Will the new Davis Cup be bigger than the "Big Game"?

Indian Wells Tennis Garden - Photo by Desert Sun

A lot has been said and written about the decision taken by the ITF AGM to reform the Davis Cup as of 2019. There are a lot of players, coach, journalists and tennis fans up in arms for the alleged “murder” of the 118-year-old competition that will undoubtedly no longer be what it used to be.

I believe time will tell whether this format works or not and, above all, whether the $20m prize money and the charm of the old “salad bowl” will be enough to convince the top players to delay their well-deserved 10-day stint in the Maldives before resuming their training regime in preparation for the new season. Personally, there are two aspects I don’t like in the proposed new formula: the round-robin phase with six groups of three teams (too prone to possible calculations) and the date of the event.

Let’s explore the intriguing conundrum represented by the date: a one-week event starting right after the ATP Finals needs to be geographically close to the men’s circuit “grand finale”, or top players will be hard-pushed to stomach the long trips and jet lag that no private jet can alleviate. Furthermore, there are a few more possible twists and turns that have not been considered so far: the ATP Finals will be in London in 2019 and 2020, and (also) for this reason the investment fund Kosmos seems inclined to host the Davis Cup Finals in Madrid, an easy 2-and-a-half-hour flight from the British capital.

But what is going to happen after then? The venue for 2021 seems to have already been penciled in: Mr. Larry Ellison, founder and former CEO of Oracle and owner of the BNP Paribas Open, the biggest non-Slam tournament in the world, has announced his interest in investing in the new Davis Cup Finals event and has proposed the Indian Wells Tennis Garden as the venue for the 2021 edition. In principle, it will be difficult to say ‘no’ to such an offer, but there are two details that may throw a spanner into the works.

First of all, the ATP is tendering out the contract to host the ATP Finals from 2021 onwards. Rumors and some explicit statements from top players seem to indicate that it may be time for the event to leave London to look for places to showcase the crown jewel of the ATP Tour. After what happened to the WTA Championships, sold to Shenzhen for a mountain of cash, it is legitimate to believe that there is more than a fair chance the 2021 ATP Finals will take place somewhere in Asia. And how would the players engaged in the final on Sunday in Asia be able to play the Davis Cup Finals on the following day in the California desert?

But that’s not the only issue. Should the 2021 calendar remain similar to the current one, the Davis Cup Finals week would coincide with the American Thanksgiving, the holiday when most families reunite that prompts the busiest travel week of the year in the USA. How would you promote the event and attract fans to Indian Wells during a week when traditionally Americans are focused on getting together to eat turkey and bargain-hunt for Black Friday? Sure, that week is almost a non-working week for most of corporate America, but would the Davis Cup Final have a big enough attraction to disrupt the Thanksgiving liturgy of enough American tennis fans?

We may not have to wait too long for a test case. The US Davis Cup team will play the semifinals against Croatia in Zadar on 14-16 September: should they win the tie, they will host either France or Spain for the very last Davis Cup Final according to the traditional formula. And this historic final will have to take place on 23-25 November somewhere in the USA, right in the middle of Thanksgiving festivities.

The Davis Cup calendar has always been rather unfortunate for the US team: more often than not the First Round tie, traditionally scheduled in early February the week immediately following the Australian Open, would take place during the Superbowl weekend, when all other professional leagues in America do their best to lighten their schedule to avoid going head to head with the biggest TV event of the year. I remember the 2013 First Round which took place in Jacksonville, Florida, when the US defeated Brazil by 3-2 and Sam Querrey was playing the fifth and deciding rubber against Thiago Alves in front of a largely empty arena while in New Orleans the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers were playing “the Big Game”, as it is called by advertisers who do not want to pay royalties to the NFL to use the trademarked word “Superbowl”.

The unfortunate Thanksgiving coincidence could be one challenge too many for the “new Davis Cup” to succeed in the USA. However, we are still more than three years away, there is enough time to engineer a solution and stave off disasters. Provided this is what everybody wants.