KEY POINTS:
Spectators at the Heineken Open tennis tournament this year will be treated to a new feature.
And no, I'm not talking about blue court surfaces, pop music between points or appetisers on the corporate box menu.
For the first time, the main draw is made up of 28 players, instead of the standard 32.
Does this mean that fewer players are queueing up to enter Auckland's early-season ATP tournament, a traditional warm up for many players for next week's Australian Open grand slam event?
Not at all. Places in that main draw - with the prizemoney and points that go with them - are as keenly sought-after as ever, as can be witnessed by seeing the intensity of the tournament's qualifying action, held over the weekend at the North Harbour Tennis Centre in Albany.
The reason there are only 28 places in the main draw is that the top four seeds are given 'byes' into the 2nd round.
Yep, a free pass to round two. As they say in the game Monopoly, "Do not pass Go, do not collect $200".
In this case, though, the collection figure is a cool $7,500, which is the figure those top four seeds are guaranteed for "making" the second round.
The motivation on behalf of the tournament organisers for creating a 28-man draw is simple: it allows them to provide a real carrot to those top seeds.
They can win an ATP tournament by playing just four matches. They don't even have to arrive in Auckland until Wednesday - and by Saturday they could be holding aloft a cup and the winner's cheque.
This is all very nice for the top guys like Juan Martin del Potro and David Ferrer - and it looks great on paper for tournament director Richard Palmer to have lured four players ranked in the top 20 in the world.
However, the big losers in this arrangement are the spectators, who miss out on the chance to see top seeds in action on days 1 and 2 of the event.
Take today's Order of Play, for example. Centre court opens with - ta da - a third round qualifying match. Huh? Later in the day is: a first-round doubles match. Wow.
Just one seed - 6th-ranked Sam Querrey of the USA - is on the menu for Centre Court on this opening Monday of the tournament. Unbelievable.
Let's turn the clock back one year ago today, to the opening Monday of the 2008 Heineken Open.
The Order of Play on that day included matches involving 2nd seed Juan Ignacio Chela, 6th seed Nicolas Almagro and 8th seed Albert Montanes.
The total number of singles matches that spectators had to choose from that day was 11. Today's is eight - four of which are from the final round of qualifying.
I wonder how many punters who paid for their tickets for today, expected to get a drab line-up of qualifying matches, doubles, and matches involving non-seeds.
And trust me, ticket prices are not getting any lower each year.
Tournament organisers have fervently used the names of those top four star players in their press releases in order to ramp up ticket sales.
But don't waste your time looking for them on the first two days of the event (unless it's to see them practising on one of the back courts).
There are also other downsides to the removal of four places from the main draw. Those are four places that Kiwi players could potentially have filled, for example.
I notice that across the ditch the Medibank International tournament in Sydney is also going the way of the 28-man draw this week. So stars like Djokovic and Nalbandian also get to skip round one.
There is one major difference though - the Sydney tournament is both a ATP and WTA tour event bundled into one; so the early days feature a smorgasbord of mens and womens matches to choose from.
That's not the case in Auckland.
I hope the fans today give Mr Palmer and the other tournament organisers a piece of their mind if they spot them wandering through the leafy confines of the Stanley St venue.
This 28-man draw is an insidious arrangement and is a practice that should be halted in its tracks immediately.
We only get one chance a year in this country to head along to an ATP Tour event. The loyal paying fans deserve more.
* Steve Boughey is a duty editor with nzherald.co.nz
