Tennis: the players struggling to break even | FT Scoreboard

They could, like, not play tennis. And, like, get jobs.

Wrong sport to talk about this issue, badminton is an even 'poorer' racket sport.

Tennis would be fun to watch if producers would simply change the camera angle. No one wants to watch atari pong.

the broadcasters puts too many ads.
Tennis has changeover every 2 games, which is about every 10 minutes

Maybe put men double events into wta tournaments.

We have to admit men tennis is much watchable than women single matches

A handful of winners take it all, and vast majority can't put food on the table. It's sad reality, but tennis is individual sports, what can you do? Same for golf, I suppose.

I am with Rafael Nadal on equal pay. Prize money is associated with revenue at every sport. Like in any other business. If women's tennis or football brings in less money, then less money to be distributed. Nadal mentioned that female fashion models make more money than men in that profession, and nobody complains. It is the way it goes.

Crazy to think that in one of the most popular sports on the planet, being among the top 300 players in the entire world doesn't guarantee a living wage. The Tennis organisation is absolutely fked and things need to change... In comparison, the NBA's lowest paid player earns 633K$ a year. And that's for a domestic league. And he still gets free food, travel, accommodation, physio and coaches. The average English Premier League salary is 3.9 million USD. And in Tennis you have a male median salary of 130K$... you add the expenses, coach, travel/hotel, taxes... not much left in the pocket. It's ridiculous. Where does the money go? Sounds like a big organised mafia to me.

I’m in the tech industry. I’d also like to see the founders and CEOs share more money. You think it will happen? 😂😂😂 Draw larger crowds and you’ll make more money.

It's hard for any individual sport to spread earnings. The difference really is team sports which can support 800 (NBA alone) vs 150 globally in tennis.

I think in tennis the prize money needs to get higher for every player in the small tournaments and Grand Slams. The top players get rich by endorsements not just from prize money. The prize money is good but not good enough. The Grand Slams should be paying at least 5 million for the winner and the smaller tournaments at least 500,000 to 2 million for the winner. Not surprisingly the lower rank players struggles they have to pay coaches transport etc and the prize money in the small tournaments is not enough is like pay check to pay check for the lower ranked players some have to take on other jobs

Look at the G League in the NBA. Those are not the superstars that the crowds want to watch, but the NBA understands that they are part of the infrastructure that makes their sport work. Same with the minor leagues in baseball. Tennis should do the same for its minor leagues (which is the futures and challengers). More money for prizes and perhaps even some kind of guaranteed income is no pipe dream.

Much like boxing, the money in tennis seems to be in coaching and managing players, not in playing.

I mean you can say the same thing about any business. Athletes are like actors…only room for a few at the top.

The portion of the prizes and tournament viewership earnings should go to the bottom half of the tennis players, who are struggling to live by.

There should be an agreement for players starting their carrier that if any of them make it to the top they have to pay everyone who didn’t make it. A Sort of reverse insurance. Poker players do that. They swap future earnings. Like if you make it to the final table i give you 10% of earnings. If you make it, then you give me 10%.

Billie JK is delusional comparing Tennis with NBA and Baseball (and other sports); those are all team sports, of course more people will make a more sustainable living. Tennis is an individual sport; the most expensive individual sport there is. Tennis - at a professional level - is more akin to a start-up while other [team] sports are more like small to medium businesses. Startups are completely different than a business. Startups are the highest form of risk of any endeavor because if it is not a success it will never recover any of the resources invested (money, time, etc.). Same with tennis.

"I don't think it will ever be possible to have a sustainable tour at that level" So players should invest in tennis, but tennis can't invest back? Not saying they should win millions but at least shouldn't worry about breaking even. Where do you think the biggest talents come from if not the bottom? And how many talents were lost over the years because of the unsustainable economics of the sport?
Not to talk about the quality of coaching, nutrition, recovery. Prize money is a drop in the sea for top players. They have huge endorsement deals. They should share the money if they love the sport.

What thing of value comes without overcoming adversity?

This whole video doesn't make much sense and wondering if they have any connection to the sport at all. It's a game of talent and skill. As a fan would pay with either money or time to watch some one with a lousy attitude or lack of skill? No, you're investing to see strength through darkness; a contest of effort and willpower. It's the colliseum, and the gladiators sport different weapons, but surely one will rise, and sadly, one will fall. Ask the victor if he would trade places to get breadcrumbs.

Everything equal, like all matches are 3 out of 5 sets.

tours will never merge on a 50-50 basis. The women's tour is a tiny little mole that the men's tour has to deal with on some events. It's not sustainable on its own.

The lower end of the ATP players end up becoming coaches instead of playing tours because it is expensive.

If we don't get the Tier 2 people enough money, one will never have a great Tier 1 setup. A leaky pipe never results in a good water flow downstream. The high costs of today are real and its sad to make these players go around the work while they lose money.

Equal prize money is a ridiculous notion Billie Jean King.

