Big Bang Penang or Tennis Big Bust?

What's to become of this stage, the tennis court and the seats now that the Kings Of Tennis Big Bang Penang tournament is off? I suppose the organisers will have no choice but to dismantle them and cut their losses.


The Big Bang tournament was supposed to bring in the big names of tennis to Penang for three days of competition on 14-16 Nov, but it's now become the Big Bust. The big names will not be coming because the local organisers have allegedly failed to pay the promised fees to the promoters to bring them in.

Over the past few days, we've been reading the accusations and rebuttals in the newspapers with the organisers saying that there was lack of support from the authorities (meaning, the state government) but really, for the organisers to be able to rent the Esplanade field at a minimal rate for a private sector initiative was support itself. I can't understand what more support could the organisers want or expect?

So Penang has missed out on a chance to be placed on the world tennis map. But I wonder whether it would have been worth the effort for three days of tennis. Who would benefit more: the people of Penang or the organisers of this tournament?

Anyway, these are the tennis greats who would have been here: Bjorn Borg, Stefan Edberg, Mats Wilander, Ilie Nastase, John McEnroe, Pete Sampras, Marcelo Rios and Roy Emerson.