This is good, as someone who casually follows tennis I can see this from the outside looking in. Originally I’m a documentary filmmaker who specializes in sports documentaries specifically. I think you make a good point comparing the likes of the WNBA and tennis. Like everything you have to evolve with the times, with the growth of social media you see many athletes taking the storytelling in their own hands, whether that’s through vlogs, documentaries, bts content, etc. when you look at a sport like golf I think they’ve done a good job of embracing content creators and allowing them to have a role in various events and storytelling aspects, I definitely think that’s something tennis can do. Also, players like Naomi Osaka having her own production company (Hana Kuma) is also doing features and sit down interviews with athletes that could possibly help. What are your thoughts on possible solutions? Also, do you think access to the sport (number of tournaments and how people can view them) plays a part in it?
Oh I love sports documentaries... I think it is great to have players take their personal branding into their own hands in a quality way and expand like Naomi in a kind of media company. But I don't think athletes are necessary the best ones to promote themselves because 1) storytelling is a job 2) you need to also highlight the "flaws" and ask the tough questions and put all of it into context. So I think tennis has been very bad lately at nurturing the kind of media ecosystem you see in the NBA or WNBA. Netflix was their huge hope, and it bombed, which nobody anticipated. You need communication, but you also need the stories being told from outside, or all you get is an unrelatable, clean-cut product. I mean, The Last Dance? No player was gonna make it happen on themselves.
The sport also needs to sit down some of these players and their teams and explain them they need to give better access. I had an easier time getting the Big 4 or Maria Sharapova than some of the more recent players: it makes no sense. There's no original stories getting out now because the doors are closed. Also, they need to rethink their schedule. And most of all, they need to stand for something. Like, please, give us a spine. Take some risks. The Vanilla Era is gonna be their doom. Less talks from millionaires players about how much more money they need, and more awareness about today's world: that'd be great too. Tennis isn't golf, sometimes they forget lol. But yeah long debate and right now no clear solutions, just the feeling tennis is wasting its legacy by being unable somehow to promote itself.
Great article and you nailed it on access, Carole. I don't even watch golf but love the Full Swing series and found it much better than Break Point. Watching the 3rd season recently, I realized it's largely because the filming crew was given amazing access to all the sport's top players, their caddies, and their families. The same holds true for Drive to Survive where all the stars, managers and owners in F1 give good access. I think another factor is the complicated/very global schedule of the WTA/ATP. The film crew for Break Point didn't have the resources to follow around a ton of players at every tourney, looking for interesting storylines (like they can on the PGA which is largely in the US) so they picked a handful of players to follow at the beginning of the tennis season and missed the best stories.
Thank you! Exactly, you're right on what hurts... Tennis players and access are always an issue, but I really thought they'd make an effort for Netflix. Another issue seems to have been that Netflix didn't come with a budget for the biggest names, and that the people in charge of that production weren't really understanding the world they're getting into. Maybe that's a reason why the storylines were really bad... Such a missed opportunity. The Sigh. You broke my heart by letting me know that the golf one was good lol.
You aced it Carole! ;) Tennis—that is the structure, not the players—is in such a bad place. I think it goes beyond just its inability to promote itself. The first step needs to be combining the ATP & WTA into one tour, then restructure the schedule so it’s better for players’ performance and more understandable for fans to follow, thus making it even better for promoting. I know that sounds like a lot, but it needs to happen for all the reasons you lay out in your story.
Thanks a lot, Janelle! I tried my best ;) Restructuring the schedule should be the first task, absolutely, and especially since they have these 2-week M1000 now. Merging the ATP and WTA is tricky because of the culture that could be playing against the WTA...
But someone should take one for the team and do the right thing. We all know combined events are tennis most popular products. Yet tennis is allergic to change unless it's a life or death situation... And denial is strong. Which is overall very sad because the sport could and should be so strong, especially after the last two decades. The Sigh.
