Tennis marketing body to address threat of boycott

by Mark Kleinman, Marketing 10-Jul-03

A potential boycott of next year's Wimbledon tennis tournament by leading male players is to be addressed by a marketing group set up to revolutionise the sport's commercial image.

The Grand Slam Committee (GSC), responsible for Wimbledon and the French Open, US Open and Australian Open tournaments, said this week it would join a committee that will discuss marketing issues such as how how to attract sponsors. The working group is likely to enlist agency support to create a unified global image for the sport.

The GSC has been resisting calls from the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) to divert more cash to players' prize funds.

This has led some top players to consider setting up events that rival the existing Grand Slam tournaments.

The new group, which will meet in the run up to September's US open, will include representatives from the International Tennis Federation, Women's Tennis Association Tour, the ATP and GSC.

The GSC said the publicity surrounding the threatened breakaway "has caused damage to the image of the sport and its players".

Key tennis sponsors, such as IBM, Adidas and Mercedes-Benz, are said to have expressed disquiet.