Roger is arguably the best player in tennis history. He has been decisive to “revamp” the love for the game around the world with his wonderful tennis and his lovely personality.
When Roger plays, tennis tournaments are able to drammatically lift their audience. His presence is particularly important of “medium sized tournaments” (alias not Grand Slams or 1000 ATP Masters).
Now there is a little quarrel in Basel about this.
The disagreement
The disagreement started when Federer asked for 2 millions USD to play next year in Basel (this figure came from tournament sources, while the media reports between 1 and 1.5 millions).
Now Roger takes 500.000usd to play play in Basel, tax free and without counting the prize money, not bad for playing a couple of matches in your backyard.
From the Tennis Federation and the tournament
“We are not Qatar,” Rene Stammbach, president of the Swiss Tennis Federation, said.
“We will do everything to ensure Roger Federer keeps playing at Basel. But we do not have inexhaustible possibilities. Maybe we can no longer keep up. Not everyone can afford a Rolls-Royce,” Tournament director Rogger Brennwald added.
From Roger
“If I was running only after money, I would have made many other decisions, played throughout Asia. I have always given priority to Basel. I have already helped the tournament a lot. Because of that the onus is more on Brennwaldthan on me.” said the Maestro.
The Market
The reality is that the market is changing. This kind of offers are typical in the Middle East and Russia (see about the offer to Djokovic and Nadal) . Apparently the trend has been embraced olso in Europe (in Halle and Rotterdham they have managed to lure Roger in some ways…)
The ATP in Basel has a big following especially because of Roger, so if they can afford to pay the big bucks… that’s the market!
Our hope
We have only one big hope: tennis should remain something about fun… money shouldn’t spoil it.
We like to see Roger playing in Basel and sharing the pizza with the ball boys, we hope to see the same next year!
