ATP Finals: Brexit will be discussed when London bids to retain competition, says tennis chief

Tour de force: Grigor Dimitrov after winning last year’s Finals at the O2
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Brexit could be a potential factor in London’s bid to retain the ATP Finals, says chief executive Chris Kermode.

The O2 remains a front runner to continue hosting the event when the deal ends after 2020 despite realistic competition from 10 cities to take it over.

More than 40 cities have expressed an interest and Kermode admitted that Britain leaving the European Union on March 29 next year would be a discussion point.

He said: “It hasn’t been a discussion at this point but it will be one of the things when we look to the next five years of the event, what’s sustainable and what areas and countries are sustainable as hosts.”

Kermode brought the event to the venue for the first time in 2009 and since then 2.3million people have attended, with 250,000 expected this year.

Despite the success, the ATP opened the bidding process in August for the Finals, with more than 40 cities expressing interest. But Kermode suggested the key aim was to get attendance figures similar to London.

He told Standard Sport: “We need packed crowds, that’s top of our priority list, and there are about 10 cities that could hit the criteria of crowds in London. London is still in a strong position but there’s been lots of other interest.”

Packing out two sessions over the course of eight days would appear to suggest that big-money approaches from the Middle East, where crowds have been inconsistent, could be out of the equation. Yet Kermode insisted all options were on the table leading up to the start of the event on Sunday.

He said: “We’ve left it open as we didn’t want to restrict it to a certain model.”

Player reaction over the future of the event has varied, with some wanting it to stay put and others pointing to the fact that the event has regularly relocated, its longest host stint in New York for 13 years from 1977.

“This event has had a history of moving around,” said Kermode. “But should we move it to different regions and markets or do we establish it in one place? We felt after 10 years it was time to ask the question and see what’s out there.”

The ATP are not saying — publicly at least — if there are any front runners to rival London beyond 2020. And wherever it ends up, Kermode knows there will be doubters, as there were when the London deal was announced in 2007.

He added: “Back then, this still had the baggage of the Millennium Dome.”

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