TENNIS, LIKE OTHER SPORTS, LOOKS TO CONTINUE A CASH COW

By Leigh Sanders

“Money makes the world go around,” or so the old saying tells us.

As 2010 opens across a planet stuck in recession as Third World debt is joined by those supposedly developed countries whose industries compete to see who can lose the most money in a day.

Standing outside the normal boundaries of daily life are sportsmen, whose astronomical salaries see little change despite those who put them on their pedestal in the first place now struggling to scrounge together enough to get in and see them play.

So many sports are undergoing changes in a bid to “modernise.” This has now become another word meaning “raising revenue” in the modern sporting world.

Tennis has remained largely unchanged throughout its history, only allowing the monster that was television slight changes such as the shortening of changeovers and decreasing the time allowed to take between serves for the restless and bloodthirsty TV audience.

But as some of their main competitors struggle to keep their heads afloat how well is tennis doing in its bid for equality in the sporting world, or more importantly to shareholders, a larger slice of the scrumptious financial pie?

In 2009, the Australian Open recorded the highest ever single-day day/night attendance record seen at any Grand Slam – 66,018. It is now estimated the tournament brings in £38m to the Australian economy.

The prize money distributed to the male and female players was equal last year with the winners taking home a cool A$2,000,000 (£981,700/US$1,607,000) in the blazing sunshine down under.

You also earned yourself A$19,400 for simply turning up and taking a pasting in the first round. It’s great work if you can get it.

Serena Williams set a record as the highest earning female tennis star in history by accumulating $6,545,586 just for her year’s work.

Astronomical? Not really in sporting terms.

David Beckham could technically argue that he holds down two jobs (three if you include being married to Victoria) and the combined salary paid to him by Los Angeles Galaxy and AC Milan for kicking a football around will be €32.4m.

Over in the NFL, Carolina Panthers’ Julius Peppers snapped up $16.683m a year for what is undoubtedly the shortest sporting calendar in the world.

But the most important figures are those behind the scenes.

In Europe even the major football clubs are struggling as the economic recession means advertisers are pulling out of lucrative contracts and the supporters are finding it harder and harder to afford ticket prices.

Cricket attendances had dropped so low that they had to create a whole new format, 20/20 cricket, to get people’s attention again.

Baseball believes itself to be recession proof but red warning lights will be flashing soon as ticket prices there too are beginning to leave the average hourly wage behind.

Tennis, however, seems to be moving in the opposite direction. The continued increase in interest in Asia has led to further expansions in the calendar which make it an almost year-round sport in the twenty-first century.

There have even been some calls for a fifth Grand Slam to be held on the world’s largest continent and although this may horrify some tennis purists it is wise to remind everybody of the phrase which opened this blog and if tennis was to see a slump Asia’s many money-rich entrepreneurs might be able to bend a few ears at the ITF.

But for now tennis should bask in its increasing success. There are now competitors from more countries than ever before and the we have witnessed a change of the guard as the more traditional countries are producing less dominating stars and the likes of Russia and the former Balkan States are having a much larger say, particularly in the women’s game.

While the sport will obviously be hit by the usual factors in this difficult time; ticket sales, sponsors etc, the fact that the likes of Great Britain and Australia are producing rising rates of participants shows that tennis will have a growing pool of fans to let in, meaning attendances may not see such drastic hits.

As television coverage increases the revenues from this avenue will too. Action from all four of the 2009 Grand Slam events were shown on the BBC in Great Britain – a vast improvement on the Wimbledon-only diet of previous years.

Far from being game, set and match for the sport, this could be the beginning of something gargantuan. How much further can tennis go? Only time will tell!