I've spent a lot of time this last week-plus listening to AO radio. "AO" as in Australian Open. Indeed, all of the majors seem to have their own radio outfit, which goes dark for the 50 weeks of the year that that major is not happening.
I am listening to AO radio via SiriusXM. SiriusXM has dedicated, 24/7 channels dedicated to the NFL, NHL, MLB, combat sports, NBA, golf, college sports, and soccer. But not tennis.
Why not? Is it viable? I'd like to think so. There sure is a hell of a lot of tennis podcasts, anyway. On the other hand, as a youngster in the '80s, tennis was on regular TV and basic cable a ton more than it is now, and I'm assuming that is for a reason (low ratings/not enough money to be made).
On the third hand, there sure seems to be plenty of money for tennis tournaments. The Australian Open has a prize pool of over $6 million. But that's not all. There are three ATP Challenger tournaments going on right now, with a total prize pool of $300K, 9 ITF men's tournaments with a prize pool of $195K, and 9 ITF women's tournaments with a prize pool totaling $380K (women's tournaments at the ITF level are more lucrative than men's because there's essentially no "challenger" level on the women's side).
That's still not all! There's also something called the UTR pro tennis circuit, for both men and women, who hold tournaments with prize pools of $25K. It is intended for players ranked between 200-2000 in the world. The matches are broadcast on Amazon Prime, and there's two such tournaments going on right now.
All told, this week we have 24 tennis tournaments going on and all of them have a prize pool of at least $25,000. You tellin' me that, with all that money and infrastructure for tennis tournaments, dedicated tennis radio can't be profitable?
Part of the reason, perhaps, for the dearth of tennis radio is the difficulty of doing detailed play-by-play for your ears. Rallies sound like this:
"[Carlos] Alcaraz serves to the body of [Novak] Djokovic. Djokovic returns to the ad court. Alcaraz hits it back to Djokovic's forehand, then back to Alcaraz's backhand. Djokovic lobs to the deuce court, and Alcaraz hits it back, but it's long!"
Maybe this seems okay in writing, but in order to keep up, the announcers have to say all of this very, very fast; imagine the cadence of a guy calling a horse race, or an auction. And I just described a six-shot rally. Imagine doing a 25-shot rally (or if you are calling a Caroline Wozniacki match, a 75-shot rally).
Indeed, the commentators discuss the difficulty of calling the action. One mentioned how she was covering the Olympics and tasked with doing radio for the table tennis tournament. That was "impossible," she said. I bet!
But then, I think doing shot-by-shot commentary this way is approaching it all wrong. Not only is it hard for the announcers, but you can't really follow it that well; it's happening too fast to take it all in. What if it was like this instead?
"Alcaraz serves to the body of Djokovic. Djokovic returns. The rally commences. No one heading to the net or really challenging their opponent just yet ... and Alcaraz hits a ball long. 0-15, Djokovic.
That'd work, right?
Maybe I should be the change I want to see, and start up a 24-hour internet radio station devoted to tennis. However, I don't have the money nor the business expertise. So I need all of my readers (estimated number of readers: $80 billion) to just send me a dollar or two and I will get this off the ground. Hold me to it, readers!
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