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Monday 23 June 2003
Wimbledon money row
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As this year's Wimbledon tennis championships get underway, a row is growing about prize money. The players want more, but the organisers are just as keen to retain their profits. This report from Harry Peart: |
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The Association of Tennis Professionals is the governing body of the men's game. It stunned the chairmen of the four Grand Slam championships with a demand for additional payments totalling 50 million dollars.
The largest portion would go into the players' pockets, but the package included payments into a players' pension account, better promotional activities, a bonus for players who compete in all four Grand Slams and a donation to selected charities. The ATP wants at least 30 percent of the profits in prize money.
The Grand Slam chairmen have rejected the demand and re-affirmed its rights to determine the levels of compensation. Most of the profits are used to promote tennis at the grass roots. The Grand Slam Committee can also point to the fact that the French Open paid almost 8 percent more in prize money this year for the men's singles event while the Wimbledon increase is almost 10 percent at a time when television revenues are falling.
Listen to the words
governing body
here, the committee which makes and enforces the rules which control a group of professional people
stunned
shocked
Grand Slam Championships
competitions in which you have to winn all the games or matches to become the final winner
player's pockets
here, would be paid directly to them
the package
all aspects of the offer
promotional activities
things done in order to make the game more popular
re-affirmed
if you reaffirm something, you state it again
compensation
here, payment for playing
at the grass roots
the grass roots of an organisation are the ordinary people in it rather than its leaders
television revenues
money that television companies pay for the rights to transmit pictures of the games
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