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In tennis, fewer
watch but the right few
Wimbledon's cachet with advertisers is still strong
By Sean Leahy
NBC began its Wimbledon coverage on Saturday
with little of the buzz of when Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe
and Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert were battling on the grass
court.
“In years past it always seemed as though people had it
circled on their calendar,” says David Carter, a principal with
the Sports Business Group in Los Angeles. “Now there’s so much
sports going on that even Wimbledon is having hard time getting the
attention of casual viewers because of how crowded shelf space is for
sports stories.”
That proves out in the ratings. As recently as
2000, NBC could expect a 3.2 rating in households. For the past
three years its Wimbledon coverage has been flat at 2.0.
It's not hard to understand why. Tennis has been fading for
years as a participatory sport with the aging of the baby boom
generation. Fewer players means fewer viewers for the big matches.
But tennis has also been hurt by the lack of marquee personalities
and fierce rivalries of years past.
Yet analysts say tennis is no less an attractive ad venue,
with some of the most sought-after blue chip advertisers. And the
reason is that while the sport may have lost many of the casual
viewers of its peak years, it is still watched by the audience most
dear to its sponsors: young males of affluence.
As they say in media, it's not how many, it's who, and tennis
has the right who. That who is a 31-year-old upwardly mobile professional with an average
income exceeding $62,000.
“That’s why Wimbledon attracts such blue-chip sponsors
annually like IBM. The ratings are less important than who exactly is
watching,” says Rick Horrow, CEO of Horrow Sports Ventures in
Florida.
“It will continue to grow corporate sponsors
as long as the targeted demographics remain.”
Horrow cites one study that pegs 2004 tennis ad
spending at $150 million.
“Tennis has fabulous demographics, there’s no doubt
about that,” says Bruce Rider, the senior vice president for
programming and marketing at the Tennis Channel. “It’s very high
end.”
Still, media buyers and advertisers, along with
the world of pro tennis, are worried about all those who once
watched but do so no longer.
The question: Can tennis be revived as a sport of
interest to the general public, or is it destined to continue
fading?
Can Wimbledon be revived?
Casual fans in normally key demographics have been tuning
out Wimbledon for several years. Ratings have fallen among women
18-34 from 1.4 in 2000 to 0.7 last year and among men 18-34 from 1.4
to just 0.6, according to Nielsen Media
Research data provided by Magna Global USA.
What the sport
needs, say media buyers, is the rivalries of old. “Tennis works really well when there are strong rivalries
and us against them mentalities,” says Carter of the Sports Business Group.
But the public cannot embrace a rivalry if it does not know
the players. McEnroe, now a game analyst for NBC, says tennis
officials and players have done a poor job marketing the
sport.
“They seem to think that all they need to do is throw them
out on the court,” he says. “There’s a lot more sports, a lot
more options and channels. You need to reach out to the fan.”
“The non-North American players need to be a little less
aloof and a little more media friendly,” says Marc Ganis, the
president of Sportscorp in Chicago. “You just don’t get a
sense that this group of young guys appreciates the importance of
being accessible to the media.”
One person who does appreciate it, however, is defending
Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova.
She appears on the cover of the current Forbes magazine,
and Canon featured her last week in a Sunday magazine insert across
the country and in a two-page Sports Illustrated ad.
“She is quickly becoming a crossover celebrity,” Ganis
says of Sharapova. “And unlike Anna Kournikova, this girl’s got
game.”
If
she can build on last year’s championship by contending late into
this year’s tournament, it will only help build interest in the
sport and attract viewers for tennis’ next big event, the U.S.
Open, in August.
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June 27, 2005
©
2005
Media Life
-Sean Leahy is
a Baltimore writer.
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