Wow! This is a shocker! Tennis Channel is making a big time statement by canceling its broadcast of this week’s WTA tournament in Dubai. That’s putting your money where your mouth is, folks. The NYTimes reports, below:
Tennis Channel Won’t Televise Dubai Event in Protest
The Tennis Channel will not televise the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships this week to protest the United Arab Emirates’ refusal to grant an entry visa to the Israeli player Shahar Peer. Peer was scheduled to play Anna Chakvetadze in the first round.
“This is an easy decision to come by, based on what is right and wrong,” Ken Solomon, the chairman and chief executive of the network, said Monday from Utah.
“Sports are about merit, absent of background, class, race, creed, color or religion. They are simply about talent. This is a classic case, not about what country did what to another country. If the state of Israel were barring a citizen of an Arab nation, we would have made the same decision.”
The $2 million tournament is a premier nonmajor tournament on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour with 9 of the world’s top 10 women. Peer is ranked No. 48.
The event is part of a package of rights to several international tournaments acquired by the Tennis Channel from the WTA.
Solomon, who said he would consider carrying the tournament next year if Peer were granted a visa, said he began thinking Sunday about canceling the network’s coverage. He spoke to his staff and to board members, and heard no significant dissent, before calling Larry Scott, the chairman and chief executive of the WTA Tour, on Monday.
Scott said by telephone that he was not expecting the network’s cancellation, but that he understood it.
“I’m sorry it was in the position of having to make the decision,” he said, adding, “We’ve got some of the same feelings but many more complications.”
Solomon was not critical of the WTA’s decision to play the tournament.
“It’s easier for us to pull the plug,” he said. “It’s different for Larry and the WTA, who were more or less strung along and led to believe she would get the visa. His players were on the ground, and everything was in motion. The rug was pulled out from under their feet.”
He added: “The entire field of competitors is diminished by this happening. It hurts them all. Shahar earned the right to be in the tournament. She’s been on a roll and could have won it. It’s just hard to imagine this happening in this day and age.”
Scott said that United Arab Emirates officials did not tell him why Peer was denied the visa, but that he believed Israel’s incursion into Gaza was a crucial element of the decision. Still, he said, he knew for about a year that Peer might have trouble entering Dubai.
At a tournament in Auckland, New Zealand, last month, she faced a protest over Israel’s action in Gaza.
Solomon said that his channel had a “higher duty” to refuse to carry the Dubai event.
“Tennis in many ways has been at the forefront of sport, with people breaking down barriers like Althea Gibson, Arthur Ashe and Billie Jean King,” he said. “It’s harder for the Tennis Channel to turn the other cheek and not do the right thing.”
I think the WTA may be getting the hint. . .
Tags: shahar peer, tennis, tennis channel, WTA
RELATED ARTICLES ON GOTOTENNIS |
Loading ...
Pretty rotten on Dubai’s part (and Auckland). What does Peer have to do with Israeli foreign policy? If we started censoring players based on their home country’s behavior, there wouldn’t be many tournaments that could fill our their draws. Go Tennis Channel!
Cut the crap! when 450 children were killed by the Israeli army, last month why we havent seen western channels boycotting israeli sport events? You ppl are full of Sh**. Dubai and the Uae does not recognize Israel as a state therefore, letting an Israeli play with her countries flag runs against that.Inaddition to that, do u all remember when USA boycotted the olympics in USSR WHEN THE LATER INVADED AFGHANISTAN!!!!
If there was a tournament in Israel, and Arab players were not allowed to participate, then yes, Tennis Channel should boycott that event as well.
If Dubai wants to host an international tennis tournament, then the government needs to allow all players to attend. The WTA should not schedule events in countries that exclude players by national origin.
I don’t think players should be excluded from sporting events because of the actions of their governments. Should we exclude Na Li because of China’s Tibet policy, or Russian players because of Putin’s actions against dissenters, or US players because of the war in Iraq? I am old enough to remember the US boycott of the 1980 Olympics, and I didn’t support that either.
Hey AL and Liz,
Whatever the personal politics are – I agree with AL that the UAE’s policy is pretty clear when it comes to Israeli passport holders (although Israeli citizens can enter if they are dual citizens and have another passport)and in some ways this is “much to do about the obvious”. This policy was in place before the invasion of Gaza and whether there was an “exception” promised or not, the WTA was asking for this trouble by putting a tournament in Dubai. It seems naive (or was it just wishful thinking?) on the WTA’s part to think that its organization would somehow be above these very real political issues.
The part that really interests me in this story is the fact that a television network is taking such a strong political stance. It opens expectations that they will start taking stances on other things – like you’ve both pointed out – there are many, many issues out there in the world that merit similar action. You guys obviously know your history – has a television network ever made such a statement before?
Hi freakyfrites,
I don’t remember another network canceling coverage over politics. I know that NBC downgraded coverage of the 1980 Olympics after the US withdrew (although they did broadcast highlights and results), but I don’t know if that was political agreement with the policy, or simply because the network was worried about ratings, advertising pullouts, etc. South African teams were excluded from international competitions at various times, but I don’t know if television boycotts were included.
Yeah, I think it’s pretty unprecedented for a network to make such a bold statement. We’ll see how it all plays out, especially now that the ATP is getting the heat. Tennis Channel has put itself into the tricky position of having to make more such statements in the future, no matter who is the wronged party. . .
Kudos to Tennis Channel for having a backbone.