Simple. It take more than it gives. It’s not a viable proposition.

Consider this. The World Group playoff against Spain is set to cost the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association around Rs. 1.30 crore and the association stands to incur a loss of Rs. 20-30 lakh.

“It’s difficult to raise that sort of money, which is one reason why the host associations shy out,” Hironmoy Chatterjee, the Secretary General of the All India Tennis Association, says.

While the International Tennis Federation shares 40-45 percent of the cost, the rest of the money becomes the responsibility of the host nation for each Davis Cup tie. The ITF’s contribution increases depending on the level of the tie – from Group 1 to semifinals, playoffs and World Group – but the cost goes up, too, correspondingly. It means, the deficit remains roughly the same, Chatterjee informs.

In view of the increasing threats to high-profile sports events, the ITF has imposed added security norms for the ties, which has to be borne entirely by the federation. This extra burden is in turn passed on to the host association.

The crucial factor, however, is the fact that most advertising signages are taken up by the ITF’s international sponsors and the domestic sponsors are left with limited space – two signages inside the court and a similar number outside the court, to be specific. So, there’s minimal leverage for the hosts!

Associations like the DLTA, MSLTA, TNTA and KSLTA also invest a lot of time and energy in conducting professional circuit tournaments besides player development programmes. And the focus has been increasingly on holding bigger prize money events so as to help the Indian players earn ranking points without having to travel abroad. All those tournaments involve liaising with corporates and their respective state governments for weeks, months in advance of the tournament.

With the concept of gate money next to non-existent, recouping the investment is a dream unless it’s the Chennai Open, a Tour event which is supported by the TN government; or the Fed Cup held in Hyderabad last year and was entirely “under written” by the Telangana government.

So, even though Anand Amritraj, the captain, bemoaned the tie against Spain being hosted in the evening under the lights, it didn’t result in much hue and cry among the tennis fraternity.

“Hosting a Davis Cup tie is also an honour,” says Chatterjee. “Sometimes associations do recover the money, like in the last tie against Korea in Chandigarh. Sometime they don’t.”

The only probable solution is when Indian players enter the top rungs and become world-beaters/stars of their own, which the federation and associations could leverage to bring in sponsorship and gate collection.