“Having postponements is practically impossible, but there can be cancellations”, worries Jean-François Caujolle, the founder of the Open 13 Provence, an international tennis tournament scheduled for February 14 to 20 in Marseille, Friday January 7 on franceinfo, while the Minister for Sports Roxana Maracineanu recognized that “the organization of competitions [était] questioning “ by the health crisis, referring in particular to the multiplication of cases in the world of football.
franceinfo: Do you think that the Open 13 Provence tennis tournament will be able to be held?
We’re going to stick to it, if we’re allowed to stick to it. Last year we played behind closed doors, so in the worst case scenario, we would play under the same conditions. Sport and tennis must continue. For us, it is sure that the in camera would be a bad solution.
“Tournament revenue plummets 60% to 70% when there is no more audience, PR operation, or hospitality.”
Jean-François Caujolle, founder of the Open 13 Provenceto franceinfo
There is also a loss at the level of the sponsors. For example, for Open 13, instead of having 60,000 spectators throughout the week, there may not be any, so there is only media and television fallout. Of course, it is much more complicated, and that the end result is necessarily negative for a promoter.
In principle, is it possible to postpone a tennis Open? Is there room in the sports calendar?
In the calendar, there are competitions every week. There are also geographic issues and surface issues. Having postponements is practically impossible, but there can be cancellations. There were cancellations in some geographic areas last year, especially in South or North America, but not too much or very little in Europe.
If headliners like Novak Djokovic in Australia don’t meet France’s vaccine requirements and if they can’t make it to your Open, isn’t it losing value?
Yes, but if we look at the number of cases of Covid-19 precisely in tournaments over the past year, there were few among the main players. Today, I believe the vaccination, in the top 100 players, is in the order of 95% or 96%.
“The players are well aware of the health risks and obligations that there could be.”
Jean-François Caujolle, founder of the Open 13 Provenceto franceinfo
For Novak Djokovic, we do not know exactly what it is, but I believe that Rafael Nadal’s answer is very clear and quite transcribes the state of mind of most of the players. He is sad for Djokovic but he believes that he knew what he was doing.