Poor USTA Board and executives are now blindsided by the realities of their negligence. They never focused on growing the game for decades and yes they only cared about the Wall Street show for bankers (US Open) and failed to remember the very things I was trying to bring to their attention (participation), and they all refused to listen, all Chairmen, all CEO’s and all boards for the past six years have chosen not to be warned of the inevitable, the destruction of the sport by their lack of foresight and intelligence. How difficult is it to realize that participation over time means audiences, apparently an extremely complicated concept for the $70M per year payroll of the very capable USTA team?
Read my article from yesterday on the $5B deal for WWE and Netflix. Here are some of the facts about the USTA's yearly bad decisions and the proven incompetence of its leadership.
- Netflix went from 24M subscribers in 2013 to 250M in 2023, a 10X growth.
- ESPN went from 100M subscribers in 2013 to 75M in 2023, a 25% decline. Please know that ESPN is forced on you by some cable operators, so now with the decline of subscribers and the cable-cutting trend of the country, the USTA will no longer get the benefit of freeloading from ESPN subscribers as they will not migrate to ESPN+ and most of them are not interested in tennis but yes in sports. So, this revenue is no longer coming to tennis, which means the board has failed to listen to wisdom and they refuse accountability, and who pays for their incompetence?
- Then the foolish idea of borrowing $800M+ for an event that is priced out of 99.95% of Americans and whose TV contract is up in the year 2026. This is why they needed to sell the Cincinnati Open to have enough cash in reserves, once again not caring about the sport but their welfare.
- Remember the USTA barely makes any money with $550M in revenue, as it is so poorly run that most of the money is wasted on payroll and professional fees, player development, sections, trips, absurd salaries for incapable people, paying people for twelve months of work when there are barely three months of work only for the US Open, ( none of the food vendors do that, why does the USTA allow that), etc.
- Rather than reduce payroll and fund growing the game, the USTA is doing the opposite increasing it with non-tennis people and a massive DEI department for every position but leadership and the board. They fail to realize they need competence, not skin color slots to fill.
- The worst of all the CEO ideas is charging more for box seats, read the link. By doing so excluding more people.
- Another terrible idea from the board is targeting the US Open to corporations, not individuals, this is a monumental mistake for the sport, as the fans that go to the US Open are close to retirement age and that means once they leave the new generations have no association with tennis. Remember most pro events are the charity of multimillionaires, not the market forces at work. (DC Open, Charlotte, Indian Wells, Cincinnati Open).
- The CEO needs to be reminded that tennis is an individual sport, so targeting it to corporations is foolish if not outright stupid. Individuals, support teams, or individuals, i.e. The Patriots, "the rock", or the Lakers. however, JP Morgan does not support individuals or a team. Yet the CEO thinks it's a smart strategy, I want to review his contract the incentives are wrong, I am sure his talents can be used elsewhere.
- Please do not overlook how they defend sexual harassment claims against it.
- The nail on the coffin though, is the poor leadership from the board and CEO, they have no vision, no compass, and what is worse no humility to accept how mistaken they are and allow dissent.
- It is abundantly clear that a new executive team is in order as well as a new board, but of course, none of those people will do anything for the sport and continue with the benefits of the welfare system they created for themselves. I hope sponsors realize that they are on the wrong ship. In case they have not figured this out, I had the art department make a graph so it’s clear where the future is for all involved in the sport, pay attention to the generational component.
So, while the USTA executive team is proud to price honey deuces at $22.00 for people who pay with expense accounts and think it is great (this means they do not pay for them), I think the exact opposite, $22.00 is absurd and if our attendees base are corporate expense account holders, that means the game has no backbone and that means no future. Silly me for thinking I could change the incompetence of the USTA by asking to meet and explain what they do not see and change direction for the benefit of all.
Tennis is heading for a crash and the board and CEO, are happy watching foreigners play for free while the sport is dying in front of their eyes. BASTA!
?I can be reached at [email protected]
PS. Who reading this thinks that as a sponsor you cannot wait to renew a long-term contract with the USTA?, or as a tennis lover, do you think the board and CEO should be there another few years? or how about spending thousands of dollars in your kid's training, or spending your young adult life in the sport if you are a coach? If you are still not convinced, answer this question, why do people cut cable services? then ask yourself the follow-up question, why does the USTA make prices so out of reach for people? the answer to both is clear.
