‘Sports leaders discuss shifts in tennis world’ [p12], by David Shemilt

This article looks into the world of tennis and it’s marketing status and appeal to the worldwide sporting audience of today. In a modern discussion forum style,
an elite panel was assembled in New York ahead of this years US Open. The event was organized and set up by Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal and the tennis channel to analyze the state of the game, it’s marketing potential and issues that need to be addressed. The panel was chaired by Daniel Kaplan [the
Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal tennis reporter] and included representatives such as Mark Shapiro, executive vice president of programming and
production at ESPN, Jim Courier, former player, as well as ATP and WTA representatives.

Superstars:

The sport of tennis today has moved far away from the upper class, ‘gentry’ sport it once portrayed. Gone are the days of mandatory whites, polite ripples of
applause and the impression that the game is only for members of private social clubs. Today, tennis has ‘street-cred’, whether it is the Williams sisters and
their fashion driven marketing exploits, or whether it’s Andre Agassi and his tennis loving family. The game has moved with the times, but one question the article asks is that has it moved enough? Tennis, like any other sport, certainly has it’s ‘stars’, the idles who young fans can look up too and copy, but are these
superstars being marketed enough? In comparison to other sports such as football, basketball and baseball, the tennis stars of today, like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Kim Clijsters are
not instantly recognizable to the adhering public? Do you see these stars on commercials, or promoting
certain products? Not really. Why? Well, as Jim Courier, the ex-American tennis player suggests,
players have to concentrate solely on their own game. I think players have to do this otherwise without
results they are not going to be a marketable commodity. For example, Anna Kournikova, a female Russian tennis player who burst onto the tennis scene 5 years ago, soon found out that if you are not performing and winning tournaments, then your marketable appeal will soon fade into the distant past. However, even though her draw and allure has faded, it just shows that tennis players can become ‘superstars’ in their own right and marketed as one.
However, there are no 6 year multi-billion contracts for players to fall back on, hence they have to live inside their own little bubble to have success which really cuts them off from the media and marketing exposure that would not only help them become household names, but also make the game more appealing and popular.

Marketing problems?

Certainly the marketing opportunity and basis to catapult tennis players into the public domain is there. Tennis and it’s stars are an underutilized marketing opportunity that needs to be exploited for the good of the game. However, the scheduling of the ATP and WTA tours and the need for the top players to constantly perform puts a lot of pressure on them. As the article identifies, to the American public, no one can understand the scheduling of certain events and
competitions such as the ‘Masters’ and Davis Cup tournaments. The average fan is not used to the length or disparity of the tennis season. Other sports have more of a clear scheduling format, e.g. football runs for 17 weeks before the play-offs and then the grand
finale, the super-bowl. Soccer is the same during the summer; and baseball play virtually everyday. However, who wants to see something that starts in January, starts again in March and does not finish until December. Usually by the finals, the tennis audience have lost it’s enthusiasm and interest for the tournament and
players involved. Hence, promoting the sport of tennis during certain times of the year is difficult.
Certainly in England, when ‘Wimbledon’ comes around everyone is on the tennis courts and talking about if Tim Henman is ever going too win! However, after those two weeks, that’s it! No
more talk, no more media or public interest until the following year. There is no appeal to the game
outside of that e.g. two week period, that interests the general public. Therefore, not only does it have to compete against other more mainstream sports, but also the sport now needs to find a long-term appeal that can sustain the average tennis fans verve and passion. It seems that the only
real interest appears when major tournaments are happening.

As for the players themselves, Mark Shapiro, the ESPN
representative, identifies in the article that there are no longer any ‘bad boys’ in tennis. For example, there are no John McEnroes anymore. Someone who can generate excitement wherever they go. Everyone loves a villen in sport, whether you like them or not, and they are a marketing
tool which the media especially can make the most out off.

What needs to be done? / How can this change?

Concerning the issue of players and their apparent ‘hidden’ personalities, Shapiro suggests that tennis needs to market
it’s stars more effectively and make the personalities of these
players more accessible, more identifiable and ‘in your face’. However at the moment, again, this seems as if it only happens at certain times. For example,
in the build up to the US Open this year, Maria Sharapova, a recent phenomenon in the mould of
Kournikova, held a launch party for her new perfume brand she is releasing in association with Parlux for Christmas 2005. Roger Federer also came out from the
tennis bubble by opening the Nasdaq market alongside co-founder and chairman of the Nasdaq-100 Open
tournament Butch Buchholz.However, if it wasn’t part of the build up to a major tournament, would we even hear about this?

Such ideas that the article suggests for making tennis and it’s stars more appealing, accessible and marketable are introducing names of the
players on the back of their shirts to help fans identify with the players. This obviously happens in other sports and would enable the fans to start to associate themselves with their favorite players[s]. Clothing,
and more specifically fashion, has seen major developments within the sport. Indeed, players themselves have often been at the forefront and this maybe one marketable avenue to take in terms of making
the players and the game more attractive and alluring to the fans. The 300lb couch potato tennis fan probably won’t go out and buy a tennis racket, but they may well go out and buy a shirt with the name of their favorite player on the back. Certainly food for thought on the tennis scene! What do you think?