Chao News client reporter Wu Peng
A city's cultural landmark, it may be a skyscraper, a museum, a grand theater, a sports club, a music festival, a sporting event.
Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester have football giants, Monaco has the Monte Carlo Tennis Masters and F1 Grand Prix, and Shanghai has the Tennis Masters and F1 Grand Prix.
Saudi oil tycoons have been involved in two things lately. First, the ATP and WTA, the governing bodies of men's and women's professional tennis, were merged for $2 billion. The two major institutions stated, considered and considered, studied and studied, and gave a statement in May.
He then made an offer of $1.3 billion to the ATP to hold a Masters before the Australian Open at the beginning of the year, and if it happens, add another Masters in the desert outside Indian Wells in California.
The Saudis are spending a lot of money, and the ATP response is overwhelming: There are several countries in the Middle East that have the same idea, come and bid. There have been several tennis tournaments in the Middle East, with a lot of money but not a high grade, and there is little interest from top stars.
The 2024 Australian Open final was packed;
One
The Saudis, who have been looking for a way out of their money over the years, have come to think of a partnership with their neighbor Qatar, using the sports industry as a shortcut to economic transformation and improving the country's image. They hired Ronaldo and others to play health football with a sky-high annual salary, created the sixth league in the world, and won the 2034 Football World Cup.
Then it is ready to spend $500 billion to build a "honey snow ice city" to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games in the desert under the scorching sun.
A few days ago, they just contracted the right to host the women's tennis year-end finals for three consecutive years, and if there is another Masters-level tennis tournament settled, the world's sports center in the desert of the Arabian Peninsula will have a prototype, at least in terms of hardware.
The reason why Saudis are so persistent about tennis is because professional tennis events have a huge influence, and sports powers and event cities cannot do without a high-end and high-grade tennis event.
The world of professional tennis is dominated by three major organizations: ITF (International Tennis Federation), ATP (Professional Tennis Federation), and WTA (International Women's Tennis Association). The ITF has a long history of being an official and responsible for setting the rules and regulations of tennis tournaments, managing the ranking of professional players, and hosting Olympic tennis tournaments and junior tennis challenges.
The ITF's cornucopia is the men's and women's four Grand Slams (2,000 points) and the men's and women's year-end finals (1,500 points).
Both the ATP and WTA were founded in the United States in the early '70s as the governing bodies for men's and women's professional tennis, with professional tennis tournaments outside of the Grand Slam and year-end finals. The two are independent companies, although men and women are not tired of working together, but many competitions are back to bridges and roads, and it is impossible to talk about equal pay for men and women for equal work. Sava once complained that she won the Beijing China Open with a prize of more than $100,000, and Xiao De won the Shanghai Masters with a prize ten times more than her.
After half a century of operation, the two institutions have developed a comprehensive network of professional tennis tournaments, with the ATP having 9 1000-point Masters, 16 500-point tournaments, and 39 250-point tournaments. The WTA has 10 1,000-point tournaments, 17 500-point tournaments, and 33 250-point tournaments.
Among the existing professional tennis tournaments in China, the Shanghai Masters is the only one in the Asia-Pacific region ATP1000. ATP500 has China Net, ATP250 has Zhuhai, Chengdu station. Women's WTA1000 has China Open, Wuhan Station, WTA500 has Zhengzhou Station, WTA250 has Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Hong Kong, Nanchang, Ningbo and other stations.
WTA250 Ningbo Station
Two
Among the four major gentlemen's sports, tennis is the first highest, and in professional sports, tennis is second only to football, and higher than football, ice hockey, baseball, golf, etc. There is also a saying that, all things considered, tennis is the second most popular sport in the world.
Tennis is the most professional, and professional players are pure loners, playing games and winning prizes is their means of livelihood. During the pandemic, sports competitions were suspended, a large number of low-ranked players went bankrupt, and the ATP and WTA granted them subsistence allowances.
Playing professional tennis is very lucrative. Every year, at least seven or eight of the top ten richest women in women's sports in the world play tennis, and men often rank among the top ten richest women in sports. Li Na is the first Chinese female athlete with an annual income of hundreds of millions of yuan, and it is a high probability that Zheng Qinwen will become a sister of 100 million yuan in the future.
After the 2018 US Open women's singles final, the little girl Stevens was excited when she received the $3.7 million championship prize: "That's a lot of money!"
Running professional tennis tournaments is also very lucrative. In 2018, the U.S. Open generated $350 million in revenue, with tickets and broadcast rights sold $120 million each, $65 million from sponsors, and $30 million in policy grants. This year's U.S. Open revenue should be $400 million.
The total prize money of the four Grand Slam tournaments is more than $44 million, and the singles championship is no less than $2 million.
The wealth of professional tennis is determined by the charm of the sport and the audience base.
