Barry Hearn and 'player power'

[mickthemuppet]

On 12/9/2018 at 12:35 PM, Humphrey Appleby said:

I'm familiar with the Mark McCormack and IMG's background, but I think it's arguable that he got his start in sports promotion because he was actually one of the (golf) players at that point.

Mainstream tennis professionalised quite late, and prior to that professional tennis was a marginalised sideshow with inconsistent promotion and unstable finances. The first attempts at running a proper tour were actually put together by former players, before the ATP and WTA were founded to give all professional players eventual full control of the sport.

Tennis is a very good example of a sport almost entirely run by the players, and golf substantially so. Of course, golf was one of the first professional sports and there is a long history of the players organising the tournaments they played in.

So I think the point is that a sport run by the competitors and a successful sport are not mutually exclusive things. 

With a few exceptions though, IMG specialise in low budget sport as cheap fodder to fill off-peak television schedules around the world. When they tried to get into mainstream sports it didn't seem to go so well for them.

By contrast, Barry Hearn has found a couple of niches that do well for him, and largely stuck to them. 

Where do you get your information from . Professional tennis has never been run by the players so why print such rubbish

[Humphrey Appleby]

2 hours ago, mickthemuppet said:

Where do you get your information from . Professional tennis has never been run by the players so why print such rubbish

So what’s the ATP and WTA then? 

Individual tournaments might be run by clubs and promoters, but I was talking about the running of the professional circuits.

More muppetry from Mick.

Edited December 17, 2018 by Humphrey Appleby