Paul Bass File Photo
Tourney director Anne Worcester.
New Haven’s signature tennis tournament has a new lease on life — minus the fellas and minus the “Pilot Pen” name.
Community leaders plan to announce at a press conference Thursday morning that they’ve succeeded in recruiting new big-dollar sponsors to keep the annual tournament alive for its 20th year, and for some years to come.
The event is held each summer at the Connecticut Tennis Center, next to the Yale Bowl in Westville.
The tournament’s future had been in doubt because its title sponsor, Pilot Pen, is pulling out. Corporate and government leaders joined tourney director Anne Worcester in a months-long campaign to find new deep pockets to keep the tourney alive.
No single new title sponsor emerged to cover a third of the $4.5 million annual cost (the rest of the money comes from smaller sponsors and ticket revenues). Instead, according to a person familiar with the negotiations, multiple major corporate donors made a multi-year commitment to keep the tournament going. The identities of those sponsors will be revealed Thursday.
The tournament will drop the men’s matches and concentrate on what’s always been its strength: the women’s competition, which draws a higher-profile roster of competitors a week before the U.S. Open (and which is more fun to watch, in many fans’ opinions).
Yale President Rick Levin personally played a key role in recruiting the new sponsors.
Tourney officials were not available for comment Wednesday.