Tennis was born in France, born in the United Kingdom, flourished in the United States, and became popular all over the world. It was originally used as a pastime for the royal family and the aristocracy, embodying exemplary Victorian morality – high levels of moral integrity, meticulous language and culture, and strict codes of conduct.
From royal games to public leisure to professional competitions, beauty, elegance and fashion are engraved in its DNA, and 150 years later, tennis etiquette and culture are as thrilling as ever, and the elegance of players and spectators is not diminished.
Wimbledon's rules of etiquette are almost rigid, requiring players to wear white at the top and bottom, and the only change in the last 100 years is that female athletes can wear dark underwear. Wimbledon sponsors are low-key to the dust, and no logo can be displayed on the billboards of the stadium.
2023 Wimbledon Men's Singles Final;
Tennis and professional football, which also originated in England, are two extremes, she belongs to gentlemen and ladies, there is no such thing as beating gongs and drums, waving flags and pulling banners in the stadium, and it is impossible for fans to go shirtless and shout wildly. It is taboo for the audience to make noise and move around when the player serves, and it is also very bad for the cheering group to shout "XXX come on" too often.
The etiquette and elegance of tennis are similar to our gentleness and frugality, and even its origin reminds us of the six arts of ancient literati and doctors. Elegance will not go out of style, and a better life is the common pursuit of human beings.
The tennis world is rich in high-quality idols of both virtue and art, and the Laureus selection of the world sports world has produced many talents in the tennis world.
Three
Tennis can be played from the age of 3 to 103, as long as you are healthy and can still run, you can continue to play. Even Olympic champions in other disciplines may take up a tennis racket after retirement – tennis is the preferred choice.
As a leisure and sport, tennis has natural social and leisure attributes. Inviting someone to eat is not as good as asking someone to sweat, and playing a game of tennis is a high-end game to ask someone to sweat.
There is no physical contact in tennis matches, skills are more important than physical fitness, competition is more than confrontation, amateurs play, whether the ball is out of bounds is broadcast by the opponent, one side plays a good ball, the opponent will be sincerely admired, and the whole court is filled with an optimistic atmosphere.
Other sports, basketball, football, cycling, rowing, even if they are all old, when it comes to health preservation, there are not many people who don't care about winning or losing.
Such embarrassment almost does not occur on the tennis court, there are no fights on the amateur tennis court, there is no match-fixing black whistle on the professional tennis court, and individual players who play badly may drop the racket, but that is angry with themselves.
With the blessing of multiple attributes, tennis stands out among many leisure and competitive sports, and the century-old store shows no signs of entropy increase, and the people are vibrant, and the professional arena is in the ascendant.
According to some statistics, 80% of the viewers of the US Open in 2018 earned an average annual salary of more than $160,000. Globally, it is loved by middle- and high-income groups, Africa is a desert for tennis, and South America produces tennis masters, but it is a desert for high-end tennis events.
The popularity of tennis in a country or region is a barometer of the degree of local economic and social development. Influential tennis tournaments are held in North America, Europe (except Eastern Europe), Australia, East Asia, and the Gulf region.
The Grand Slam Second Brother Australian Open has nearly $90 million in sponsorship annually and covers nearly 30 brands. Chinese companies Hisense, Ctrip, Luzhou Laojiao and Baisuishan have all been frequent visitors to the Australian Open.
Last year, there were 31 brand sponsorships, from watches to liquor, beer, mineral water, and the five levels of total title, diamond, honor, honor and designation were lined up.
Brand sponsorship, broadcast rights sales, and nearly 200,000 viewers in two weeks have made the Shanghai Masters one of Shanghai's cultural landmarks, profitable since 2005. Today, it joins FI and Marathon to form the Shanghai Tang Sports Troika.
Tennis stars are super IPs and box office leaders, and every duel at the peak of top players may be a classic blockbuster.
The elegance and fashion endowment of tennis have created the dual temperament of tennis superstars, sports stars and fashion stars. Federer, Nadal, Serena Williams, and Sava were all leaders in the fashion industry, superstars on the field and supermodels on the runway.
High-profile tennis tournaments are not only sporting events, but also fashion festivals, entertainment parties, and festivals in the city. The fashion popularity and influence of the US Open exceed that of the Oscars, and in addition to politicians, technology elites, business tycoons, and entertainment stars, there are also amiable Ronaldo and polite boxing champion Tyson.
Wimbledon is a grand festival for half of Europe's royal family, half of the entertainment industry, and half of the fashion circle. Celebrities from all walks of life gathered, high-net-worth viewers are flooded, the schedule is long, the competition is exciting, and the sponsors are vertically accurate, and the returns are naturally much better than football and basketball and the like.
