In May 2022, multiple media reports claimed that Roger Federer was interested in actually owning the Western and Southern Open tournament, also known famously as the Cincinnati Masters. This was after the USTA revealed that it was keen on privatizing the event for a ‘nine figure sum’. The USTA had bought the rights for the event for a whopping $12.5 million in 2009 and went on to invest $65 million in it until last year.
With that move, the USTA was able to bring the Cincinnati Masters into the US Open series, also known as the North American swing. As a result, the profile and value of the tournament increased further, also making it more lucrative. So it was a huge setback for Roger Federer to not win the rights eventually for the event through his sports management agency, Team8.
Beemok Capital trumped Roger Federer to buy Cincinnati Open
Back in 2009, the Cincinnati Open was reportedly in need of at least $20 million for capital improvements. Paul Flory, an American businessman was the face of the event with the highest stake in it. He remained associated with the tournament as a minority stakeholder till his death in 2013.
The USTA agreed to buy a 93.8% stake in the event for $12.5 million from Flory. Prior to that, it had taken incremental steps in expanding their horizons beyond the US Open. It had bought a minority stake in the Indian Wells tournament which was at the time worth $20 million as well as a women’s tournament in California.
Credit must go to the USTA for making Cincinnati one of the most high-profile tournaments in the tennis calendar. Such has been their impact that an American financial services company, Beemok Capital reportedly paid a sum between $200-250 million in 2022 to buy the stake from the USTA.
In 2018, Beemok also took over the WTA Charleston Open and invested US$50 million to renovate its Credit One Stadium home. Apart from that, they also manage 2 tennis complexes in Charleston that host USTA Pro Circuit events, the USTA Girls’ 18s National Clay Court Championship and also house a high performance tennis academy for upcoming players.
It was a massive surprise that Roger Federer’s Team8 could not win the bid since the Swiss maestro has a sharp business mind and arguably is the most popular and marketable tennis player of all-time himself. Additionally, Federer has won the most number of men’s singles titles in Cincinnati, 7.
What does Team8 do?
Team8 is primarily owned and managed by Tony Godsick, who has been Roger Federer’s agent for the longest time. Federer had teamed up with Godsick, Ian McKinnon and Dirk Ziff to establish Team8 back in 2013. Apart from Federer, the athletes they have represented so far are Alexander Zverev, Juan Martin del Potro, Coco Gauff, New York Rangers All-Star Goaltender, Henrik Lundqvist and latest American tennis sensation, Ben Shelton.
Based out of Ohio in the United States, Team8 owns the famous Laver Cup competition, which is the answer to golf’s Ryder Cup. It is also one of the co-investors in the Universal Tennis Rankings (UTR) alongwith Novak Djokovic. The idea of UTR is to give lower-ranked tennis players, especially in USA who are at the collegiate and university levels, more opportunities to play amongst each other as well as aspire to reach higher rankings in the ATP and WTA. This gives them more chances to earn a greater living, something which gets hampered when they lose on the Tour in most tournaments since tennis players are independent contractors.
