The ATP brought together Stefanos Tsitsipas, number 6 in the world, together with the president of the ATP, Andrea Gaudenzi, to discuss and reflect on the three key principles of One Vision, the ATP’s transformative plan that tries to build the foundations of a future best for tennis. The talk discussed the benefits of unifying tennis, the need to offer a better product and the opportunity that the sport has to generate income according to its global appeal. Tennis is the fourth most popular sport in the world, but only shares 1.3% of the value of media rights. The comparison with golf shows that there is a lot of room for improvement, because the latter, being the eleventh most followed sport, generates almost double (2.5%) the income of the media.
GAUDENZI, ABOUT THE PRODUCT
“Tennis has a great competitive advantage because it is global. We have a very strong product for men and women, and I think we are in a very good moment to attract a new generation. We need to optimize the product and provide a better experience for fans, which is the third principle of this plan. It is key to change the culture and the mentality to focus on the followers.”
ESSENTIAL TO RESTORE THE CALENDAR
“The calendar serves to strengthen the product, which is the main interest for the fans. See the best players in the most important events and in the main cities of the world. In this way, the idea is to work in a similar way to Indian Wells and Miami, with 12 days of competition. Thus, we will have Madrid and Rome with two weeks each. Shanghai, also two weeks long. Canada and Cincinnati would share three weeks. In short, we are trying to expand, giving more days, more prize money and above all, on bigger stages”.
TSITSIPAS ON FINANCIAL IMPROVEMENTS IN TOP 100 AND COMBINED TOURNAMENTS
“In a way, that means that the top 100 players will annually receive good financial support for their efforts during the season. Having tournaments together is improving the structure of the calendar. Allow fans to attend and watch their favorite players, whether it’s a woman or a man. They can get the entire product package in one place.”
GAUDENZI, ABOUT THE 250 TOURNAMENTS
“We don’t have a plan to reduce the number of tournaments 250. We think they are very important. We will reschedule them, and in fact, we will also likely have major Challengers in the second week of the Masters, for those players who are eliminated in the early rounds.”
GAUDENZI, ABOUT THE CONTENT ON NETFLIX
“We are working now with the Netflix documentary. Our studies show that live sports currently occupy approximately 50% of fans’ time. Non-live content, in addition to tennis matches, becomes increasingly important to the audience. Especially in the younger generations.”
