Today’s transnational cosmopolitan culture has created a world of no boundaries, that is, unless you are on the ATP Tour. The very essence of tennis – its inherent globalization – is what has caused the latest heated debate; amidst an already over-crowded tournament schedule, this year there is one less week in the clay court season. The European players are not happy.
Stay with me for a minute, this can be a little confusing - taking place between the Masters Series in Miami, at the end of March and the French Open, which starts on May 25, the clay season encompasses three Masters Series tournaments in Monte Carlo, Rome and Hamburg, with Barcelona, an International Series Gold event-one level below Masters, taking place the week after Monte Carlo. The week in question is the one that was historically after Barcelona and before Rome, giving those who played in all of the top clay tournaments a week’s rest.
Three-time French Open champion, ATP world number 2, Spaniard Rafael Nadal, communicated the views of the European players to the press during the Miami tournament, (in much improved English), “… the European players are, well, I don’t know, very angry about these decisions, no?... it’s because these two tournaments are one week later, because you have university or something like this, college basketball…but, well, we can’t have the calendar thinking about the college basketball, no? So we (European players) are 100% disappointed about this decision of the ATP.”
The tournaments to which Nadal is referring are the first two Masters Series events of the year, which are played on American hardcourt during March in Indian Wells and Miami, respectively. This year both had been moved back a week. There’s been a wide array of speculation for the changes to the calendar, including March Madness and the Olympics; Phil Anderton, Chief Marketing Officer, ATP, clears up the confusion.
“Miami moved one week later because their CBS TV deal was affected by March Madness and will be through 2011. It was a difficult decision but no governing body could let one of two terrestrial TV finals in the US be lost.” Anderton explains.
CBS, the official broadcaster of the NCAA basketball tournament and the Master Series Miami final, wanted both finals to coincide on the same weekend, making for a heavy power line-up. Anderton continues, “Miami is the so called 5th Slam – how can it be viable with TV, especially as that deal was a key part of the Miami sponsor agreements whose money helped to drive the 30% plus uplift in player prize money,”
Nadal, explaining the European players point of view said to the press last week from the Open Sabadell Atlantico in Barcelona, as the BBC reported, "I think it's completely impossible to play at one's best level for all four tournaments - Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Rome and Hamburg…you just have to accept this situation, all the players will be the same, they will not be able to play at their high level for all four, I think it's totally impossible."
Not a single-player issue but because of Nadal’s domination on the men’s tour this time of year, he is taken with regard when discussing drawbacks on clay. And Nadal’s prominent ranking and high level of sportsmanship carries some weight.
The men’s pro tour is caught between their own two sides, which in the end want the same thing. The ATP, the governing body of men’s professional tennis, is ferociously revamping the Tour in order to overhaul an outdated system. This past year has shown a fresh cutting-edge marketing campaign and the announcement of a new look 2009 schedule, which is being touted as the biggest shake up of the ATP tour since its inception in 1990. The players are competing in a new sport but under old conditions; technological advances in equipment combined the slowing of surface speeds, which creates longer, more grueling points, has greatly elevated the physical and mental requirements.
There were actually several factors in addition to the NCAA tournament that were involved in deciding the 2008 schedule – including the Olympics and Davis Cup (the annual international team tennis competition that is played out over the year; the United States are the 2007 champions.) Anderton explains, “It is a tough year for all players. 2008 sees a seven week clay and seven week US hard court season (after Wimbledon). It is tough but it is the same for all players, in both Europe and US…but it is a 2008, one time only issue as the changes made to the Tour in 09 will ensure it does not happen again.”
The US will indeed be making sacrifices along with the Europeans. This year “the Greatest Roadtrip in Sports” goes through China; the normal lead-in to the US Open, the North American summer hardcourt leg of the tour, will be interrupted by the Olympics. Several top American players, including Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish, have opted out of going to Beijing in order to focus on the Open, which starts just one week after the Olympics end.
Anderton goes on to say, “There have been seven week clay seasons before and the clay will be seven weeks on the new calendar - the key issue this year is Davis Cup in the week after Miami, which is why we worked with the International Tennis Federation (ITF) to move the Davis Cup week starting in 09. With Davis Cup moved, the seven week clay season will not have the issues we see this year.”
Anderton also reminds us that the last Olympic year in 2004 had a similar seven week clay court season – with Davis Cup – which should be noted is a controversy in itself. The ITF is the governing body of Davis Cup, the Olympics and the four Grand Slams. Shifting the dates of one or more of the Slams, or Davis Cup, would certainly have alleviated the congestion in the schedule. But let’s not complicate the issue.
Despite being one of the most global of all sports, a culture-clash in tennis ensues. To Americans, March Madness is as innate as the NBA Finals or the World Series. The final four has become one of the nation’s most prominent sporting events, second only to the Super Bowl in advertising dollars.
Nadal, who is possibly the best clay court player that the sport has ever seen, has said that he understands the significance of the NCAA Tournament, “I respect 100% college basketball. I think it’s very important…I know it’s very important, because I see always the American players and the men in the locker room watching it….,” he just doesn’t think it should influence the tennis schedule in any way.
Ann Wool, SVP, Director of Sports Marketing at Ketchum, says, “It is hard for people coming from Europe to understand the power of college athletics or the money they generate in terms of broadcast rights and major blue chip sponsorships. There is nothing like the NCAA March Madness or football in Europe; kids learn sports at school, but to move into the elite level they have to turn to private coaching or clubs.”
