Business of Sport: Serena key to growth of US tennis

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  • Once in a generation: Serena Williams has transcended women's tennis.

    The United States Tennis Association is the largest tennis organisation in the world, with 17 geographical sections and more than 770,000 individual members.

    And although tennis is one of the most popular sports globally, in America, it takes a backseat to a host of sports like football, baseball, basketball and hockey.

    With only two American men in the top-50 at the moment, many could argue that US tennis is struggling. They also lost two tour events in the past couple of seasons, with the LA and Carlsbad tournaments getting the axe.

    Sport360° spoke to the USTA’s Chief Revenue Officer Lewis Sherr at a conference in Dubai, to find out how the USTA is faring from a commercial perspective.

    Q Tennis isn’t the most popular sport in the United States so is it tough to get the attention and sponsorship that you need?

    A Internationally, the global appeal of the sport is quite extraordinary. We’ve been very successful securing sponsorships but we’re appealing to international sponsors that want to take advantage of that fact.

    For smaller events that maybe have less international exposure, there we focus on other things. Tennis is one of the only sports in the world that has truly achieved gender equity.

    Sports has historically been a mechanism to communicate with men, hospitality for men, tennis is very different. We’re unique that way and there’s real value in creating an event that women enjoy as much as men, women watch men play, men watch women play, and I think that has helped from a sponsorship standpoint as well.

    Every event has its unique situation and if there were many more top American players playing in every US event it might be helpful but the market has been fairly strong from a sponsorship standpoint. The sport is healthy and it’s been healthy commercially.

    How important is the Emirates sponsorship for the US Open Series?

    It’s been incredibly important for the series on a number of levels. I think first and foremost Emirates’ involvement with the series really legitimised the international stature of those events which has been critically important.

    Emirates has made a long-term investment into the series which allows us as the USTA to continue to invest in the growth of the series, knowing that we can build that product over 7+ years which has been great.

    I think the events themselves have taken great pride in being aligned with a global brand like Emirates and it has brought to life the reality that it is a global international sport and these properties, no matter where they’re being held, tennis is an international platform and it helps illustrate to other partners… why would Emirates be in Cincinnati, they don’t fly to Cincinnati? Well, they’re there because tennis is an international platform and that’s a message that we can take to other companies. 

    You mentioned the lack of top US players, particularly in the men’s side, how has that affected you commercially?

    You could say that we haven’t had a transcendent American male player for the past decade or so, yet the sport has grown more dramatically than almost any other American sport from a participation standpoint.

    Our viewership is up, the US Open has had record ticket sales years so we haven’t necessarily felt it and the international following has continued to increase.

    Where I do think we might benefit, would be with more casual American fans who might tune in to follow a top American player if they were playing in the US Open or some other secondary events.

    But having said that, as an international sport we’ve got great personalities at the top, the Federers, the Nadals, the Djokovics of the world, now Andy Murray coming into that group, are iconic and they’re global icons so they’re relevant in the US marketplace.

    Is there a concern from a commercial perspective of the generation gap that will follow, when these icons retire?

    Well, sure. The sport is very strong, and we anticipate these top players continuing for quite some time. Having said that, they’re arguably three of four of the best players of all-time playing at the same time and there haven’t been that many eras where you’ve had that. But you’ve had the McEnroes and Borgs playing at the same time.

    The sport in terms of global popularity and participation is only growing and the expectation is that that will translate to more and more great players coming out of countries all over the world.

    You’re seeing emerging Asian players, Chinese players, players out of South America, Eastern Europe, places you wouldn’t necessarily have always seen them before. So I think there’s a bigger pool of talent around the world that should create it.

    How important is someone like Serena Williams to the USTA and the commercial success of US tennis?

    Serena is a once in a generation type of player and it’s phenomenal that she’s American. She’s charismatic, she’s dominant, she’s an incredible ambassador for the sport and we hope she continues to play for a very long time.

    She’s had a great effect. She attracts audiences that rival the male audiences in terms of TV viewership and has elevated the sport. But she’s got great competition as well. Players like Li Na coming into the marketplace and the exposure in China is substantial for the sport. Sharapova has been great, Azarenka as well.

    There’s been competition but I think the sport has benefitted from her and Venus’s participation.

    There isn’t going to be a tournament in Carlsbard, and last year you also lost the LA men’s event. Is that a worrying sign?

    There’s a variety of factors, some of which have to do with the change in schedule that will push Wimbledon to a later start. That shrinks the window of time for players to come over to rest post-Wimbledon and start their preparation.

    Getting to the West coast has been challenging so now you’ll see more of a focus on the East coast. But the events that we have as part of the series are strong and viable and they continue to grow. I think as the schedule settles itself out we should be in a very good place.

    Cincinnati had a record attendance this year. The Canadian events continue to do well. DC has added a women’s draw. There’s growth coming in different ways.

    Many tennis fans, pundits and journalists in the United States have been quite vocal on social media regarding regular live coverage of tennis in the US.

    Do you think it’s difficult to get enough air time for tennis compared to other sports in the US?

    I don’t believe so. The US Open is televised for over 220 live hours so the entire run of the tournament. The Emirates Airline US Open Series, again hundreds of additional hours of coverage over six weeks leading into it. There are re-airs and things like that on some of the cable networks but the core product is televised live. 

    Where you may have some issues is international competitions. The Australian Open is played at a time of day in the States that’s not ideal for TV. So they may air it live and then re-air it in a tape fashion because of the time zones. Same with Wimbledon and the French Open, but for the major events they’re all carried live.

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