Girls...Ewww...
Usually, the arrival of my Cincinnati ticket renewal packet is marked by a giddy nonsensical post, but alas, not this year.
You see, for years now they’ve been threatening to combine the awesome spectacle that is the men’s event with the half-hearted flop that is the women’s event. Last year, we learned that the process will begin by merely running them back to back in 2009, with the women’s finals overlapping the men’s qualifiers and bumping the men’s seniors out altogether. We were not happy.
Our happiness was only intensified upon the opening of our renewal packet. You see, not only are we expected to put up with women’s tennis on our favorite days of the tournament, the qualifier weekend, but now we will be expected to bankroll the women’s tournament as well. In order to keep our series tickets, we have to buy tickets to the women’s event. I sent a polite but angry email inquiring explaining our unhappiness, but got a “Yeah, I know, it sucks, doesn’t it?” reply in return.
This may be our last year in Cincinnati, and that’s not just the annoyance talking. By 2010, they hope to make it a fully combined event, and we don’t have any interest in paying to see women’s tennis. Maybe we’ll check out the Toronto/Montreal tournament, or switch to a smaller tournament at some other time of year. It will be a sad decision to make, because any other tournament will have a lot to live up to.
Still, if this is to be our farewell tour, it’s going to be awesome.