One of the leading giants in the communications industry in the country, Cable Bahamas, has teamed up with The Bahamas Women's Open and will top the list of sponsors for the annual event.
Professional female players from around the world are expected to participate in the March 12-17 tennis tournament, which is sanctioned by the Bahamas Lawn Tennis Association (BLTA).
Organizers are pleased to partner with Cable Bahamas. They are confident that the new relationship forged will help with the promotion of the tournament, attracting locals to the event.
"We are basically trying to market this so we can fill the stands and get people to come out and support tennis, especially on this level," said Ty Olander, tournament organizer and founder. "At the same time, we want The Bahamas to become a regular stop on the international pro women's circuit tour.
That in itself will help us because it will bring millions of dollars into this country on an annual basis. They are talking about sports tourism, and this is more of the perfect vehicle in order to enhance and promote sports tourism.
types of tournaments all over the world generate hundreds of millions of dollars to the local communities. "We are really going to market this to the point where we want to get the international press and tennis fans from all around the world to put this on the calendar and say let us go down to The Bahamas, because this year they are going to have something exciting.
We know that we are going to get the top ranked players in the world playing, but they are also going to have some kind of match, like we have this time." An exhibition doubles match, featuring legendary female tennis players Monica Seles, Jennifer Capriati, Mary Joe Fernandez and Martina Navratilova, will be played March 11 at 4:00 p.m., at the BLTA's National Tennis Centre.
The "mega doubles showdown", as described by Olander, is a key marketing strategy being used to attract tennis enthusiasts. Olander said persons can expect more top players to attend the event each year. More top ranked female players are also expressing interest in The Bahamas Women's Open, which has a total purse of $100,000.
The tournament will swing into action a week ahead of the Sony Ericsson Open in South Florida, and days after the BNP Paribas Open, scheduled to take place in Indian Wells. Since the Sony Ericsson Open will take place in Miami, The Bahamas is an ideal spot for the players to acclimatize and prepare for the tournament.
The country's great weather and ideal location is also one of the marketing strategies that is being used to help attract the players and coaches. As a result, tournament marketing consultant Kurt Melnecheck encourages all businesses to buy into the event.
He said: "We realize that the economic conditions in the country haven't been the greatest, and businesses are having a little bit of a hard time digging deep and getting involved, but we are encouraging as many small, medium and large businesses as possible to contact us about participating as a sponsor in the event. Without the public's support, as you all know, a lot of these events will tend to die off
We want to make this a yearly event and we want to make sure that we forge phenomenal relationships with businesses. Not only will it help to promote their businesses and promote tourism, but show that there is a following in the country of businesses that are supporting events like this."
The deadline for entries is February 29. The list of players will be announced shortly afterwards. Players will compete in the singles and doubles draw at the event.
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