Promotion Sports Inc., the owners of the Acura Women’s Classic, an annual tennis tournament at the La Costa Resort and Spa, announced Aug. 15 it sold the rights to the event to the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour beginning in 2008, for an undisclosed price.
Carlsbad-based Promotion’s founders and principals, Jane Stratton and Raquel Giscafre, said while the La Costa venue was comfortable for fans and players, by upgrading two years ago to a Tier 1 event, the venue became too small for it to be financially feasible.
Promotion Sports spokesman Harvey Bolgla said the transaction means the event won’t be at La Costa after next year. The 2007 Acura Classic, July 28 to Aug. 5, will be the last one under Promotion Sports’ direction.
Stratton and Giscafre founded the tennis tournament in 1984 when it was known as the Ginny of San Diego at Balboa Park. The event is among a group of some 10 major tournaments classified as Tier 1. This year’s tournament had total prize money of $1.34 million.
The winner of this year’s Acura was Maria Sharapova, who defeated No. 1 seed Kim Clijsters on Aug. 6. Sharapova, the highest paid woman tennis player, was awarded $197,000 plus a new Acura RDX.
This year’s event attracted 83,054 fans to the La Costa Resort over 15 sessions and nine days.
, Mike Allen
