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Related: About this forumTennis Has An Income Inequality Problem
Tennis Has An Income Inequality Problem
By CARL BIALIK
Tennis is played and followed in most nations worldwide. But professional players arent making much money. Fewer than 1,000 pro players break even at the sport. Far fewer make a decent living.
The opportunities to make good money are dwindling. More players are competing for prizes that are growing slowly, especially at the games lowest levels. Earlier this month, the ATP World Tour, which runs the most lucrative pro mens events, announced it was increasing prize money significantly over the next four years. But the most exclusive tournaments will get the biggest boosts. After adjusting for inflation1, prize money on the ATPs Challenger Tour the equivalent of baseballs AAA minor league has fallen by 25 percent in the last six years.
Soon after the ATPs announcement, the International Tennis Federation released results of its analysis of the pro games financials. Among the sobering findings: Only 336 men and 253 women made more than they spent playing tennis last year.
......(snip).....
Tenniss problem is that its fan base is wide but not deep. It has fans in countries around the world, but rarely enough to support a major tournament with sellouts and big TV ratings in any single market.
The ITF is considering how to divide the revenue among players in a way thats best for the game. The nonprofit body is studying the sports economics to make sure that players who are good enough to break through dont quit the game before doing so and to hasten the departure of those who arent good enough. The ITFs data shows it takes about a year longer now than it did in 2000 for a player to go from his or her first ranking to reaching the Top 100, which is another year during which promising players might get discouraged and drop their rackets. ................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/tennis-has-an-income-inequality-problem/
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Tennis Has An Income Inequality Problem (Original Post)
marmar
Jan 2015
OP
ProfessorGAC
(64,827 posts)1. Like Pro Bowling
Guys now are winning tournaments for about 10% more than what they were winning in the late 70's. And, there are 60 million league bowlers in the US. Seems like a marketing problem to me, especially for how low the cost of televising a bowling event is.
And, there is no women's pro tour at all anymore.
joeybee12
(56,177 posts)2. And the travel...
It's not cheap getting to tournaments that pretty much cover the entire planet...