This is good, as someone who casually follows tennis I can see this from the outside looking in. Originally I’m a documentary filmmaker who specializes in sports documentaries specifically. I think you make a good point comparing the likes of the WNBA and tennis. Like everything you have to evolve with the times, with the growth of social media you see many athletes taking the storytelling in their own hands, whether that’s through vlogs, documentaries, bts content, etc. when you look at a sport like golf I think they’ve done a good job of embracing content creators and allowing them to have a role in various events and storytelling aspects, I definitely think that’s something tennis can do. Also, players like Naomi Osaka having her own production company (Hana Kuma) is also doing features and sit down interviews with athletes that could possibly help. What are your thoughts on possible solutions? Also, do you think access to the sport (number of tournaments and how people can view them) plays a part in it?
Oh I love sports documentaries... I think it is great to have players take their personal branding into their own hands in a quality way and expand like Naomi in a kind of media company. But I don't think athletes are necessary the best ones to promote themselves because 1) storytelling is a job 2) you need to also highlight the "flaws" and ask the tough questions and put all of it into context. So I think tennis has been very bad lately at nurturing the kind of media ecosystem you see in the NBA or WNBA. Netflix was their huge hope, and it bombed, which nobody anticipated. You need communication, but you also need the stories being told from outside, or all you get is an unrelatable, clean-cut product. I mean, The Last Dance? No player was gonna make it happen on themselves.
The sport also needs to sit down some of these players and their teams and explain them they need to give better access. I had an easier time getting the Big 4 or Maria Sharapova than some of the more recent players: it makes no sense. There's no original stories getting out now because the doors are closed. Also, they need to rethink their schedule. And most of all, they need to stand for something. Like, please, give us a spine. Take some risks. The Vanilla Era is gonna be their doom. Less talks from millionaires players about how much more money they need, and more awareness about today's world: that'd be great too. Tennis isn't golf, sometimes they forget lol. But yeah long debate and right now no clear solutions, just the feeling tennis is wasting its legacy by being unable somehow to promote itself.
Great article and you nailed it on access, Carole. I don't even watch golf but love the Full Swing series and found it much better than Break Point. Watching the 3rd season recently, I realized it's largely because the filming crew was given amazing access to all the sport's top players, their caddies, and their families. The same holds true for Drive to Survive where all the stars, managers and owners in F1 give good access. I think another factor is the complicated/very global schedule of the WTA/ATP. The film crew for Break Point didn't have the resources to follow around a ton of players at every tourney, looking for interesting storylines (like they can on the PGA which is largely in the US) so they picked a handful of players to follow at the beginning of the tennis season and missed the best stories.
Thank you! Exactly, you're right on what hurts... Tennis players and access are always an issue, but I really thought they'd make an effort for Netflix. Another issue seems to have been that Netflix didn't come with a budget for the biggest names, and that the people in charge of that production weren't really understanding the world they're getting into. Maybe that's a reason why the storylines were really bad... Such a missed opportunity. The Sigh. You broke my heart by letting me know that the golf one was good lol.
You aced it Carole! ;) Tennis—that is the structure, not the players—is in such a bad place. I think it goes beyond just its inability to promote itself. The first step needs to be combining the ATP & WTA into one tour, then restructure the schedule so it’s better for players’ performance and more understandable for fans to follow, thus making it even better for promoting. I know that sounds like a lot, but it needs to happen for all the reasons you lay out in your story.
Thanks a lot, Janelle! I tried my best ;) Restructuring the schedule should be the first task, absolutely, and especially since they have these 2-week M1000 now. Merging the ATP and WTA is tricky because of the culture that could be playing against the WTA...
But someone should take one for the team and do the right thing. We all know combined events are tennis most popular products. Yet tennis is allergic to change unless it's a life or death situation... And denial is strong. Which is overall very sad because the sport could and should be so strong, especially after the last two decades. The Sigh.