Tennis Tour Needs Fixing

Written by: Staff on 24th April 2014

Tennis Tour Needs Fixing

epa04023700 A general view of the empty show court three during day four of the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 16 January 2014. The matches was suspended due to heat wave. Extreme temperatures pushed the organizers to implement the Australian Open Extreme Heat Policy by closing the roofs on Rod Laver Arena and Hisense Arena, and suspending matches on all outside courts. EPA/MAST IRHAM |

A Letter From A Reader To The Editor :

Tennis players of the world unite! Complain about the prices of rackets and court rentals and club memberships and most of all the prices of seats / tickets to tennis tourneys. Yikes you practically need to mortgage your house to attend a really super nice tourney in Indian Wells. Wake up all tournament directors. No part of the ticket price should pay for player prize money. I repeat NONE ! The players prize money needs to come from SPONSOR $$$$. Since I brought up player “prize ” money. What’s that about ? What am I trying to say ? Payouts are top heavy !!!!! Very much so. The players in the first round can’t pay for their airfare there. Players in the second round isn’t very impressive either but you might cover that weeks costs … The money doesn’t come close to fair till semis and Finals. And FYI. The top 5 players do well. The top ten pretty much the same from there ( minus appearance $) . But Its terrible pay for a professional sport. The qualie players starve …. The challengers and “no” futures are even worse and the points stink too. So let’s see …I trashed the system in a nutshell. But I’ll go back to the beginning. The prices of public courts rentals needs halving. The price of rackets can go into the $300. But there needs to be a great $100 model too. Wilson did a discounted racket back in the rage of graphite. They made a racket called the WILSON STING. It was a great “stick ” and it was 99 dollars. It’s the to Way to go.

I’ll end by saying lower ticket prices. Sell kids prices at a half rate. Make it only a little more than the price of a movie. Price everything fairly from seats to food to water. You’ll sell heaps. You’ll still sell your first 10 rows of box seats at a premium as well as your suites . But that way it’s affordable to all. Thanks to Tennis Channel for showing us empty stadiums globally. Wake up Stacy and all the powers that be. We are watching. Do your jobs. Fill the arenas. Grow the sport. I’m still waiting for the USTA to announce that they actually have a goal of growth in the sport and are looking for a million members. Two million sounds nicer.( been stable or stuck @ 750k for awhile )

Topics: Indian Wells, Tennis Channel, Tennis Tour, Usta