Thailand Open Tennis Tournament

[Goat Roper]

Is it just me, am I being cynical or does something seem strange with the draws, I know the bigger the player ranking they get "showup" money but I am wondering if the tournament officials are having a dificult time in finding people for these "paid to showup guys" to play against. Many of these guys are ranked way out of sight(120, 152, etc.) for me guys I have never heard of, maybe I am just gun-shy here in LOS and always think something is amiss. Can anyone help me out here?

[paulfr]

Just got back from the daytime matches on Thursday.

I agree, Federer, Roddick, Safin probably got appearance

fees to play here. And the lack of top 50 players is

probably because of the distance/travel required.

But players ranked 120 are very very skilled indeed.

Today Dent, the defending champion, got wiped

by someone I have never heard of ...

Sheppingen (?) and the former top doubles team

in the world of Paes and Bhupahti lost to Gimelstob and Oliver.

The tennis quality is top notch even if the field is

top 200 and not top 50. Don't sell these fellows short.

Wish I knew why the matches are not on tv tonight like

they were last night.

[Heng]

Mostly because the sponsors budget is taken up by the amounts required as prize money (on top of the show up money, on top of the first class hotel setups for these guys and their entourages, and the $500 they need to pay Andrew Biggs, etc.) to get the players over here. Probably not enough left to pay off Channel 3 to give up commercial time from their regular programming every night.

As for the low ranking players... it's quite normal for them to face higher ranking players in the earlier rounds. The need to do this so that the higher seeds will meet each other in the later rounds (so that tickets can be sold for each subsequent round). If you end up with Jiri Novak and Jarkko Niemenen in the finals, you're not going to sell too many tickets, even though they are both great players.

[Goat Roper]

I suppose I am a bit cynical, Carlos Moya as you may know has a shoulder injury he received during his Davis cup matches last week and had to return the US$100K "show-up money", not a small sum of $$, could be Federer and Roddick received double that; so when all summed up this tournament becomes a very expensive proposition.

I was not aware Andrew Biggs was linked that closely to this tournament, I did read awhile back that VJ Armitraj had been recruited to assist in the organizing of this tournament.

Oh well, maybe it is the amount of (or lack of) TV coverage that wonders me but sure hope Paradon makes a good showing this week..

[paulfr]

I am almost afraid to ask this question .... but ...

Who is Andrew Biggs ??

[Goat Roper]

I am almost afraid to ask this question .... but ...

Who is Andrew Biggs ??

I am not sure I know all about this guy that I want but I think he is an expat Auzzie, been in LOS for many years, speaks, reads and writes the Thai language, has a TV show early mornings on channel 3 (?) teaching English language. I see him occassionally on other news type programs, beyond that I don't know who he is.

[350torana]

Call me cynical, make sure it is Mr Cynical I think the Thailand Open is a small event and the budget only allows to attract a handful of the top ten, twenty players in the world. Espeically with the Davis Cup rounds so close in timing . Unfortuantly, it is the way of professional sport nowadays , managers and players only concerned about appearence fees, prize money

I too do not know much about Andrew Biggs, except his early morning show and an envy of his Thai fluancy . Is his chrome dome natural or shaven ?

[Goat Roper]

I assume they paid appearance money to all the players that came in from abroad but I wonder if they paid Paradon apperance money I'll wager they did, after all this is "his" tournament.

[Goat Roper]

I too do not know much about Andrew Biggs, except his early morning show and an envy of his Thai fluancy . Is his chrome dome natural or shaven ? unsure.gif

I too am envious of his abilities with the Thai language but I understand that he is an avid student of Sanskrit and in fact has spent many years studying anything having to do with the Thai/Buddhist language so I suppose he didn't come by these skills the easy way.; as to his Yul Brenner haircut it looks to me like he went bald and now shaves the whole dome. I heard one time he he was a Thai look krung. If you look at him closely this might well be true;( my one salung).

[ProThaiExpat]

As a former player and ardent tennis fan, I suggest we tend to forget that to professional tennis players on the circuit, it is their business and business decisions control their activities.

Granted rankings and publicity are major factors in their business decisions, but a cost/benefit analysis is made by them, or their coaches and managers.

Certainly their chances of getting into the "money rounds" ie quarter finals and higher is a major factor in their decision to attend a tournament, as are appearance fees. Aggassi is reported to want 400K USD to attend the BKK Open, and they just didn't have it to pay him.

I susupect there are other collateral benefits for players that we never hear about, provided by promoters that enduce players to attend.

The prize money for the first round usually is enough to cover reasonable expenses of attending the tournament so the multi-digit ranked player can play at no out of pocket. Promoters just move down the ranking list until the draw is filled from the players than want to attend, after they have arranged the celebrety draws.

