Where does the money go?
In the spirit of transparency, I think it is important that you know the answer to this question. Entry fees vary from tournament to tournament and are set independently from the GLTA Executive Board.
Each tournament director/planning committee has the right to set their entry fee at whatever they deem necessary to put on the tournament. There are many factors associated with setting a tournament entry fee – court costs, balls, trophies, food/refreshments, banquet, and swag bags – just to name a few. Some tournament directors solicit donations from their local business community to offset some of these costs and are therefore able to offer a lower entry fee.
For example, if the Barcelona Open had 100 players, then $400 would be sent to the GLTA World Tour on behalf of the Barcelona Open tournament group. The only other income that the GLTA World Tour receives is a sanctioning fee from each one of our members. Members are defined by the GLTA as organizations who are responsible for running the tournaments. For example, VicTennis is the member of the GLTA that is responsible for running GLTA tournaments in Melbourne, Australia. Some member organizations run more than 1 tournament each year.
With the income that the GLTA World Tour collects, we are able to use and keep updated our Player Database and use of the Tournament Software platform for running our tournaments efficiently. Additionally, those funds are used to offset the costs of operating the World Tour Championships (see tournament entry fee description above), reimbursing Executive Board travel expenses to bi-annual meetings, maintaining the GLTA website, and other operational costs.