The scene of the men's singles final of the 2023 ATP Shanghai Masters;
Four
In the age of social media, young people's interests are shifting, esports is aggressive, FIFA and the International Olympic Committee are making changes to survive, and professional tennis has a unique landscape.
Grand Slam revenues and prize money have been rising, and ATP and WTA1000 tournaments are also odd goods. Ningbo joins the 250 tournament club this year, and next year's WTA Dallas, Doha and Munich stations will be upgraded to the 500 level.
Various countries and cities have done their best to bid for new competitions and upgrade existing competitions, and hosting competitions may be a cash cow.
Started in 1998 as a low-level tournament on the Shanghai Masters, the 2009 ATP1000 Masters was launched after several editions of the Masters Cup (the predecessor of the year-end finals). Now it has the best operation and the best reputation in the 9 Masters.
Professional tennis tournaments are loved by fans, sponsors and broadcasters, and many people are eyeing them, but it is difficult for the three major tennis institutions to expand their production capacity.
Tennis is the second largest sport in the world, and the competition for players is extremely cutthroat. There are less than 8,000 professional tennis players in the world, and less than 3,500 can get prize money every year, and no more than 6% of them break even.
The ecology of the tennis circle is similar to our live streaming, with single-digit super Internet celebrities monopolizing more than eighty percent of the market share, and others get up earlier than chickens, are more tired than cows, and can only drink soup.
The audience is enthusiastic, sponsors and broadcasters are enthusiastic, and for high-end events, there are mainly four majors, 19 1000-level events for men and women, and a small number of 500-level events. Nearly 70 250-level events are double heavens.
Whether a tennis event can be popular or not, in the final analysis, is determined by the coffee position of the participating players. Top players don't run volumes, and they are picky about the selection of events. Ordinary players are running non-stop and can catch up to 30 stations a year. The top 10 players are around 25 games, and Deyo has only played 11 tournaments in 2022 and won 5 titles.
Superstars rarely compete in the 250 level unless they warm up for the subsequent majors and 1000 events. The ongoing ATP 250 Estoril clay tournament in Portugal is the best clay court warm-up before the French Open, attracting many famous players.
250 and more low-level events, give low-ranked and young players a chance to get ahead, they earn some points and hard-earned money by planting a wide range of small income, but for the organizers, there is no big name to patronize, and the pressure to sell tickets, broadcast rights, and sponsorship is huge, which is the time to really test the ability of the city and the event organizers.
Five
The Saudis waved the check, the ATP with a family of 200 million and the WTA with less than 100 million were fake, the average annual profit of the ATP was more than 12 million, and the WTA was between profit and loss, and 2 billion US dollars were smashed, everything was possible.
A Masters seat can cost up to $350 million. The Saudis directly tripled, and things changed. They spend a lot of money in the football market, in addition to Messi and Mbappe, many other big names fell in response, this technique copied and pasted into the tennis world, some people were worried, such as Australia and New Zealand before the start of the Australian Open, which was the best warm-up before the Australian Open, big names came one after another, if Saudi Arabia did such a stop at the beginning of the year, they were likely to be crowded.
The operation mode of the Saudis is a good inspiration for the mainland to build a city of events and a city that leverages the sports industry. Compared with football and basketball, tennis in China is still the sun at eight or nine o'clock. There are 215,000 tennis courts in the United States, and we only have 50,000, and there are more than 50,000 tennis clubs in the United States, and we only have more than 800.
Mass tennis is in full swing, professional tennis is vigorous, there are many masters, there are expectations of consumption upgrading and aesthetic taste, and the future of Chinese tennis will be better.
International tennis tournaments are the best image of the city, and the players are the best image spokespersons. Bidding for majors and 1000 events is difficult, but the 500 and 250 are promising.
Holding tennis tournaments may not be like Zibo Barbecue, Tianshui Malatang and Guizhou Village Super that will go out of the circle overnight and become popular all over the network, but after careful cultivation and skillful operation, small seedlings can also grow into towering trees. The predecessor of the Shanghai Masters was the Heineken Open, which was bought for $1.12 million in 1997.
Low-level tennis matches, taking a small and beautiful path, can also make a big scene, just like a small-scale movie, there is also a chance to explode at the box office and word of mouth. What's more, when it comes to operation, it can also be upgraded. Li Na won the Australian Open and the French Open, and the Wuhan Open was promoted to WTA1000, and Tokyo pulled teeth.
In the 250-level tennis event, the players' coffee positions and game viewing are far greater than those of the Asian Games and the Chinese Super League, and the second-tier cities are more than enough to show their image. Compared to most competitive events, international tennis tournaments are far ahead of the court.
If the marathon events that bloom everywhere are the lower riba people, the tennis events that are much more international and professional are the spring and snow, and the prospects and money are worth looking forward to.
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