“Hopefully, we’re gonna see a full house soon” – Swiatek hopes Fort Worth fans start showing up for WTA Finals

It’s no secret that many fans and journalists have been disappointed to see underwhelming crowds during the first two days of the WTA Finals.

Twitter was abuzz with images of a 14,000-capacity Dickies Arena with a lot more empty seats than spectators on Monday.

To be fair crowds were a bigger on Tuesday than they were on Monday, and the hope is that attendance will pick up as the week progresses.

Hall of Famer Pam Shriver, who won ten doubles titles at the WTA Finals, believes several factors contributed to Monday’s poor attendance. Among them? America’s infatuation with Halloween and the National Football League.

Another contributing factor could be the fact that the tour didn’t decide on a venue for the WTA Finals until two months ago. Under a one-year agreement, due to the fact that China is still not hosting tennis events due to the pandemic and the fallout from the Peng Shuai controversy, the WTA announced in early September that the season-ending tournament would return to the United States after 17 years.

Two months isn’t a lot of time for fans that don’t live in the area to plan their travel.

In 2021 the event was hosted in Guadalajara, and notably well-attended (that announcement was also made in September).

Another, perhaps larger, issue? Fort Worth, Texas, a city of just under a million inhabitants that lies 30 miles west of Dallas, isn’t an attraction on par with other American tennis venues, such as paradisiacal Indian Wells and Miami. Fort Worth in November – on short notice – doesn’t seem to be a magnet for tennis enthusiasts. Especially when most die-hard tennis fans have already budgeted and booked their trips for 2023 already.

We should also remember the pandemic isn’t over and the economy isn’t exactly booming.

Swiatek’s words prove that it matters to players

Players certainly don’t want to dwell on the situation, but Iga Swiatek’s words after her victory over Daria Kasatkina on Tuesday in Fort Worth, show that attendance – and the atmosphere that comes from it – matters to them.

“Hopefully, we’re gonna see a full house soon,” she told the crowd and TV audience.

“But yeah, we’ll see,” she added. “I’m really looking forward to it because I like taking energy from the crowd.”

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