Analyse
Empty seats at the final: But the Swiss Indoors can also function without Roger Federer under two conditions
For the first time, the Swiss Indoors Basel could not rely on the driving force Roger Federer for ticket sales. Although the number of spectators is declining, the event is viable even without the local hero. But it’s not a sure-fire success.
In 2023, the Swiss Indoors Basel benefited emotionally from the successes of 21-year-old Bernese Dominic Stricker.
Image: Claudio Thoma/freshfocus
An hour before the start of the final on Sunday, around 200 seats for the Basel Center Court were still available online. And during the game between Hubert Hurkacz (ATP 11) and Félix Auger-Aliassime (ATP 19), free seats were visible in the spectator area despite the darkness. For the first time in what feels like an eternity, this year the Swiss Indoors did not manage to completely fill the hall on the final weekend. And this despite the fact that this year there are 500 fewer places available per day due to new fire protection regulations, which even improves the utilization statistics.
However, it was to be expected that some of the new 8,100 seats in Basel’s St. Jakobs Hall would remain free. For the first time, the Swiss Indoors had to do without Roger Federer when it came to ticketing. The short-term cancellation of figurehead Carlos Alcaraz (ATP 2) also hit the tournament hard. And so tournament director Roger Brennwald had to admit in his balance sheet that the rival tournament in Vienna was better attended for the first time this year. A fact that burdened the 77-year-old more than the availability of places, which were still limited at 85 percent occupancy this year. According to Brennwald, the number of spectators was even “above expectations”.
It doesn’t work without stars and good Swiss help
The Swiss Indoors likes to boast that, with the exception of the Australian John Newcombe, all of the world number one ranked in Basel. And it won’t work without stars in the future either. This was shown by the 2023 edition, which suffered greatly from the Alcaraz cancellation. Many games were competitive and exciting until the last rally. But apart from the oldies Stan Wawrinka and Andy Murray, who left early, and coach Boris Becker, who is now training Holger Rune, the stars of the scene were not in Basel.
The Swiss Indoors would therefore do well to rethink the choice of figureheads they engage in advance. Because while the four top seeds Daniil Medvedev (ATP 3), Jannik Sinner (ATP 4), Andrej Rublev (ATP 5) and Stefanos Tsitsipas (ATP 7) dueled in the semi-finals in Vienna, there were few games in Basel this year that you look forward to the day before.
A blessing was the exploit of Dominic Stricker (ATP 96), who started thanks to a wildcard and made it to the quarter-finals, which naturally sent the home audience into ecstasy and at least partially compensated for the Alcaraz cancellation.
Should Stricker work his way further up the world rankings, the talented left-hander has a good chance of stepping into the breach as a local driving force. And should the 21-year-old from Bern even be in the final one day, there will probably be no empty seats left.
2023-10-29 15:00:00
#analysis #Swiss #Indoors #Basel
