Bold experiment

SINGAPORE — They will be known as the Singapore Slammers, but the only Singapore aspects of the US$25 million (S$31.2 million) franchise of the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) launched yesterday are that it has an office here and carries the country’s name.

Otherwise, the franchise is completely foreign-owned and has a playing staff that is also non-local. But with big names such as women’s world No 1 Serena Williams and eight-time Grand Slam winner Andre Agassi, IPTL founder Mahesh Bhupathi is confident the team will be a big hit with Singapore tennis fans.

Neither is it an issue for Bhupathi, who himself won four men’s doubles Grand Slam titles, that the side is bereft of any Singapore business interest that can drive local loyalties. Pointing to the foreign ownership of English Premier League clubs, he asked: “Who owns Manchester United, who owns Manchester City, who owns Arsenal?

“It is about finding a group of people who can be passionate, who are willing to grow and sustain the franchise and who are able to activate and engage the local community to grow.”

The Slammers roster will include Australians Patrick Rafter, Lleyton Hewitt and rising star Nick Kyrgios; Brazilian Bruno Soares; Czech Tomas Berdych; and Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia.

For 40-year-old Bhupathi, the key to the Slammers success will come from working with the Singapore Tennis Association, Sport Singapore and other government agencies.

The inaugural IPTL season kicks off in Manila on Nov 28 before heading to Singapore on Dec 2, Mumbai on Dec 6 and Dubai five days later.

The Slammers are owned by Indian businessmen including cricket great Sunil Gavaskar, Ajay Sethi, Kishan Gehlot and Shashi Kiran Shetty, who run businesses ranging from a media group and healthcare to logistics. After the four agreed to the franchise, Bhupathi said there was no need to seek Singapore investors for the team.

But the franchise partners are open to having local partners on board, said Gehlot, who has business interests in construction, hotels and healthcare.

The US$25 million investment for the Slammers franchise is spread over 10 years and the Indian partners said they opted for Singapore because of the financial and sporting infrastructure here.

“I am sure the Slammers and IPTL are going to grow bigger and bigger, and we have no problem if any Singapore investors come on board because the whole idea is to let these two properties grow,” Gehlot said.

Added Gavaskar: “We will be looking into this at a later date and not immediately. It is important that Singaporeans can identify with the team first before adding to our investors numbers.” He is confident support for the team will grow, just as cricket’s Indian Premier League did when it kicked off with eight teams in 2008 and turned into a US$3 billion business after six seasons. The IPL teams had recruited some of the game’s top names from around the world and seldom even had Indian players who were native to the regions the teams represented.

And although there are no Singaporeans in its playing and management staff, Gavaskar believes Singaporeans and local firms will come around to getting behind the team.

But he added their investment on the team is over the longer term and do not expect any returns until at least the third year, when the contract of its current roster of big names will also expire. The contractual arrangement allows them to refresh the team when the need arises.

Said Sethi: “There is no auctioning of players, but what we have is a draft. It allows us to retain the existing players and add new players. If, for example, there are stars emerging from Singapore, Malaysia and the region, it will give us an option to include them in the team.”