Sportsnet tennis debacle reveals the have and have nots in Rogers sports empire

Article content

As a popular Canadian athlete and Olympic medallist, appearing at the downtown dome to toss out a ceremonial first pitch prior to a recent Blue Jays home game, the cross-promotion made sense for tennis player Felix Auger-Aliassime.

A Rogers-sponsored athlete at the Rogers Centre for a Rogers-owned pro team to help pump up an event in which Rogers is the presenting sponsor.

All the more reason, then, for those in the Auger-Aliassime camp and Tennis Canada to be miffed at how the Rogers-owned network broadcasting this week’s National Bank Open at York University dropped the ball.

Sportsnet’s decision not to produce its coverage of opening week action of the NBO in both Toronto (men) and Montreal (women) has not sat well with many of the principals involved with Canada’s marquee event for the sport.

Though reluctant to criticize their broadcast partner directly and publicly, behind the scenes Tennis Canada and tournament officials are miffed at Sportsnet’s cost-cutting moves during the early rounds, opting for the ATP world feed for the first week of play.

(On Saturday through next weekend’s finals, Sportsnet’s regular, top-notch tennis crews were back in action in both Montreal and Toronto, as were the network’s own producers.)

Even that development has come with some trimmed corners, however. There will be production crews on site at both venues, as well as those calling the action. Studio coverage will be from Rogers headquarters, however, eliminating the possibility of big-name players dropping by the set for interviews.

The most egregious shortfall took place on Wednesday, when Auger-Aliassime’s match, a tense straight-set loss to Hungary’s Fabian Marozsan, was not shown at all on Sportsnet. Tennis Canada officials had purposely scheduled the popular Canadian in prime time and on the stadium court to maximize the audience both on site and on broadcast platforms — a win-win exposure wise.

Where the communication broke down between Sportsnet and ATP’s in-house folks remains to be seen.

But NBO tournament director Karl Hale said at a Friday news conference that the situation would be addressed.

“Obviously what happened, we didn’t want that to happen,” Hale said, according to the Canadian Press. “We’re going to have those discussions (on Sportsnet producing the full event in future years.) We’ve already started it. So I think there will be a better solution going forward as we move along.”

You have to believe that Hale will insist upon it, give the damage already done.

Sportsnet’s cost-cutting move was a fail on all fronts, with multiple parties taking the brunt, starting with Tennis Canada.

Consider that the mission of the sport’s governing body is to grow the game here and have more Canadians watch and participate in it, so having the broadcast partners drop the ball so notably was a blow.

Surely, folks at Rogers headquarters are asking questions, given the reaction to Auger-Aliassime’s absence from the airwaves. The company is a presenting sponsor, after all, and the event was once known as the Rogers Cup and a significant source of production and pride for the company.

We’re also told that the Auger-Aliassime camp was not amused either, another disappointment given his early exit eliminated any opportunity for some coast-to-coast exposure later in the tournament.

It’s entirely possible that whoever makes the decisions, be it Rogers or Sportsnet, is committed to cutting costs and consequences be damned, figuring viewers will watch no matter what. (Wrong, as that is.)

But if that’s the case, it certainly highlights the haves and the have nots within the vast Rogers sporting empire.

There is no shortage of resources at Blue Jays games, as Sportnet’s television coverage on a nightly basis is both in-depth and expertly produced. And no, the Rogers overlords are not likely to move the Baseball Central set away from the dome any time soon, either.

We can likely expect even more attention paid to Maple Leafs and Raptors coverage going forward, given Rogers’ controlling stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment.

Is it possible that the outrage from stakeholders through the opening week of the NBO is loud enough to prompt change going forward? Possibly.

In the present, though, surely a tournament that was once a summer viewing highlight for Canadian sports fans deserves better than the bare bones treatment it got until the proper switch was turned on Saturday.