ATP: (Still) no Roger-Federer-Arena in Basel

The proposal to rename the St. Jakobshalle in Basel as Roger Federer Arena was rejected on Wednesday.

There were only eight votes in favour in the Grand Council, as reported by bzbasel.ch. FDP Grand Councillor Martina Bernasconi officially submitted the initiative earlier this year after Federer won his 20th major tournament in Melbourne.

However, the clear rejection was by no means directed against the eight-time Basel winner himself, but against the timing. It is too early, and it appears that trademark problems also played a role in the decision. Federer also stands for his sponsors Crédit Suisse, Sunrise, Rolex, Nike and Jura, “we would have sold the hall to these companies as well”, the Swiss sports journalist and LDP politician René Häfliger is quoted. SP Grand Councillor Thomas Gander said: “It can be a nice gesture later on to set such a monument to Federer. But it’s too soon today. And I’m almost sure he agrees.”

Federer himself has not yet commented on this. He is currently in Africa as part of his work for the Roger Federer Foundation. Next week, Ivan Ljubicicic recently said, he will resume his tennis training. A start is then fixed at the grass court tournament in Halle, a possible start in Stuttgart the week before has not yet been decided.