This week in addition to the Thailand Open, there was also the Shanghai Open and the Cmionati in Italy. Philapousis wisely chose Shanghai, due to the draw here.

The ATP World Series tournaments usually pay a little more than 60K to the champion for a weeks work and expenses, offset by what the promoters pay, ie. hotels, transportation.

The opportunity to build points towards the Master's Cup is likewise a consideration, of course.

Roddick pays Brad Gilbert, reportedly, 10K USD a week for his efforts so with trainers, massage, etc. his weekly nut i quite high and thus the appearance fee. Of course his celebrety status also commands fees over and above prize money.

Sponsors of individual athletes must have some say as to where their brand is exposed. I suspect a major players yearly schedule is approved by his sponsors.

Paradon's win at Nottingham is an excellent example of good scheduling.

I suspect that Paradon's play at the Bangkok Open is without appearance fee as his Thai sponsors surely insist on his attendance at this premier Thai event, especially Chevrolet who is attempting to increase its Thai market penetration.

[Goat Roper]

http://www.tennis.info/UnprofessionalTennis.asp

For those of you are interested klik link above, I was never aware of how complicated the game of tennis can be.

[craftwork]

Australian journalist Andrew Biggs works for Bec-Tero Entertainment, whose sports division puts on the Thailand Open. So maybe he appeared free.

Mr Biggs is a producer for Bangkok TV, another division of Bec-Tero Entertainment.

He fronts two of the educational programmes made by Bangkok TV: the one in the morning, Talk of the Town, and a new one (which I haven't seen), shortly before the evening news.

Bec-Tero is a subsidiary of BEC World Public Company, the outfit which runs TV3, where these programmes appear.

Mr Biggs has also worked for the company's film division, Film Bangkok, writing English subtitles for films such as Bang Rajan, and Goal Club.

Before joining Bec-Tero he worked for the Nation Group, where he rose to become editor of Nation Junior. He still has ties to that outfit, writing a column on English for one of the Thai-language papers in that group, Khom Chad Luk.

In 1992 he graduated with a degree from Ramkamhaeng University. He's published eight or nine books, including collections of columns he wrote for another Thai-language newspaper in the Nation Group.

Over the years he's also made a bunch of TV programmes for Thais learning English, including the two mentioned above.

The Andrew Biggs story goes on and on: he is one of the most accomplished westerners in Thailand, and has lived here 15 years.

http://www.bectero.com/index.php

[350torana]

Does he have grandfather named Ronald?

[Goat Roper]

Is this a typo! Baht 810 million costs for each top star! No wonder the top guys are interested and show up in Thailand, if this is true they showed up with bells on. I am sure this is a typo and this is a silly a$$ post but judging from some of the salary contracts some of the world's top athletes these days I suppose this amount of Baht 810 million each could squeak by as being possible, that is a scary amount of money but as I say this has got to be a typo and this posting is silly as he11. BAHT 810 million each!!!!

Agassi may play in Bangkok next year

Published on Oct 5, 2004

[TENNIS] BECTero aims to bring former world No 1 Andre Agassi to the 2005 Thailand Open and to also stage a big Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) event.

Brian Marcar, the managing director of BECTero, said he would try very hard to get eighttime Grand Slam champion Agassi to Thailand before the American retires from the tour, which is expected to be next year.

“Actually, we tried to have him this year but he said he would prefer to spend time with his family, especially his children. But we would try to make another request and hopefully he will say okay,’’ said the boss of BECTero Entertainment, the organisers of the Thailand Open.

BECTero is also looking at staging the biggest women’s tennis tournament in Thailand either a week before or a week after the men’s event in 2005. Marcar said he has been negotiating with the WTA and things are going well.

“If successful, Thai fans will be able to see the top three players in the WTA. They could be the Williams sisters or Maria Sharapova,’’ he said.

The Thailand Open was a huge success over the past two years with thousands of fans packing the Impact Arena every day. A record crowd of more than 10,000 fans packed into the stadium for the semifinal between Roger Federer and local hero Paradorn Srichaphan.

But despite the big crowds and the success of the tournament, Marcar claimed organisers were facing a loss because of the hefty appearance fees of the top players.

“[B]Around 50 per cent of the costs were on appearance fees. The cost is around Bt810 million for each top star,

[paulfr]

Update:

Article is Post today said he would be paid about

20MB which is $500K. Probably about right

given his success the last few years and the

fact that he will retire soon.

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I know that Agassi was paid $250K ot appear in

San Francisco a few years ago. That would be

10 Million Baht.

810 Million Baht to appear in Bangkok has to be

a typo or misunderstanding.