On the flip side there are those that understand the command of the NCAA tournament all too well and wonder why tennis would choose to go up against such a sports powerhouse. “The NCAA started a trend in what I'll call "calendar marketing," where they dominate the month of March,” explains Larry DeGaris, Associate Professor of Marketing and Director, Academic Sports Marketing Program at University of Indianapolis. And Wool believes that It is nearly impossible to go head to head with March Madness, “Many tennis fans are also fans of March Madness; timing is everything in TV sports.”
But Tennis refuses to be pushed to the back of the court, “Instead of running from the intense media interest in college basketball’s March Madness, the ATP and Tournaments embraced it and decided to remind media there is another March Madness going on in the U.S. With 630,000 fans packing Pacific Life Open and Sony Ericsson Open tournaments, we have a legitimate right to say we are a sport that spikes in March,“ says Anderton.
He also points out, the Tour, players and tournaments did receive a substantial amount of media coverage from such notable outlets as the Tonight Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, New York Times, USA Today, Sports Illustrated and VH1.
Of course, we can thank Russian player Mikhail Youzhny for providing a bit of extra entertainment this past spring when a bit of on-court frustration led to a bloody forehead, “The media and public’s awareness of the tournaments was one of the reasons why Youzhny’s head-racket banging appeared everywhere and was the topic of conversation in the States. The video opened up the Today Show and was seen by over 500,000 people within 24 hours on YouTube.”
DeGaris comments, “I don't think tennis is a great lead-in program for the Final Four. But there's this marketing aura around college basketball in the month of March, despite empirical evidence to the contrary; TV ratings for early round (basketball) games are hardly stellar and, contrary to some media reports, the workplace doesn't grind to a halt.”
Maybe that’s where tennis makes an impasse. According to Anderton, “While college basketball’s big tournament has been going on for decades, attendance at Pacific Life Open has grown by ten fold since the beginning of the event in 1976 when 30,000 people attended.“
“Traffic at www.PacificLifeOpen.com, the official tournament website, was huge, attracting more than 6 million visits, an increase of 38% from 2007. One of the most popular features on the website and one that demonstrates sustained interest was the live scoring, which recorded nearly 3 million visits -- an increase of 58% from 2007.”
Anderton continues, “As for Miami, the Sony Ericsson tournament recorded 10 session sellouts, set 10 session attendance records and shattered its all-time attendance record with 297,000 guests visiting the Tennis Center at Crandon Park. The men’s final on Sunday, April 6 was sold out on Friday, March 28 marking the quickest sellout for a men’s final in tournament history.”
What about the fans? I have to be honest and say that my interest in this story started when I saw the US broadcasting schedule for Indian Wells. The switch to Fox Sports Network (FSN) was surprising; the extremely shortened broadcast time was a let down.
Previously ESPN had televised Indian Wells and Miami, but was unable to come to an agreement on terms with the ATP for 2008, as was told to me by Anderton, “The Miami and Indian Wells tournament teams embarked on new partnerships with FSN this year following an unacceptable coverage offer from ESPN, who had previously held the TV rights to the tournaments. Due to their busy March schedule, they were only willing to broadcast a greatly reduced number of hours for each tournament. For two of the most important tournaments outside the Slams this was unacceptable.”
Tennis Week reported that last year ESPN 2, along with Tennis Channel and CBS, broadcasted more than 97 hours of domestic coverage, apparently the most in tournament history. But the ratings and advertising for March Madness far exceeded that of Indian Wells and Miami. Plus, since CBS televises the Miami final, ESPN does not get the traditional advertising and audience pay-off that comes with a highly-anticipated tournament final.
For the viewer – anything goes – literally. As is also explained in Tennis Week, FSN is not a single-feed network so beyond a basic national feed, each region chooses what and how much to air. Apparently, the San Francisco-Bay Area region didn’t see a good reason to televise much of Indian Wells.
Significantly reducing the coverage counteracts exactly what all parties have set out to do. It’s difficult to get emotionally involved when you are watching a final and have no idea how the players got there. DeGaris agrees, “I think interest in professional tennis is strongly based in participation. Though the 'casual fan' that doesn't play tennis isn't likely to tune in for early rounds of the tournament, there is an importance of the weeklong storyline building to the final.”
Anderton assures me the ATP is dedicated to improving the broadcasting, “FSN's coverage of Indian Wells and Miami this month created hours of coverage that would not have been shown on ESPN. FSN has shown a willingness to support tennis and to work with us, the Pacific Life Open and the Sony Ericsson Open to ensure fans across the country can see more tennis action in the spring, not less. We will continue to work with FSN to help make this partnership grow and improve and to ensure our fans in the US can see more ATP Tour tennis action on TV.”
DeGaris notes, “The foundation of tennis is the fan who will tune in to watch a competitive match and be compelled by the drama of competition. Nationalistic rivalries and compelling characters come and go; the only constant is tennis competition.”
I suppose in order to allow for change, the fans as well, need to be patient.
Spain's Rafael Nadal has his right foot checked during the men's second round match against his compatriot Juan Carlos Ferrero, at the Rome Masters tennis tournament, in Rome, Wednesday, May 7, 2008. Nadal lost 7-5, 6-1. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
May 7, 2008
