The WTA Finals—then known as the Virginia Slims Championships—were first played in 1972, in Boca Raton, Florida. After bouncing around the country for a few years, the tournament finally found a “permanent” home in NYC in 1979, where it stayed for 21 years. On the men’s side, the ATP Finals were similarly vagrant in the 1970s, moving between Spain, France, Australia and Japan, among other places, before landing in New York in 1977.
This was not your typical tennis event; the WTA and ATP Finals were packed with tennis fans and non-tennis fans alike, and for the players, despite the hardships and inconveniences of playing there (practice court- and hotel mix-ups!), it was the pinnacle of their year.