THE NYT AND THE USTA, LET ME TELL YOU WHAT YOU CAN’T SEE. By Javier Palenque

By now many of you may have read the news that the NYT is closing its sports desk, they sent a memo that said the following: “We plan to focus even more directly on distinctive, high-impact news and enterprise journalism about how sports intersect with money, power, culture, politics, and society at large,” they said in the memo. “At the same time, we will scale back the newsroom's coverage of games, players, teams, and leagues.” This is of course very significant for tennis, the USTA, and the only product the USTA has, which is the aging US Open.

Since many years ago, the Ol’ boys decided to only focus on the show and Wall Street alone, now they are in a conundrum as the marketplace is telling the board that the demographics and psychographics shifts are such that unless you change you will be left with only memories. This concept is very hard for them to understand and they wrongly believe in what they do. Remember that the tennis audience is old, to help you understand that a newspaper, like the NYT, is like coffee. A young person will drink many other options including some form of coffee, but not your dad’s coffee (the kind the Ol' boys drink). This is easy to comprehend, I hope. ( in case it's not clear, the Ol’ boys don’t know what a Frappuccino is, now you get it?)

Remember that I have been trying to speak to the board for six years now, by now, had they the smarts to listen to wisdom, we would be in year six of innovations, and the entire country would know where tennis fits in the American Culture. Sadly, for the sport, the board decided to never listen to enlightenment and repeat what they always have done and of course failed to see the marketplace change and wonder what is happening, foolish right?

I will simply mention three points of what the closing of the sports section of the NYT means for tennis, Wall Street, and the US Open overall.

1. NYT circulation is roughly 9 million subscribers, of which 8.3 million are digital and 700K print. FYI I am a digital subscriber and a Sunday paper subscriber. The first problem the USTA has is that its core audience (old people) is a paper subscriber and is less than 10% of the total circulation. The new sports venue will be under The Athletic an online publication with only 2M subscribers, and for sure most of them are not of the same age as the US Open fan base. In essence, the sports reporting will now be a few days in September and that is about it and reaching fewer and fewer people. Do you see the problem of aging the sport? no print? get it? To further make my point, right now Wimbledon is taking place, did not see it in the news and I no longer subscribe to the local paper, so the event is out of my mind. This is very dangerous for the sport.
2. Since most of the fans and box seats are for companies with ties to Wall Street, the closing of the NYT of course means that fewer people will be connected and Wall Street is a customer of the US Open, but not a customer of the sport. So the $28M budget of the US Open will need to be increased and if you compare that to the marketing budget for the sport ($0.00) you will realize just how mistaken the board is. If it is still not clear to the Chairman of the Board of the USTA, let me use simple elementary school English to make my point; the market is leaving your hands like sand on the beach? Do you understand? Your overly priced box seats will soon drop in value due to the aging of the fans, and the lack of reach, and the value will drop for your sponsors who will be no longer as interested as before the NYT closed its sports desk, and you will be left with a product that is as appealing as grandmas’ closet and in desperate need of getting rid of the 'Old smell".
3. As you can see, now reading about tennis, or getting a good insight into tennis will become a mission?(hard to find, remember tennis magazine closed, there is nothing in print worth reading in sports, so?it is a major problem for the USTA, as is finding where to watch tennis.) The issue for the dumb board is being late to adapt and change at the speed of the?changes happening in society. ?The closing of the NYT sports desk will mean fewer subscribers and less interest overall over time. Tennis will no longer be top of mind anymore for the Wall Street Set and the USTA board will still mistakenly think that having 50K people a day for 14 days in a city of 8M is a lot. Well, 50K out of 8M is only 0.3% of the population, and if you consider that 65% of those are from either out of state or out of the country for the event, the real number is 0.1%. If math is not your thing take a penny and divide it by 10 and take one of the ten pieces that is the appeal for New Yorkers. Wake up board, tennis needs customers, and the show is a sure way not to attract them. So why do you have a $28M budget for that, or a $620M debt, or a yearly $88M payroll and bloated salaries for incapable people? what does the sport get out of that massive amount of waste? Nothing and that is what you all fail to grasp!

Now also remember that they sold the Cincinnati Open to cover the $180M in losses they had for not getting pandemic insurance and the entire Midwest will lose its Master 1000. This will also mean less interest in the sport in an area that is most needed. Why is it so obvious to me that the USTA works against tennis and not for it, their decisions are simply stupid.

As you can see and validate, here are two events (NYT closing its sports desk, and the USTA selling the Cincinnati Open) that are pulling in the opposite direction of the focus of the board and the show. Remember if these people lose money with money, imagine what they will do with even no money. They are the opposite of smart.

The closing of the NYT sports section is another sign that the USTA board will ignore yet once again. The selling of the Cincinnati Open was only to cover their bad judgment and not to protect the sport. It was to protect their mediocrity and stupidity. Those poor decisions will have a cost to be paid by someone. The ones who pay are the kids, the parents, the coaches, the clubs, the tennis entrepreneurs, and the cities. The board is simply irresponsible to the sport.

Would it not be nice to have intelligent, driven, charismatic, and purpose-driven leadership at the USTA? Instead, we are stuck with visionless Ol’ boys who do absolutely nothing to adapt to the changes that are coming and still control the game with bad decisions when the world around them is changing. This is called aging the sport.

Let me make it even easier for the board to comprehend these 3rd-grade-level words. When in NYC do you use Uber, a service car, or a cab? I use Uber all the time, the USTA and the mentality of the board are stuck in those big yellow, chunky checkers cabs that cost a fortune and are on their way to a museum. Now you understand the problem of these people besides lack of intelligence? There is only one solution for us, it is growing the game! something none of you know how to do, which is why I invite you all to leave, the sooner the better.

I am happy to accept all your resignations immediately, please remember to return all the directors fees you received over time. I already asked the soon-to-be ex-CFO to tally how much you took from the sport, I want it back, and I will put them in a free program for kids in Miami. That is caring for the game, not what you all do.

I say NO to ineptitude and YES to growing the game.

I can be reached at [email protected]

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?