The Public Investment Fund (PIF) is the largest investment fund in Saudi Arabia, which shows year after year how much it has opened up to innovation and new projects. Danny Townsend is the CEO of SURJ Sports Investments, which is also a subsidiary of PIF.
Recently, a few weeks ago, ATP and SURJ Sports Investments decided to launch this Masters 1000 tournament, which will be held in Saudi Arabia in three years. The Saudis want to have a global influence in the world of sports, with the desire to grow sports as much as possible in the country and to promote not only tennis but also other sports.
In an interview with The National, Townsend talked about various topics, and one of the topics was the reasons for his subsidiary's investment, as well as PIF's.
The reporter was interested in why they decided to establish the Masters 1000 tournament to Saudi Arabia.
Townsend shared the interesting reasons for such a decision, aware that Saudi Arabia is fertile ground for development and that indeed each side can profit from this story.
"When you're investing in sports IP [intellectual property], you want to invest in assets that have had a history of growth. When you look at the Masters 1000 licenses over time, they've continued to grow in enterprise value. So first and foremost, as an investment, the return profile was clear that if we could secure one, it would be a good investment.
Secondly, when you look at our mandate at SURJ more broadly and how we use our investment assets to drive sustainable growth in the sports sector, having an owned tennis tournament as opposed to a rented one would enable us to do a couple of things.
One, it would enable us to invest in infrastructure that could host tennis tournaments in perpetuity, which you really can't do when you rent an asset.
And two, it allows you to build a tennis economy around an asset that you also own in perpetuity, whether that be development pathways, coaching pathways, elite development, various other things.." – he said.
New trends
The general trend in the world of sports, and not only in tennis, is for a sport to become a global game and to be recognizable across the planet. It seems that tennis leaders are trying to make an impact in every corner of the planet.
The tournament that will be played in Saudi Arabia soon could be a great opportunity for tennis to expand its influence beyond the borders of Europe and other continents, with the hope that it will have more and more followers in the future.
Also, the goal is that some new talents from countries that don't have much connection to tennis.
