Type “American men’s tennis is” into Google and only one auto-fill option pops up.
“Why is American men’s tennis so bad?”
My goodness. So direct, Google.
American men have ranked No. 1 in ATP world rankings for 1,166 weeks — the most of any country. Those came largely in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, though, when few countries played tennis at a high level. John Isner currently sits the highest among Americans at No. 18.
The future appears bright. America boasts four of the world’s top-10 junior boys, including Nos. 1, 3 and 4.
But men’s tennis is now a global game, and the rest of the world has caught up.
“(Look) at U.S. automakers in 1950 versus 2015,” said Jon Wertheim, executive editor of Sports Illustrated and a Tennis Channel commentator. “There was no Kia when Ford and GM were ruling.”
Wertheim thinks tennis’ vitality in America doesn’t rely solely on American stars, and he said fans can root just as hard for international stars. They do, however, need to see those players in person, he said. And they’re getting fewer chances to do that.
The U.S. had 16 ATP tournaments in addition to the U.S. Open in 1995. Today it has 10, and only three are ATP 1000s — top-dog events that attract the sport’s elite. Six of the tournaments, such as the BB&T Atlanta Open (which begins Monday and continues through Aug. 2), are ATP 250s, which rarely draw top-10 talent.
“It’s like being a PGA fan in South America,” Wertheim said. “People want to follow the script closely and see them in person. When Roger Federer only plays three tournaments in the U.S. all year, that’s a problem.”
The United States Tennis Association mourns every tournament lost, said Chris Widmaier, managing director of communications. He said the USTA tries to help fund American tournaments, including the BB&T Open. It filed a 2012 tax form that listed just over $13.6 million for “Cincinnati tennis” and $243,014 for “Atlanta tennis tournament.”
But it’s an auction, and the highest bidder — no matter their country — often wins.
Widmaier said the USTA cuts its largest checks for tennis at the community level. For 2012 and 2013 it reported spending just more than $64 million for “grants and other assistance to governments and organizations in the United States.”
That money clearly works. U.S. tennis saw a 31-percent increase in long-term participation from 2000-12, according to the Physical Activity Council.
But Vicki Michaelis, a University of Georgia sports-media professor and former Olympics reporter for USA Today, said a sport needs more than lots of people playing it to stay relevant.
“What happened to the women’s professional soccer leagues that sprouted up in the wake of (the 1999 FIFA World Cup)? They died,” Michaelis said. “The answer isn’t fully in just, ‘Let’s have people play this sport because they’ll become fans.’ You have to have the marketing and the sponsorship come in on the back end of that.”
Wertheim said the USTA “could stand to update their marketing playbook.”
“Where are the innovative ideas? Where’s the tennis podcast? Where’s the social-media blitz?” he said. “You’re trying to get the younger audience. I don’t see a whole lot of cutting-edge thinking.”
The USTA does feel responsible to market and promote tennis and its American players, Widmaier said. Only a sliver of its budget pays for that, however.
It reported just over $200 million in total functional expenses for 2012, and only a little more than $5.2 million (2.6 percent) funded “advertising and promotion.” For 2013 it reported just over $214 million in total functional expenses, but it spent only a little more than $3.3 million (1.6 percent) for ads and promotions.
“We are a non-profit, so it’s not like we have the budget of an NFL or Gatorade,” Widmaier said. “… Marketing is certainly very important and the stars of the game are important, but it’s hard to take dollars away from building courts to produce expensive and costly media buys and television commercials.”
Instead, Widmaier said for the past 18 months the USTA has reached out to third-party advocates, such as celebrities, to “tap into their social feeds” and promote the sport, especially at the U.S. Open.
For example: Josh Groban will perform at the U.S. Open this year, and the USTA hopes that’ll expose his fans to tennis.
“Other sports have (gotten third-party advocates) over time better than us for sure,” Widmaier said. “Because you have the everyday fan who’s tweeting about the Falcons. Or you have the four competing TV sports anchors tweeting about the Falcons. You have 54 guys on the team tweeting. That’s a powerful presence.”
It’s too early to judge the USTA’s strategy, but any consistent growth in TV ratings would suggest it’s better than previous ones. There’s no growth — or any trend — in U.S. Open men’s finals TV ratings reported by Sports Media Watch since 2009: 2.3, 1.8, 2.3, 2.4, 2.4, 1.6. By comparison, the men’s finals from 1996-2006 averaged a 4.5 rating and a 6.2 when two Americans played, per data compiled by the Sports Business Journal.
The U.S. Open is also moving from CBS to ESPN for the next 11 years. Widmaier said the shift would bring “unprecedented” coverage to tennis this summer.
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