Stacey Allaster is the new chief executive of the Women’s Tennis Association. As she finds her feet in her new role, she intends to continue the tour’s rapid commercial growth through a combination of canny marketing and global expansion.

It has been a tumultuous few weeks for Stacey Allaster following her promotion to the top of women’s tennis. She has undertaken a whirlwind tour of tournaments and key stakeholders in the Women’s Tennis Association, the organisation she now leads, having been confirmed in July as the replacement for longstanding chief executive and chair Larry Scott.

Not that Allaster is any sort of newcomer to the executive table. She previously shared leadership duties with Scott after taking up a specially created role at the WTA – the player and tournament body that controls women’s tennis – as president in 2006. As chief executive, following Scott’s surprise resignation earlier in the year, she is now tasked with continuing the rapid growth of a 51 tournament tour that currently takes in 31 countries, offers US$86 million in prize money and, in 2008, attracted 4.8 million spectators.

And the growth has been prodigious. Since 2002 the tour has reported a 500 per cent increase in sponsorship revenues, a two and a half times increase in overall revenues, a 40 per cent increase in prize money and some US$710 million investment in new and upgraded venues.

Allaster certainly has a lot to live up to, although her tennis management experience is certainly not in question – before being headhunted, the 46-year-old Canadian spent 15 years at Tennis Canada, the governing organisation of the sport in the country. Now, however, her outlook is very much an international one. “It’s been great,” she says of her first few weeks in the top job. “I’ve certainly hit the ground running. On the day my appointment was announced, by midday I was on a plane to Europe for some business development meetings. I’ve been spending time on the road and meeting with players, which is important obviously. When I’m at an event I’m also speaking with sponsors and thanking them for their investment in women’s tennis.”

Inevitably, it will be sponsorship negotiations that will, in the short-term, dominate much of Allaster’s time. In her previous role, she was largely responsible for cultivating the formidable title sponsorship deal between the WTA and mobile telecommunications firm Sony Ericsson. That deal – worth a total of US$88 million – runs until the end of the 2011 season.

Beyond that, the future, so far at least, remains unclear, though Allaster is cautiously optimistic when asked about renewal chances. “We’ve had preliminary talks before and, in the coming weeks, we’ll continue those conversations. It’s been a fantastic partnership. We’re very fortunate to have a great brand that has energised our sport, delivering great ROI for Sony Ericsson. We’re hopeful that it will continue.”

She adds: “We are hopeful they will renew and all our energies are focused on that. That being said, we realise this is a challenging economy. We’re in a different place; Sony Ericsson’s business is in a different place to when we first launched our partnership. So we will have our conversations with them where we might make changes to our partnership, recalibrate and meet their objectives.”

Understandably, Allaster describes Sony Ericsson as “a perfect partner” for the tour and suggests that a global title partnership has paved the way for much of the WTA’s recent commercial growth, not simply from a financial perspective but from an image one as well. She says: “To have such a world class brand as Sony Ericsson aligned with women’s tennis – that has been a significant lift in the growth that we’ve had over the last five and a half years. They’ve brought financial success and enhanced brand value. They really have challenged us to innovate and to be a sport that’s very accessible to its fans.” She swats away any comparison with the Association of Tennis Professionals’ (ATP) current difficulties in finding a new title sponsor to replace the departed Mercedes-Benz.

In fact, the WTA works closely with the ATP – its male equivalent – so much so that, in comments made shortly after Scott’s departure, he suggested that in order to “fully unlock the potential” of the sport the two organisations must consider merging. Allaster, generally speaking, concurs. “I do share Larry’s belief that, for our sport to truly compete against the other sports, we do need to collaborate as one sport and use all of our energy as a whole, particularly during challenging times.”

However, in reality, the logistical and contractual complexities involved make a total merger some way off. Says Allaster: “In terms of how we move forward with the ATP, I think we’ll take it one step at a time. I’m focused on the WTA Tour; Adam [Helfant, the ATP’s new chairman] is very focused on his responsibilities at the ATP Tour. There are places and opportunities for us to align operationally, whether it’s IT or HR. Other areas of business are where I think he and I are open to having further discussions.”

There is no doubt at all that the WTA has coped well with the crippling worldwide economic crisis. It has, to date, lost only one tournament sponsor from 51 – a performance that compares very favourably with other sports or leagues, some of which have struggled terribly with the previously straightforward task of retaining or attracting sponsors. Allaster believes, first and foremost, that credit should go to the players. As she puts it: “We’ve got a great product. And we’ve also got great promoters who know how to service their sponsors. They know how to recalibrate when necessary, they have long-term agreements in place, which helps. We’ll see. We’re not immune to this economic situation that the world economy is in, but I’ve just been in Toronto where we had 19 of the top 20 players, ten of ten and, now more than ever, delivering to fans and sponsors is fundamental. It can only help us going forward to have the very best product that our players deliver.”

One of the other areas that Allaster will be focusing on is developing the tour’s marketing strategy. Predictably the players remain central to those plans. Last year, the tour unveiled its multi-million dollar ‘Looking for a Hero’ campaign, which showcased more than 50 players. The campaign, which covered print media as well as television advertising, reputedly cost US$15 million to develop and roll out.