Report: WTA projected to run out of cash by late 2027

The WTA is on course to exhaust its cash reserves by the autumn of 2027 if current losses continue, according to figures presented during meetings in New York over the past fortnight and reported by the Telegraph.

The tour expects to hold $15 million in cash at the end of this year, against projected operating losses of $23 million for 2026. A large part of the shortfall follows the early termination of its three-year agreement to stage the WTA Finals in Riyadh. November’s event at Indian Wells will be funded largely by the WTA itself, with a prize fund expected to be about a third smaller than last year’s in Saudi Arabia.

A second source of income is also closing. In 2023 the WTA sold 20 per cent of its commercial operations to the private equity firm CVC for $150 million spread over five years, and 2027 is the last year of that $30 million annual payment.

Valerie Camillo, who replaced Steve Simon as chair at the end of last year, is expected to cut costs significantly. The tour also spends around £25 million a year of its own money topping up prize money at combined events, where tournaments such as Miami and Madrid value the women’s field at roughly 40 per cent of the men’s. Merger talks with the ATP collapsed in part over a proposed 80-20 split of assets.

The full story, by Simon Briggs and Sonia Twigg, is on the Telegraph, with the detail on the CVC arrangement, the collapsed merger talks with the ATP and the money the WTA spends topping up prize funds at combined events.