While football may on the minds of a majority of sports fans in November, the City is working to bring a worldwide tennis tournament to the city during the third weekend of the month.
The new video scoreboard hanging from the ceiling of the Arena flickered with images of tennis players from the Davis Cup Tournament as United States Tennis Association officials Jeff Ryan, senior director of USA team events, and Derek Fisher, senior manager of USA team events, toured the facility Tuesday. The Davis Cup claims to be the world’s largest annual international team sports competition, with 130 nations entering the 2011 tournament.
The tournament features both singles and doubles matches in each round.
The Davis Cup Tournament World Group semifinals are set for Sept. 14-16 with defending Davis Cup champion Spain taking on the U.S. team in Gijon, Spain, and Argentina competing against the Czech Republic in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The Spain versus U.S. match will be played at Parque Hermanos Castro, which is expected to have a capacity of over 13,000 seats.
That capacity could also be accommodated by the Arena if it were chosen to host the finals Nov. 16-18. The U.S. team needs to defeat Spain and for the Czech Republic to defeat Argentina for the World Group final to be played in the U.S. If Argentina wins, it has choice on the site of the match.
Alan Verlander, sports and entertainment executive director for the City of Jacksonville and Michael Bouda, sports and entertainment manager for the City of Jacksonville, guided Ryan and Fisher on a tour of Jacksonville Tuesday.
The USTA is scouting locations for the final round of the Davis Cup Tournament.
USTA officials did not respond to questions because of the early nature of the selection process.
City officials refrained from commenting.
The City’s Office of Economic Development Sports and Entertainment Board meeting originally scheduled for 8 a.m. Tuesday was canceled to accommodate the visiting officials for their tour.
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