”Ladies and gentlemen, we are killing our sport.”
The phrase resounded last week in an elegant dinner in London, and reflects the power struggle in tennis.
Everyone seems to hold everyone else suspect — and in particular the ”Disney model” put forward by the new Association of Tennis Professionals’ (ATP) boss, South African Etienne de Villiers.
”The circuit is focused on getting more money, which is understandable. But we are the guardians of the essence of our sport,” Franceso Ricci Bitti, president of the International Tennis Federation (ITF), told the media in an interview.
”Money is never too much if it is at the top of the sport. I do, however, believe there is too much money in the lower part of the circuit, at the start of many players’ careers. There is money that destroys many careers — young players who get enough money to be satisfied and lose their motivation,” Ricci Bitti claimed.
Further, the ITF wants to preserve its ”jewel” — the Davis Cup — and is not about to give in to pressures from the ATP in order to revamp the circuit.
It will not be easy for him to hang on though, because tennis — which has for decades been the object of a struggle between ”traditionalists” and ”modernisers” — lacks a clear leadership.
Every organisation has some power. The ITF controls the rules, the Davis Cup, the Fed Cup and, indirectly, the Grand Slam tournaments. The ATP and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) manage the men’s and the women’s circuits respectively, and handle lucrative television contracts.
What does De Villiers want? Many observers of tennis have asked themselves the question. After 15 years with Mark Miles at the helm, the ATP’s style is completely different today.
An American gave way to a South African, a man with a background in politics gave way to a businessman who specialises in entertainment — a man who made his career at the Walt Disney Company.
De Villiers talks a lot, he talks to everyone and he chairs meetings in which he deploys an unusual, histrionic repertoire in the often flat world of sports business.
He can quote Isaac Newton — ”If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants” — or close a meeting by telling a scene from the film Parenthood in which a grandmother talks of her passion for rollercoasters.
”I am with her. I always enjoyed rollercoasters,” De Villiers said.
And that hobby may be lucky for him, because tennis over the next few months could come to resemble a rollercoaster quite a bit, with a series of ups and downs, euphoria and disappointments.
That is the case with Mercedes-Benz, one of the main sponsors of the men’s circuit at $10-million a year.
German magazine Capital wrote last week that the company wants to leave the ATP and tennis as soon as possible to focus on golf, fashion, music and — to a limited extent — football. No tennis — goodbye even to the huge investment in the Laureus awards.
Mercedes-Benz wants to get closer to the world of entertainment and fun. And it is quite a paradox that it should choose to leave tennis for that reason precisely when tennis is trying to be more fashionable, more amusing and more millionaire than ever before.
One of the keys in De Villiers’s project is the restructuring of the calendar for 2009. He wants to create ”mini Grand Slams” and other special tournaments across the world. He intends to get players on his side by substantially increasing the money they get, but he is causing unrest among the tournaments.
In the meantime, the WTA is enjoying the boost of the $88-million it is getting from Sony Ericsson for a six-year contract, while it is on the fast track to making tennis ever more ”glamorous”.
”Top players deserve to earn more money. They are like stars of show business, entertainers,” Ricci Bitti said.
However, the enthusiasm of the ITF boss came with a warning.
”Sport is entertainment, of course. But it must be credible.”
It seems there is ever less talk of tennis and sport. Debate is centred on sponsors, television and marketing. Along those lines, De Villiers just put the Briton, Andy Anson, at the helm of the ATP in Europe.
Anson worked for Disney and was until now in the management of Manchester United. There, he was responsible for a shirt contract that left the English football club a revenue of $106-million.
Ian Wight, the director of the Queen’s tournament, coined a phrase to synthesise how tennis is being ”killed”.
”Is it economics or delirium that a player can obtain three times more than the winner of a tournament just by showing up?” he asked.
Wight thus denounced the ”guarantees” — forbidden in the 1970s and 1980s and legal now — which allow tournaments to secure the presence of stars by paying large sums in advance.
”I think what Ian said is a little bit ironic. Nobody is holding a gun to his head. But yes, we do have to manage our tournaments better,” said De Villiers, who is not on the best of terms with Ricci Bitti.
”I see in him a lot of enthusiasm to change,” the ITF boss said of his ATP counterpart.
”But you have to have an equilibrium between new blood and experience in tennis. And there is no sense in change for the sake of change. What is the point in fixing what works?” — Sapa-dpa