Draper gives Boggo some backing? + Other Media Snippets (not all boggo!)

Count Zero · Tennis legend

Draper gives Boggo some backing? + Other Media Snippets (not all boggo!)

Salmon · Tennis legend

RE: Draper gives Boggo some backing?

The Hoose · Satellite level

Greenleaf wrote:

They even call him "Boggo" at conferences. Is there any other tennis player for whom this applies? Barring standard nicknames like "Andy" for Andrew Murray, "Tommy" for Thomas Haas etc., obviously.

Not sure it's encouraging seeing Draper take lessons from the Steve McClaren school of management.

Probably why he didn't mention Alex Ward. Still trying to work out what his nickname should be.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

dont really want to start multiple threads but he is another media snipit i found from the times:

The development budget has been increased from £1 million to £4 million, which is excellent news until you hear that the tournament department has been told to trim £2 million from its allowance to help to pay the bills for the foreign coaches. It is a bit like robbing Peter to pay Paul.

would seem to confrim our suspicions that the cancelation/downgrading of events has nothing, in fact, to do with not giving our players an easy ride and that was a smoke screen for cost cutting. nice way to blame the players for it.

Salmon · Tennis legend

RE: Draper gives Boggo some backing? + Other Media Snippets (not all boggo!)

The Hoose · Satellite level

Not sure the bit about robbing Peter to pay Paul is fair. This is what budgeting is all about: allocating resources to where they can make the most impact. The LTA have made a call that it's better to invest in coaching and grass roots than to give an easy ride to the current bunch of mid-ranked Futures players, most of whom have no hope at all of making the top 100. From their perspective, one future player in the top 100 is worth a lot more (in terms of generating revenue, attracting public interest, achieving what is perceived to be success and encouraging future players) than twenty current players who can get their ranking up by 100 places as a result of customised tournaments, and they're trying to allocate their budget with this in mind. This is why they'll probably disproportionately invest in Eaton over the next couple of months, as he's shown that there's just a chance he could be a top 100 player.

-- Edited by The Hoose at 10:17, 2008-06-26

Salmon · Tennis legend

But the thing is, they waste a lot of money on sending players to pointless tournaments like many of the Junior Slams this year. I'm sure that everyone - the LTA and the players who went to the Slams would gain more if there were Futures in GBR in those weeks.

Anyone good with flight costs? Tell me how much they've wasted behind Cox and Evans and wasted their time at the same time. This year they've been to Australia, Luxembourg, Turkey, Portugal, Italy and France for meaningless tournaments. Just imagine how many Futures you could fund with that!

Count Zero · Tennis legend

i hope they dont diothc the 2 indoor ones from late in the year, my my own reaosn cause boggo normally picks up good points across hose 2.

i think they have helped make this problem tho. they never seemed to give any real support to the challenger level events in a way that would attract public interest in them and the possibly sponsorship so the burden of running them isnt fully on their shoulders.
they need to push to get much more media coverage of tennis at the lower level's of the game. maybe if they set up live streams etc i am sure the bbc could be persuaded to at least run a link artcile to site, event if theydont host the stream directly etc. if you could get that then maybe you might find a national sponser who would take on all the challengers rather than a local firm etc

i can not belive the cost of seeting up something like that would be huge, not given the ammount of sums of money we are talking about. Live stream, maybe radio commenary and live scores, even if it just centre ct. Cant be that hard, but with some decent promotion may help get people inetrested in the sport, as a professional one rather than recreational one, accross the year.

ok look at chris eaton - media on him everywhere, next event is likley to be a GB future. will they make a special effort to get the results out early etc as people will want to know what he gets up too. maybe, but they probably wont for the future after that etc as soon as the nertets starts tro wane.,

Salmon · Tennis legend

But the real grievance is something else. They've hidden the true reasons and said that this is to help the players, when it clearly is because they're running out of money with the amount they are wasting on the likes of Gilbert.

Salmon · Tennis legend

They are ditching the first indoor one (that was played in Nottingham last year, I think). But the second one is being kept and it'll be played at Les Ormes in Jersey.

I like the fact that it'll be in Jersey. Qualies draw should be weaker and that'll help our players.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

@ Hoose

is it really customised tournaments? they have generally been the correct surface at the correct time of the year with the expection of the mid april indoors one.
other countires seem to find top players and host quite a number of events. how many does germany have for isntance?
i sill canot fathom how the lose money over the wimbldeon month? i cant say about notts, but queens and wimby are always packed.

also it doesnt actually say what the tournament budget is, just that its being trimmed

Count Zero · Tennis legend

ok thanks Arka, well at least 1 remains. i wonder when the full end of year calendar will come out.
its shame that there are only 3 challenger events now, and surbs is a toughie, so we lost 4!

btw i met another indian player yestderay, forgot to get his name, but he was older, (maybe mid twenties) and used to play at futures level!

he served around 128!! lucky he barely got any in as he was quite rusty cause they would have hurt me. i couldnt get his 2nd serve back any way.
the big thing i noticed was that he could always read where i was going to put the shot and had it covered (this was in doubles)

Count Zero · Tennis legend

bit more on boggo, from bbc wimby thread

here's Paul Annacone on the much-maligned Alex Bogdanovic. "Alex has struggled in the last year or so and dropped down the rankings, but he's a little disenchanted personally with the negative stuff after losing the other day. He played a tremedous match against a guy ranked 40th in the world. Simone Bolelli, who he lost to, has now gone on to beat Fernando Gonzalez yesterday. The guy he lost to is a terrific player. Alex played one of the best matches I've seen, but unfortunately it is another loss."

again its nice to see some of the bods in power backing Alex a bit here.

i like paul annacone, i think Alex gets on whith him well too (if was Paul that was with him when he won in valencia, from the QF's at least) , and even after BG leaves he will still be here and surely for world wide top class coaching talent he is all we need (and have to pay for) at the moment

The Hoose · Satellite level

I'm slightly playing devil's advocate here, trying to see the way the LTA is thinking.

It says that the tournament budget is being trimmed by 2 million pounds. That's a lot of cash and shows that hosting tournaments is not cheap.

This 2 million pounds currently achieves:
a) opportunities for up-and-coming Brits with potential to make the top 100
b) opportunities for Brits with no hope of making the top 100/200
c) opportunities for foreign players
d) public interest in the tournaments (to generate current and future revenue and future players)

Now, the LTA doesn't care about b) and c) particularly. and d) isn't achieved very well at small tournaments (I take Count's point that it could be done better but even then the value-for-money is probably awful compared to the impact of Wimbledon and having British players in the top 100). Also, there aren't that many people in category (a) around at the moment, particularly at Challenger level.

Consequently, the 2 million pounds isn't particularly well-targeted at the moment, given the LTA's objectives.

Better to spend that two million in a focused way, on the up-and-coming Brits and the next generation:
- investing in coaches for selected top young players and paying for their travel (yes, expensive, but nothing's cheap and nor is hosting tournaments)
- putting money into the grass roots, whatever that means.

-- Edited by The Hoose at 11:09, 2008-06-26

Count Zero · Tennis legend

yes good points mr advocate.

i was trying to find a way for them to shift the burden so they can have both, public interest will never match that at wimby queens etc, but surely there must be some interest there to take the cost burden.