IMG x RedBird Summit Serves Bold Vision for the Future of Tennis

The leafy grounds of Soho Farmhouse in the English countryside may seem an unlikely place for a revolution in tennis, but that’s exactly where industry leaders gathered this week at the IMG x RedBird Summit.

The panel titled Game, Set, Match: Redefining the Future of Tennis brought together heavy hitters from across the sport and beyond: ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi, WTA Ventures CEO Marina Storti, Lew Sherr of the New York Mets and formerly the USTA, and SURJ Sports Investments CEO Danny Townsend. Moderated by The Telegraph’s Chris Williams, the conversation painted a vivid picture of both the challenges and the opportunities facing tennis as it tries to position itself for the next era.

“The frustration we have on our side is, obviously, if you're not capable of centralizing rights, data, you're never going to be in charge of designing the future of the product,” Gaudenzi said. “You never will own the fan experience. So ultimately, there's been a lot of internal discussion in tennis within the last probably 50 to 100 years. But, you know, that's where we are today. I think there is a good faith, everybody trying on their part. [...] Inevitably, it's going to happen. It will have to happen or the free market will take care of it.”

Storti stressed that the timing for meaningful talks is right, thanks to the strength of the women’s game. “I think the reason that the discussion can happen now is because the WTA is coming to the table from a position of strength because of the work that the WTA has done as an independent organization over the last 50 years, building this sport, not as an appendage to the men's sport, but as an organization entirely focused on creating opportunities for women's players,” she said. “And building the sport to be what it is today, which is the leader in gender equity, the most successful women's sport on the planet with the largest footprint and now the fastest-growing property in social media.”

For Sherr, the conversation is about cutting through clutter and creating a cleaner product for fans. “Unequivocally, I think the sport will benefit from anything that reduces the fragmentation that exists in the game and anything that ultimately gets to a better presentation of the product,” he said. “There's a lot of focus right now, and the conversation is really about scale and leverage and consolidation. But ultimately what needs to come out of that is a better improvement of the product, because as a fan, that scale and leverage doesn't do anything for me as a viewer.”

Still, he admitted the process is painfully slow. “Why is it taking so long? I think in most things, everyone is well-intentioned, but we have different institutions and different stakeholders that are representatives — it’s a bit like government,” Sherr said. “And so in tennis, you still have many, many stakeholders that are very focused on the present day and their situation. Whether it be as a tournament owner, as an athlete with a short career, whatever the case may be, and Andrea, Marina, others are trying to take a much longer-term view on the overall health and elevation of the sport. But we're in distinct governance models that make that incredibly difficult.”

Source: IMG

Gaudenzi echoed that view but zeroed in on the importance of governance. “I think we [the ATP, WTA, Grand Slams] actually agree more than we disagree on the principles and the philosophy, and where tennis should be, on the opportunity as well ahead of us,” he said. “Where I felt we somehow disagree is the chicken and the egg dilemma, where you start, right and everybody — Slams were leaning toward products, I was leaning towards governance because without a governance, how you make decisions around the product, right?”

From the investor perspective, Townsend admitted patience is required. “When you get into different rooms, whether in Grand Slam or the ATP or WTA, they all know what the consumer wants and what's right for the sport. It's how you get there is the hard bit,” he said. “And I think that as an investor, we're patient in that we're prepared to wait for the best opportunities. I'd say the easiest deals are easy for the reason, they’re usually probably shit deals. Whereas the deals that take the longest are the best ones, because you are trying to transform sport to drive enterprise value growth.”

The discussion also highlighted how vital younger fans are to the sport’s future. Storti pointed to data showing how women’s sports followers want deeper connections. “We know that younger fans don't want to just sit down and watch a sport. They want to connect with the athletes in a more personal way. They want to get to know them,” she said. “An interesting stat about women's sports fans in particular is that 72% of them want to know about the athlete outside of their sport, whereas that’s only 45% if you’re a fan of men’s sport.”

Gaudenzi, meanwhile, reflected on the constant tension between players and tournaments. “Players have 50% of the governance of the tour, they have four board seats, and there is this constant, somehow negotiation and debate,” he said. “While if you compare it to the model of the US sports, you have this collective bargaining agreement agreed by the union that is a massive fight every 10 years around. You probably end up in the hospital for six months after that. But then you move on and you run the business for nine years. In our world, that constant tension is not healthy.”

The optimism, however, was evident. “I feel confident in the future of tennis, certainly women’s tennis, regardless of the outcome,” Storti said. “But I think, you know, it's great to see there is progress, there is goal alignment. And ultimately, we're trying to do the same thing you know, to be united.”

Sherr added that tennis still doesn’t get enough credit in the broader conversation around women’s sports. “On the women's side, as much as you'll hear a conversation today and everywhere else about the amazing growth in women's sports, I don't know why this is the case, but tennis gets forgotten in that conversation,” he said. “Tennis is the most successful women's sport on the planet, bar none, and for 50 years, has equal prize money and things along those lines.”

Townsend closed with his perspective as an investor who’s still bullish. “We already had, and we continue to back sports that we believe in, and tennis is one of those for good reason,” he said. “We look at sports that have rich histories, that have, you know, massive participation-based economies in the world, like tennis ticks all those boxes. Is it a little bit dysfunctional? Yes. Is every sport dysfunctional in most parts? Yes. So, you know, we certainly believe that the people around the table to Andrea’s point are the right people around the table, they have all the best intentions of change. They will be forced to change, because the free market will make sure that happens.”

The message out of the IMG x RedBird Summit was clear: tennis has all the ingredients to thrive, but only if it can pull together. Fans are ready, athletes are ready, and stakeholders are finally coming around, albeit slowly, and starting to realize the game has to change.

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Source: IMG