Four Nigerian Tennis Majors Launched in Lagos
An ambitious new plan to put Nigeria’s tennis on the global map has been launched in Lagos with the introduction of Nigerian Tennis Majors to the national calendar.
According to Tennis Management Company, a Lagosbased sports marketing firm,
Plans to organize an annual four tennis majors in four Nigerian cities have reached advanced level.
Speaking at the launch of the tennis major expected to also have junior version on Monday afternoon at the Savoy Suites in Ikeja GRA, the organisers promised a new era for the game in the country with the high stakes, high rewarding tournaments.
Managing Director of TMCL, Kenneth Ezaga, explained explained that two tournaments will be held next year, including the Abuja Open which would be the maiden edition and will be held in May, while the Lagos Open will follow in October before the first four slam calendar rollout in 2019.
He further explained that while Lagos and Abuja have been confirmed as hosts of two of the slams, the other two cities will be decided possibly by bids, with one each in the south and northern part of the country.
He assured tennis aficionados that the tour will not only provide regular competition for the best local talents, it would pay the champions the biggest purses in Nigerian sports.
Defending this, Ezaga said “While fans around the world love sports, it is the well paid stars they follow. Stars pull in audiences and sponsors. You cannot have a sports business without major stars, that is why every serious sports organiser in the world is always looking for the next Michael Jordan, the next Tiger Woods, the next Usain Bolt, the next Nduka Odizor. We will be no different.”
The Chairman of the company, Anire Kanyi, was optimistic that the initiative will help the government in its bid to diversify the economy and create new jobs and wealth within the country.
“Government alone cannot solve all our problems,” Kanyi said. “Now is when we must all rise to create a more compelling future for our young. Sports offers a great opportunity for us to make an impact – to unite our people, engage our youth, create thousands of new jobs and stir up a deeper love of country.”
Another director of the company Lolu Akinwunmi, the marketing communications heavyweight who built the Prima Garnet Group, argued that sports has become a great way for brands to not only promote their offerings, but to meet their customers and forge deep emotional bonds with them.
“No longer are brands just contented with reaching their target market by planting their logos on events, they practically want to touch these people through intelligent leveraging and activations. The Nigerian Tennis Majors will offer them a superb opportunity to do this,” the former AAAN and APCON president declared.
He added: “Sports, after all, brings consumers and brands together in an atmosphere of extreme passion. Another key strength of sports is that it has the ability to focus audiences on a single idea for a period of time, largely increasing the effectiveness of your promotional spend.”