Last Friday the Government of Quebec asked to cancel all public gatherings and events in the province until 31 August. And on the following day, Tennis Canada acknowledged the impossibility of holding the 2020 Rogers Cup, WTA version, in Montreal and officially postponed the event to 2021. The Premier 5 tournament will take place in Montreal from 6 to 15 August 2021. All ticket holders will be contacted individually but Tennis Canada has advised all tickets for the 2020 edition will be honored in 2021.
The ATP version of the Rogers Cup, the Masters 1000 tournament currently being planned in Toronto on 7-16 August 2020 is still officially going ahead: Toronto is located in Ontario, a different province than Quebec, and no governmental action has been taken at this stage to request the cancellation of all sporting events. However, it appears unlikely it will be possible to hold the tournament regularly.
The decision by Tennis Canada to maintain the WTA Premier 5 in Montreal in 2021 is probably dictated by financial reasons, and is also encouraged by the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, now planned for 23 July – 8 August 2021. Traditionally Montreal and Toronto alternate in hosting the ATP and WTA tournaments: on even years, Montreal hosts the WTA Premier 5 tournament while Toronto hosts the ATP Masters 1000, while it’s vice versa on odd years.
The ATP Masters 1000 is a stronger product: in both cities attendance (and therefore ticket sales) is roughly 15-20% higher than for WTA Permier 5 tournaments. But more importantly, TV rights contributions for the ATP Masters 1000 is approximately six times the amount recognised for the WTA Premier 5 tournament. TV rights are negotiated for the whole season by the ATP and WTA and are then divided among the tournaments
Furthermore, the Rogers Cup in Montreal holds the attendance world record for one-week tennis events both for the men’s and for the women’s circuit. Toronto is a tougher market and constantly registers attendance levels, and consequently revenue steams, 20-30% lower than Montreal, both for the ATP and the WTA event. Consequently, it is understandable that Tennis Canada is choosing to have the stronger product (the ATP Masters 1000) its weaker market (Toronto) in order to support both events.
In addition to that, Roger Cup events on Olympic years tend to be less attended: the attention of the sports world is somewhere else, and the participation fields are often not as good as on other years, since top players who have taken part to the Olympics may decide to skip some events during the summer to rest up before the final Grand Slam of the season in New York at the end of August.
With the 2021 tennis calendar likely to follow the blueprint of the intended 2020 calendar during the summer months, there will be an 8-day break between the end of the tennis Olympic tournament in Tokyo on 1 August and the beginning of the Rogers Cup main draws in Toronto and Montreal on 9 August. Tennis Canada was planning on providing a charter flight from Tokyo to Canada to all players wishing to spend those eight days in Canada to get re-acclimatised to the North American time zone and weather conditions and start their preparation for the US Open playing the Rogers Cup. At this stage, it is probably too soon to understand whether that will be financially possible for Tennis Canada in 2021, given the much lower revenues they will receive in 2020.
