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Tournament’s future in MB still uncertain
by Paul Teetor
Florence Ridley is a 78-year-old retired professor of medieval literature at UCLA. She is also a die-hard tennis fan who has come to the Manhattan Beach women’s pro tour event every year since it landed at the Manhattan Country Club in 1983, and hopes it never leaves.
"It would be a terrible mistake for them to move this tournament to Carson," Ridley said Sunday after the Estyle.com Classic final. "There’s a certain charm, a certain coziness that would be lost forever if they left this setting."
Ridley was reacting to the buzz sweeping the tournament that the sports management company IMG, which owns the tournament, is considering a move to the athletic complex being built by the Philip Anschutz Group in Carson.
Gus Sampras, the tournament director, did not return several messages over four days seeking comment on the tournament’s contractual status with Manhattan Country Club and its possible move to Carson.
Press-room sources, however, say IMG has a two-year rolling agreement with the country club, meaning each year it is held at the club guarantees it will be held there at least one more year.
The Carson athletic complex would most likely not be available until the summer of 2003. Taken together, that means in any case next year’s event will definitely be held at the Manhattan Country Club.
But that isn’t good enough for Florence Ridley.
"I hope that they announce they aren’t leaving, period, no matter what Carson offers" she said. "That would stop all this speculation."