Prize cash to extend considerably as Tennis Canada plots pathway to equityThe event will undertake a 12-day principal draw format beginning in 2025
Tennis Canada and Nationwide Financial institution are proud to announce that the Nationwide Financial institution Open introduced 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’ll obtain an improve in standing on each the Hologic WTA Tour and ATP Tour, increasing from seven-day principal draw occasions to 12 days beginning in 2025, except for Olympic years.
“It is a actually thrilling day for skilled tennis in Canada,” stated 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 quite a lot of work. Fortuitously, with the assistance of the WTA and Nationwide Financial institution, that objective will develop 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 necessary steps will likely be taken within the subsequent 4 years that can convey the Nationwide Financial institution Open even nearer to that objective:
Further assets 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 industrial rights and property (broadcast, betting, information, sponsorship, and so on.), which is able to convey 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 accomplice, will proceed to help the federation by offering assets to assist scale back the hole over the subsequent few years and provide equal prize cash to each ladies and men beginning in 2027. Nationwide Financial institution is a key accomplice within the gender fairness motion at Tennis Canada, each for its essential monetary funding and as a strategic planning accomplice, and as we speak’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,” stated Lucie Blanchet, Government Vice-President, Private Banking and Shopper Expertise at Nationwide Financial institution of Canada. “From the very starting, our imaginative and prescient included the objective of offering equal prize cash. We knew the pathway to fairness would take dedication, self-discipline, and willpower. It requires eradicating limitations and placing intentional measures in place. We’re very proud that the arduous work we put in with Tennis Canada and the WTA led to the announcement of this vital milestone in Canada. It’ll help and profit all tennis gamers and followers, however extra importantly, it’s 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 scale back the present distinction in pay between ladies and men gamers. Due to this fact, 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 broaden to 12-day principal attracts, 78% in 2026 and to 100% by 2027. The whole WTA prize cash will likely be near $10M USD starting in 2027, a 350% improve over simply 4 years.
“Reaching equal prize cash on the NBO is a vital milestone of Tennis Canada’s plan to offer ladies’s tennis with extra industrial alternatives,” stated Valérie Tétreault, Nationwide Financial institution Open Event Director in Montréal. “We now have invested time and assets into giving the ladies’s recreation the eye and place it deserves. Our 2023 advertising and marketing marketing campaign stating that one of the best of ladies’s tennis is one of the best of ladies’s tennis is a transparent instance of those efforts. We now have lengthy believed that gamers on the WTA Tour showcase a few of the highest degree of ability and athleticism we have now ever seen, and with the help of Nationwide Financial institution and the WTA, we are going to quickly have the ability to acknowledge that reality with equal prize cash. We couldn’t be extra thrilled.”
The pathway to fairness on the Nationwide Financial institution Open is likely one of the principal targets of Tennis Canada’s new Recreation. Set. Fairness. dedication. Unveiled in March in partnership with Nationwide Financial institution, the dedication is an formidable 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 subsequent 5 years, Recreation. Set. Fairness. will likely be delivered by 5 key pillars that align with the ITF’s Benefit All Technique, one being the industrial development of the ladies’s recreation. Recreation. Set. Fairness. – Tennis Canada
12-Day principal attracts beginning in 2025
Whereas the ATP introduced final 12 months that a number of tournaments, together with the NBO, will broaden to a 12-day principal 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) may also undertake the prolonged format. These modifications will likely be accompanied by a rise within the dimension of the participant subject, with the tournaments that includes 96-player principal 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 principal 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, clients, 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 develop into probably the greatest sports activities occasions on the earth, and they need to all share in that triumph as we speak.”
The enlargement to a 12-day format can also be made potential due to main funding of practically $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, corresponding to infrastructure upgrades to accommodate extra followers and enhancements to product choices.
You will need to notice that the Nationwide Financial institution Open, just like the Cincinnati event, will revert to a 7 or 8-day principal 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 subsequent Olympic Video games in 2028.