How and why do you manage to make a video on this topic without mentioning PTPA, an associated created to fight for lower ranked players - one of their goals is to improve redistribution of revenues and send more money to lower ranked players. This made ATP chairman look like a saint when he is responsible for the gap that exists between the players. A man that had conflict of interests sitting as a chairman of ATP and director of ATP Media...

challenger tournaments is a great entrance to break in the atp world tour, but does it attract tv and media?

aha

I think tennis is a growing sport that needs to expand and by tapping into that business side and strategically places new tournaments across the world and you can expand it

I first watched this video a while back and it was the first time I'd seen or heard of Liam Broady. Now he's advanced to the 3rd round of Wimbledon after upsetting #4 Casper Ruud. Hope he keeps it up!

Transitioning from Juniors to Seniors in Tennis is brutal because the focus shifts immediately to your weaponry as a player, which is primarily genetics. You can have a really talented Junior, like Liam, who was one of the very best in the world but had a shorter, skinnier physique and once he moved into Seniors, it became clear he didn’t have any big weapons to trouble and pressure his opponents. He has to grind and fight for every single ball which must be EXHAUSTING and he’s barely making a living. He’s been on the pro tour for 14 years now and still hasn’t cracked the top 100.. hopefully he gets a well-deserved breakthrough soon! 🙏🏻

same with badminton, and many other sport... except, you being a national athlete then your goverment pay you...

A lot of the players you see are players who used to get beat by better players but can no longer afford to play

Alicia Barnett was ranked 175 on WTA Doubles when this video was uploaded. Now she is ranked 73! Liam pretty much maintained his rank but he got into Wimbledon recently and even upset World #4 Casper Ruud!

Why not share coaches?

I love the message from Billy, for young people.....

Much of it is how the sport is set up. Basketball, no matter if it's on a school level or a national level, there's a team of players (not one), and they represent a team, a city, a school, a country and have a natural fan base. An NBA season, no matter if you're the worst team or the best team, you play 82 games, so there's revenue and tv time for everyone. A basketball game, even at a high school level is entertaining to watch and will can sell tickets. Meanwhile a tennis player that is not a household name may be playing in a foreign country, with almost no one in the stands. Will need to pay for his/her own travel, and if you can't make it thru the first round, you simply won't appear anywhere on tv and the only audience will have seen you are family and friends. I went to watch my friend compete in a tennis tournament and the stadium was at about 2% capacity. When it was sunny, it was too hot and nobody wanted to come because it's an open stadium, when it was raining, well, the game was stopped.

what I dont get it is why footbal players, basketball players earn so much money but tennis, and the Olympic sports are popular but earn so little.

i think federations and tournament owners are getting meat of the money. All tournaments should be united under single federation and top 1000 should draw a minimum wage to break even. Without this we cannot see new talent fast enough to emerge. Its always going to be same old players coz it suits the top 50.

i am suprised that anyone would still be at it at 28 if they had not been successful.

The main difference between players who aren't stars in lets say NBA and the lower rank tennis players is that in tennis your income is always dependent on wins. In NBA you get your 10 Mil/year no matter if you are winning every game or if you loose all year long. If you are injured for 1 year or if you are playing poorly - you still get your 10 Mil. 

It's quite an injustice that only the top 100 players in tennis can earn big money and the other ones srruggle toeven make a (good) living. Of course, the stars generate the most interest. But the disparity shouldn't be so large.

When you really think about it, a significant part of the fan base has incredible disposable income. The answer to improving the wellbeing of players ranked from 100 to 250 is actually NOT that complicated. But there's no institutional incentive on the part of the existing leadership to do anything other than what it does.

You have to remember tennis is an individual sport. It's like boxing people really just wanna see the champs and legit contenders battle it out. It will never be like a major team sport dynamic. Nobody really cares about World team tennis except maybe if Fed played at age 40+ and thats just to see the most skilled player ever if he still had magic . MLB probably is the biggest live sport draw . There will be 50,000 fans in the seats at Dodger stadium for 81 home games because of the majestic nature of watching a fly sail 400 feet into the stands and tracking people's favorite players stats. Thats regardless of the Dodgers winning or not. Tennis people wanna see Djokovic playing Fed or Rafa or Sinner or Carlos. Nobody is rushing home to watch #55 play #19. Never gonna happen.

string theory by david foster wallace is a beautiful essay on this topic

Africa doesn't even play, a sprinkle of North Africa in Tunisia and Egypt in WTA, no African in ATP, the occasional white South African. Why is Africa ostracised

This is a winner takes all industry

It seems that they should combine the ATP/WTA and then maybe decrease some of the mandatory tournaments of the higher ranked players. I understand that points are involved, then this would perhaps provide opportunities for more players to make a little more money.

Just play the sport for fun and don't turn professional. If you want to turn professional please don't complain. Tennis is like any other job. When you are average you get paid average. When you are a top executive you get paid top dollars.

if women dont generate equal ticket sales, they dont deserve equal pay.