Upcoming ATP changes...and how to get more tennis fans

Now that the US Open is over, it is time to catch up on some other things that are going on in the tennis world. This will be the first in a series of posts about the proposed changes to the ATP tour. Here's the background:

The ATP, the governing body of the men's tour, announced on Sunday it is to increase prize money, establish a multi-million dollar marketing fund and change the format of regular tour events to benefit player health and increase television exposure.

Events will be allowed to introduce a round-robin format, as used in the Masters Cup, while most of the tournaments that have had best-of-five-set finals will change to best-of-three.

Tournaments will change from a Monday start to a Sunday opening, featuring singles and doubles matches, pro-ams and charity events. These will be phased in next year, with eight-day events mandatory by 2009.

"I have said it at our meetings with Etienne, I think this is a great idea," world number two and French Open champion Rafael Nadal said, referring to ATP president Etienne De Villiers.

"Finally we really move forward and we do something really good for our sport. This will be good for our tournaments, for us the players and especially for fans and television since they will be able to have and see their favourite players more than once, for sure." Reuters

The prize money will be an across-the-board increase by 10%. I can see the benefits of getting rid of 5 sets, adding some marketing money to publicize tennis more, and changing start dates - but I'm on the fence about this round-robin play. I dislike the season-ending events because of this format - I think it adds more confusion than anything else.

Additionally, I hope that a round-robin format is not being used to solely get more fans. It is driving me absolutely crazy that the various tennis organizations believe things like on-court coaching, electronic line calling, and player challenges are all going to bring in more new fans. My opinion is that it just gets the fans who are already watching to talk a bit more - if they want more tennis fans, I think the way to go about it is the following:

The Mandatory List
1. Get more kids playing tennis. All of my friends who played tennis as a kid and who don't play or watch now are easy targets. They generally know how the game works, they know the skill involved and it isn't a huge leap to pull them back in to watching events.
2. Get more events on the internet in on-demand format. The Tennis Channel, while a great idea in itself, is complete crap if you don't get it. I'm amazed that it still isn't in my cable channel line-up, and that I'll be missing the French Open because of it. I got into tennis by catching an event on a non-cable channel. Within a few hours, I was hooked. If that event had been on the Tennis Channel, I wouldn't be writing about tennis today --- so you can blame network tv. :) While not everyone has the internet, or the bandwidth to support on demand videos, I still think it is the obvious way to go. I paid for a Wimbledon video account, and I loved it. I'd pay for more.
3. Market the players as people. No, I am not asking for tabloid photos of everything the players do, but what do they do in their off time? Why do they seem like they have no personality (unless they have big sponsors who know how to market them)? It bothers me that most of these players are younger than I am, but they come off as a bunch of 40-year-old fuddy-duddies. (apologies for picking on 40-year-olds, and for using the phrase 'fuddy-duddy').

The Wish List
1. Lower ticket prices to tournaments, and make more seats available. Most of us don't live near where a tournament goes on, so if you add up airfare and hotel to get to an event, I don't want to find out that the only seats available are the crappy ones. Set aside some good seats for the common folk!
2. More opportunities to get involved. Volunteering at an event is sweet! I had a great time when I did it, so I think this should be publicized more. Get rid of requirements like "you must volunteer for 40 hours". Also, do more contests or auctions like the US Open's "be a photographer for a day" or "be a reporter for a day". "Write about your experience at our tournament and we'll publish it on our site". "Be the coin toss person". "Learn how the chair umpire equipment works". "Sit in with the ESPN commentators".

There is so much to do!