Topic: Why was Masters Cup outdoors in Hoston?

[gary2414]

Does anyone know why the Masters Cup was played outdoors the past two years?  It has usually been indoors including Sydney in 2001 which normlly has good weather at that time of year in November.   In  2004 they had all kinds of problems with rain delays.  That should have made Tim Henman feel right at home.  Only Thursday to Saturday had no delays and even then it rained some on Saturday before the start of the match.  the 2004 final was so late starting it had to be shortened to best of three sets.   2003 was much better with only a rain delay in the middle of the finals that at least started on time and was best of five sets.  Also in 2003 there was some rain on Saturday but it stopped in time so ESPN have have show the semifnal live when they were schedulled to come on the air.   I think if the Masters Cup had been indoors someplace in the US ESPN2 would have more likely planned on showing the night matches live and then followed them with other sports rather than have other sports first.  Also some of the sessions might have started at a later time that would have also allowed them to be live.  The order of play on Saturday would have been different.  Instead of both semifnals played as day sessions with the doubles finals at night you would have had the first semifinal in the daytime and starting 90 minutes later so it would be live on ESPN between college football games.  Then the doulbe final followed by the second semifinal at night when ESPN was on the air live.  I can see why the wanted both semifnals first in case of rain so they would not have to double up on Sunday.   The doubles final could just as been Sunday if it rained so that is why they had it last.

[kungpaobenji27]

bleh, not only is outdoors a bad thing for the tourney, but the fans in Houston are dead.  Shanghai Expo Center is a much better venue and the fans are much more into it.  As a matter of fact, it's back to Shanhai for 3 more years.

[gary2414]

How was the attendance in Houston in 2003 and 2004?  When you say the fans are dead does that mean attendance was poor?  To me it seems that with the weather worse in 2004 attendance probably suffered because people don't want to take the trouble to go to a match and then find it is postphoned.  It was much harder for TV when they had to have a fill in for the day session because of all the rain on Wednesday.

[kungpaobenji27]

I don't really mean so much attendance but the fans just don't seem as spirited as the ones in Flushing Meadows, Lisbon, Cincy, Montreal or Shanghai.  There's just not much excitement in the Houston crowd.  In other cities, fans actually make noise in between points, get into the match, and are actually a factor.  I'll give Houston this, it's better than Los Angeles where attendance is low for the women's finals, the fans are ignorant, and the majority of the crowd shows up just because they can ($$$).

[gary2414]

Will the women's final stay in Los Angeles at the Staples Center in November?  At least rain is not a problem.   However I would like to see a return to day sessions because the live night coverage can be rather late for those on EST;

[BitterBlueBong]

Will the women's final stay in Los Angeles at the Staples Center in November?  At least rain is not a problem.   However I would like to see a return to day sessions because the live night coverage can be rather late for those on EST;

I'm biased here, but it's about time there's something that favors the West Coast. We suffer through 3-hour delays for just about everything (except those of us with DirecTV of course).  

I think the women's YEC will remain in Los Angeles -- at least for this year. And you never know about the rain (today is the second day of sunshine in a week).

[gary2414]

Actaully the US Open is live on the West Coast feed of USA as well as on CBS.   ESPN has only one feed so what is live in the east is live in the west.  TNT has two feeds and some of the sports is live on the Western feed.   Wimbledon was delayed three hours on the Western feed when they had it but I also think they were more willing to put on better matches during the day because if there was a good match at 7:00 AM EDT it would be on at 7:00 AM PDT and not 4:00 AM PDT unless you had Direct TV.  Because ESPN only has one feed may be a reason they are less willing to have live stuff so early.  If TNT or USA ever got US Davis Cup matches from ESPN they might be more willing to show them at 7:00 or 8:00 AM ET since they could delay them three hours on the Western feed so you wouldn't have the problem of 4:00 or 5:00 AM PT.  When most are out of the US they are usually in the Central European time zone that is six hours ahead of ET.  IF the Davis Cup is in Australia TNT and USAewould then have them live on the Western feed so those would be able to get three extra hours of sleep.

[BitterBlueBong]

I was speaking in general terms, not tennis.

[Anonymous]

I was speaking in general terms, not tennis.

You're talking to a guy who is obsessed with US TV schedules and rain delays: good luck!   (I think he's just migrated from Tennis Week messageboards.)

[Tennis4you]

no biggie, they can migrate from where ever they wish.  

[Anonymous]

no biggie, they can migrate from where ever they wish.  

Indeed, and it can be useful to have someone around who knows the ins and outs of the scheduling, especially with a Grand Slam tourney coming up...can be quite funny sometimes though

[Tennis4you]