2016 World TeamTennis season
| 2016 World TeamTennis season | |
|---|---|
| League | World TeamTennis |
| Sport | Team tennis |
| Duration | July 31 – August 27, 2015 |
| Number of matches | Regular season: 36 (12 for each team) Postseason: 3 |
| Number of teams | 6 |
| TV partner(s) | ESPN2 ESPN3 Tennis Channel Altitude Sports and Entertainment Comcast SportsNet affiliates Mediacom Connections MSG |
| World TeamTennis Player Draft | |
| Top draft pick |  John Isner |
| Picked by | Springfield Lasers |
| World TeamTennis Final | |
| Venue | New York City |
The 2016 World TeamTennis season will be the 41st season of the top professional team tennis league in the United States. Pursuant to a sponsorship agreement with Mylan N.V., the official name of the league is Mylan World TeamTennis in 2016.[1]
Contents
Competition format
The 2016 World TeamTennis season will include six teams split into two conferences (Eastern and Western). Each conference has three teams. Each team will play a 12-match regular-season schedule with six home and six away matches. The top two teams in each conference will qualify for the conference championship matches hosted by the first-place finishers. The conference champions will meet in the World TeamTennis Final in New York City. The conference champion that is a higher seed will be treated as the "home" team in the WTT Final and have the right to determine order of play. The winner of the WTT Final will be awarded the King Trophy.
Franchise movement, contraction and expansion
On December 14, 2015, the Austin Aces announced that the team would move back to Orange County, California for the 2016 season and be renamed the Orange County Breakers.[2]
In December 2015, Randy Peters Catering of Citrus Heights, California sued the California Dream and its three owners in Sacramento County Superior Court demanding US$19,249 for its unpaid bills as the team's food concessionaire. Also in December 2015, one of the Dream's minority owners, Bob Kaliski, told The Sacramento Bee that he had personally lost US$175,000 investing in the team and that majority owner Jeff Launius had told him the Dream owed its vendors US$192,000 at the end of the season. Kaliski said, "I don't know if the team is going to be back or not. I know I'm not going to be back. I don't know about the rest of the team." WTT said that the Dream had until the end of December to meet its financial commitments to the league in order to secure its spot for 2016.[3] On January 13, 2016, WTT announced that the Dream franchise had been terminated due to noncompliance with the team's obligations to the league.[4]
On February 17, 2016, WTT announced that the Boston Lobsters had folded. The team had been owned and operated by the league during the 2015 season after the retirement of its former owner Bahar Uttam, who walked away from the team. WTT had been unable to find a new owner for the franchise. In a press release, WTT commissioner Ilana Kloss said, "We spent more than a year seeking a local owner or ownership group, but unfortunately we were not able to find the right fit." She went on to say that WTT was leaving the door open for a return to Boston if the right ownership could be found. Keith Callahan, general manager of the Manchester Athletic Club said that the club had been approached by the WTT to take over ownership of the team but had turned it down. "We just made a decision not to do that," he said. "It would have taken an enormous amount of resources to take on an operation like that, and we made a decision to commit those resources to improving the business and to making improvements for our members to make the operation better for them and for the community." WTT's asking price for the Lobsters was US$1 million.[5][6][7][8]
Concurrent with the announcement of the folding of the Lobsters, WTT announced an expansion team for New York City to be named the New York Empire that will begin play in 2016. The team will play its home matches at Forest Hills Stadium in Forest Hills, Queens, New York City, New York[9]
Event chronology
Off-season
- December 14, 2015: The Austin Aces announced that the team would move back to Orange County, California for the 2016 season and be renamed the Orange County Breakers.[2]
- January 13, 2016: WTT announced that the California Dream franchise had been terminated due to noncompliance with the team's obligations to the league.[4]
- February 17, 2016: WTT announced that the Boston Lobsters had folded, because the league had been unable to find a new owner for the franchise.[6][7][8]
- February 17, 2016: WTT announced an expansion team for New York City to be named the New York Empire that will begin play in 2016. The team will play its home matches at Forest Hills Stadium in Forest Hills, Queens, New York City, New York[9]
References
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