LOS ANGELES Women's pro tennis tour looks to shorten season

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The women's pro tennis tour is in talks to shorten its 11-month schedule by a week in 2006 and by two weeks in 2007, in response to years of player complaints about the season being too long.
"We are not far away from announcing a shortened season," tour president and CEO Larry Scott said.
Scott didn't specify which of the 60 events in 31 countries might be trimmed.
The season officially ended Monday with the WTA Championships final. The 2004 season begins Jan. 5 in New Zealand, giving most players an eight-week break.
Tourney will relocate
The WTA Championships suffered without the star power of Serena and Venus Williams to lure fans during its second of three years in Los Angeles. Scott announced the tournament will relocate in 2005, either to another American city, Europe or China.
"The initial strategy was this event should move from time to time," Scott said. "It is the crown jewel of the tour circuit. We have got different constituents in different parts of the world that need to be served. Being in L.A. is not the ideal time zone for our European television broadcast partners, as an example."
Scott's announcement during his "State of the Game" remarks caught Anschutz Entertainment Group officials by surprise. AEG owns Staples Center and is a co-promoter of the tournament.
"If that's their decision, then so be it," said Tim Leiweke, president of AEG. "I would have preferred it not come out the way it came out. I would have preferred a little notice here. But they've got to fix tennis because eventually what they're going to do is they're going to drive people like us out because this is not a way to run a business."
"It's frustrating," said tournament director John Arrix.
The tournament struggled in 2002, its first year in Los Angeles after a year in Germany and two successful decades in New York. Attendance was so sparse, organizers scrapped day sessions this year, changed the format from single-elimination to round-robin and reduced the field from 16 players to eight to attract more fans.
The marketing and promotional budget was increased from $250,000 to $1 million.
Attendance improved this year, but there were still hundreds of empty seats each night.