The Business of Tennis

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Overview

Like most sports, tennis has both a professional and an amateur component. In tennis, professional players are identified as those that are seeded, covered on sports broadcasts, and mentioned in the sports sections of newspapers whereas amateurs are those who play for fun and recreation on private and public courts. Ticket sales, event attendance, sponsorship, and prize money are the more important numbers to track when studying the business aspects of professional tennis while participation, equipment and apparel sales, along with dues for clubs and fees, are the numbers used for tracking the amateur business.

Amateur participation in tennis seems to have peaked - at least for now. In 1985 there were about 13 million tennis players playing on over 200 thousand courts. By 2002 the number of players had not quite doubled to over 23 thousand. ¹ A breakdown of the figures by gender shows that in 2002 the number of men playing was just over 6 million, compared to almost 5 million women players. Figures on participation by age for the same year show the highest participation among those aged 12-17 and 35-44. ²

Issue 3/4: Summer 2005

The Sports Industry

Table of Contents

Introduction
General Guides and E-Resources
Baseball
Basketball
Football
Golf
Soccer
Tennis

On the professional level most of the business focus is on the many professional tennis events - attendance, media rights, etc. While the most well known events are the Grand Slam (the Australian Open, Wimbledon, French Open, and the U.S. Open), there are also a host of other events that offer prize money including the men's Davis Cup.

There are media rights, gate revenue, attendance figures, and price money for all of the Grand Slam events. In 2001 attendance figures for these events were over 2 million with prize money of around $114 million. In 2001 the combined attendance for all four of the Grand Slam events was over 2 million; the total prize money from these four

• 2001 Wimbledon: attendance was almost 500,000, gate revenue was over $41 million, media rights were about $57 million, and was over $12 million.³
• 2001 U.S. Open: attendance was well over 600,000, global media rights were over $67 million, gate/suite revenue over $56.5 million ⁴
• 2001 French Open: attendance was almost 400,000 and prize money for men's and women was over $1.3 million.⁵
• 2001 Australian Open: attendance was over 500,000 and prize money is $7 million.⁶

The media rights play a large part in the revenue though they don't play as large a role as they do in other sports such as golf. The sport does have its own cable channel although it was only launched in 2001 so numbers aren't as high as they are for the older and more established Golf Channel. The past few years has seen women's tennis generate higher ratings than men's tennis. Media rights are the highest for the U.S. Open and lowest for the Australian Open, but average annual figure has passed $200 million and many other events are not even televised.

In 1990 total expenditures for tennis equipment (racquets and balls) was $333 million. By 2002 it was $397 million. ⁷ As with other sports there are web sites devoted to selling of equipment, including Rayco Tennis and Don Sherwood Golf & Tennis, which have brands behind them, and tennisexpress.com and tenniswarehouse.com, which sell many brands for all equipment. There are also other vendors selling specific equipment such as Dunlop Sports.

Men's Tennis

The Association of Tennis Professionals runs the men's tour. It consists of the Grand Slam events, 9 Masters series and the International Series Gold and the International Series. Total attendance for 2001 was over 5.9 million and prize money was $83 million.⁸ Events other than the Grand Slam events include: the Davis Cup, Tennis Masters Series events like Miami Ericsson Open, and International Series events like the Dutch Open and Mercedes-Benz Cup.

Women's Tennis

The Women's Tennis Association is the organization in charge of the women's tour. The tour includes the 4 Grand Slam evens, as well as 9 other Tier I events and numerous other Tier 2-5 events. Attendance in 2001 was $4.67 million and prize money was just below $50 million.⁹ Events other than the Grand Slam events include: The Fed Cup, the Tier I events like the Miami Ericsson Open, and the Tier II events like Adidas International and the Los Angeles Open. Attendance at women's events has been outpacing attendance at men's events while prize money for women's events is still considerably less though steadily growing.

2 "Participation in Selected Sports Activities: 2002," Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2004-2005 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Census Bureau, 2004), Table 1241.

3 Kagan, the Business of Tennis (Carmel, CA: Kagan World Media, 2002), 8-9.

4 Ibid., 10.

5 Ibid., 11-12.

6 Ibid., 12.

7 "Sporting Goods Sales by Product Category: 1990 to 2003," Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2004-2005 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Census Bureau, 2004), Table 1247.

8 Kagan's the Business of Tennis (2002), 14.

9 Ibid., 17.

Electronic Resources

General

Established in 2003, the site covers news and also provides player profiles, scores of matches, video clips, tournament information, and television coverage, etc.

The 2001 through 2003 issues are available.

Provides general information on the sport of tennis.

Includes a look at the men's and women's games, as well as other general and historical information.

Associations and Organizations

The governing body of men's tennis. The section on Player statistics includes information on prize money.

Founded in 1965 by a group of contractors and called the United States Tennis Court & Track Builders Association, the organization is a centralized source for information on tennis court, track and indoor sports facilities for builders, manufacturers, professionals and consumers. Includes information on finding designers, builders, and other related professionals.

The CMAA has more than 6,500 members who manage more than 3,000 country, city, athletic, faculty, yacht, town and military clubs. There is an online buyers guide, a section on professional development, and a marketplace.

The ITF is the governing body of tennis with 202 member National Associations covering men's, women's, juniors, and seniors. Under the Circuits you can find player statistics (under the player tabs)

Founded in 1927, the USPTA has 12,500 tennis-teaching professionals worldwide. Most of the web site is directed to tennis professionals but does include helpful links to related web sites.

Begun in 1881 as the United States National Lawn Tennis Association, the USTA represents professional tennis players. Also includes the USTA Yearbook

Governing body for women's tennis. Includes news and in the rankings section, information on prize money.

Selected Print Resources

Issued under various titles, the publication reviews both the men's and women's games, in addition to providing other general and historical information.

Includes a directory of professionals as well as other general rankings and tournament results.

Library of Congress Catalog Searches

Additional works on the tennis business in the Library of Congress may be identified by searching the Online Catalog under appropriate Library of Congress subject headings. Choose the topics you wish to search from the following list of Library of Congress subject headings to link directly to the Catalog and automatically execute a search for the subject selected. Please be aware that during periods of heavy use you may encounter delays in accessing the catalog. For assistance in locating the many other subject headings which relate to tennis as a business, please consult a reference librarian.

• Tennis
• Tennis--United States