Inside Cincinnati’s $50M pitch to keep tennis event from moving here
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In a matter of days, Center Court at the Lindner Family Tennis Center will be packed with 11,600 fans. The rest of the facility will be crawling with people watching matches, eating burgers and gyros, listening to live music, getting up close to the world’s top players and taking in the nearly unparalleled atmosphere of the Western & Southern Open.
It might be one of the last times the event is played in Greater Cincinnati.
In a battle of two Queen Cities, Cincinnati and Charlotte are squaring off to be the long-term home of what’s been called the Western & Southern Open for 22 years. But its history in Cincinnati is far longer. The tournament has called the region home for 124 years, dating to 1899.
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The fate of the event, one of the world’s nine biggest tennis tournaments with the top men and women competing on their own tours at the same venue at the same time, was thrown into question last year. Ben Navarro, a Charleston, S.C.-based billionaire who owns a Women’s Tennis Association tournament there, finalized his purchase of the Western & Southern Open through his Beemok Capital family office entity in October.
That spawned questions that the tournament could move. The questions morphed into outright fear as Charlotte emerged as a strong candidate, wooing Navarro and Beemok to move the event there for the long term. Beemok and Charlotte officials came up with plans to build a $400 million tennis facility in the city’s new River District development that would be the home of the Western & Southern Open as well as year-round activities.
The mere notion that Navarro was looking at alternatives gave the impression the tournament was as good as gone. But don’t count out Cincinnati. It has responded with a solid bid of its own, with some Cincinnati leaders believing the pendulum has swung back in the city’s favor.
Read the full story here for a deeper look at both cities’ bids.
(WATCH BELOW: Game, set, match: City agrees to invest $65M in River District tennis complex)
