVision gives us a game plan to do just that. Its launch represents a game-changing moment for the Tour and a huge collective effort across our sport. I’m incredibly excited for what’s to come.” The approval of Phase One by the ATP Board marks a major milestone for the ATP Tour. It follows more than two years of extensive consultation with the ATP Board, Player and Tournament Councils and ATP’s Advisory Board of industry experts from media and tech. Coming into play from January 2023, it introduces major reforms and game-changing benefits. For the first time in the history of the ATP Tour, audited tournament financials will provide full transparency to players on the economics of tournaments. In tandem, a groundbreaking 50/50 profit sharing formula will align the interests of players and tournaments in growing the game as partners in success. Through the expansion of several ATP Masters 1000 events, the Tour will provide more premium action for fans across the season and more earning opportunities for players. Five additional top-tier tournaments will grow from eight-day (56 Draw) to 12-day (96 Draw) events over the coming seasons, in line with the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells and the Miami Open presented by Itau: Mutua Madrid Open (from 2023) Internazionali BNL d’Italia (Rome, from 2023) Rolex Shanghai Masters (from 2023) National Bank Open presented by Rogers (Canada, from 2025) Western & Southern Open (Cincinnati, from 2025) To view the full 2023 ATP Tour calendar, click here. This expansion is in turn set to deliver an immediate uplift at the Masters 1000 level, with prize money at the five expanded top tier events increasing by more than 35 per cent between 2022 and 2025. The year-end Bonus Pool is projected to almost double in the near term and will now be distributed to the Top 30 players (up from 12). Additionally, a brand-new element of profit sharing based on the financial performance of the tournaments, has the potential to provide further financial support to more than 140 players. Also from 2023, new tournament category agreements for ATP Masters 1000 and ATP 500 tournaments will become effective to provide long-term stability to the Tour and to enable major investment into the sport, while elevating all event standards for players, media and fans. Aggregation of tournament media rights into ATP Media, the sales, production and distribution arm of the ATP, and the recently formed Tennis Data Innovations, an entity fully dedicated to the professional exploitation of data, will enable the Tour to provide an enhanced integrated experience for fans worldwide. Importantly, this will open up major growth opportunities in media and data, two highly scalable revenue streams. Embracing the digital transformation will also shift the Tour away from over-reliance on ticketing, a concerted move seen across many other major sports. Lastly, OneVision will usher in a new era of corporate governance and professional decision-making, through an expanded and restructured ATP Board composition, alongside new checks and balances to protect against conflicts of interest.  Development of Phase Two of OneVision is currently ongoing, with the vision of creating a unified governance structure and operating model across the wider sport, exploiting key synergies and delivering greater support for lower levels of tennis through incremental growth. Phase Two development remains a collective effort across tennis’ bodies, the ATP, WTA, ITF, Australian Open, Roland-Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open. Recent collaboration has yielded encouraging results including the announcement of a joint Netflix series, a collective response to the global pandemic, greater consistency and alignment across rules and format, as well as coordinated fundraising initiatives. Resounding endorsement by leading industry experts, in parallel with decision-making challenges on complex issues due to the current fragmentation, have further highlighted the major opportunity that lies in bringing the wider sport together. To explore the details and benefits of OneVision, click here. |
