Murray's suggestion on Futures Prize Money

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

RE: Murray's suggestion on Futures Prize Money

EddietheEagle · County player

A1 tennis academy wrote:
I got a phone interview from the employment agency last autumn with reference to the CEO vacancy
The interviewer said your business success ticks a box but worried you might upset the status quo - I replied yes probably be quite a few P45s but I would donate my salary to the struggling GB players .
The interviewer said they don't want a maverick that would upset the status quo ! In other words they don't want change so will fail !

A donated box of your sticking plaster and surgical tape would not have gone amiss.

Unless someone decimates the headcount, the LTA is going nowhere. Its present headcount of 324 is reflective of a state of delusion and fantasy as well as resistance to change. It amounts to waste of financial resources on a grand scale, resources that ought properly to be concentrated on player and coach development, not overhead.

paulisi · Tennis legend

I wonder what the split is between admin and coaching staff.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

OPT circuit :

Dont' know much about it but I've just read on the ITF site the interview with Jules Marie about the OPT circuit, seemingly a subset of the futures events that provides extra money (based on points total at end of the year) and superb facilities/accomodation etc.

www.itftennis.com/news/184443.aspx

www.optcircuit.com/en/opt-circuit/overview

I wonder if any of our guys know about it . . .

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

I know it's all in French but here's Laurent Rochette's diatribe against the ITF and the ridiculous prize money still on offer and how more and more youngsters can't make their way.

lagazettedutennis.blogs.lequipe.fr/2014/09/16/un-systeme-extremement-vicieux/

He also makes a couple of interesting points, namely that there is no player representation at their level so no formal 'player pressure' to get things to change.

And also that it is so easy now for a town to put on a 10K futures (precisely because the prize money has not gone up and is worth so much less) that there are far more 10ks and far more easy points which lowers the standard and saturates the lower levels and makes it even harder to come through.

steven · Tennis legend

That's an interesting read, CD - thanks. I've often wondered what players would think if the prize money for each Futures event went up but the number of Futures held went down accordingly and it's interesting that he actually thinks there are too many Futures and argues that point fairly well.

Many of the comments seem as unsympathetic as they would probably be if a similar article appeared on a UK site, rather missing the point that even though it's true that aspiring pros shouldn't expect to make money from tennis automatically, that doesn't mean they shouldn't argue that things could be improved.

paulisi · Tennis legend

The ITF AGM is going on at present in Dubai. I doubt we will see any changes. Main focus is on governance, but there are breakout groups.

The afternoon featured breakout groups discussing topics relating to Davis Cup and Fed Cup by BNP Paribas, Development and ITF Circuits presented by representatives of member nations.
Read more at www.itftennis.com/news/187013.aspx

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

well, at least Wimbledon and the others have agreed to increase their funding of the Grand Slam Development Fund (tennis is developing countries/ developing tennis countries)

www.itftennis.com/news/187083.aspx

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

The low level of Challenger prize money makes tennis exceptionally vulnerable to corruption:

www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/nov/25/organised-crime-tennis-security-expert

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Not a wholly original take on the subject but, to a certain degree, a fair point, as ever . . .

tennisnerds.com/2014/12/13/breaking-down-the-atp-prize-money-increase-it-makes-sense/

EddietheEagle · County player

Comparatively more money for the major ATP events. I think the more relevant issue goes back to the original topic - how player performance is rewarded and tennis careers sustained, across the game's lower reaches; ATP Challengers and ITF futures primarily. Those tiers have stagnated to the point where some now say that doping and match fixing start to become a real risk to the sport's integrity. It seems the ATP has yet to make its decisions regarding development and investment for the Challenger tour. It's going to be interesting to see what they decide to do.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

On ye olde chestnut of prize money:

Sean Thornley @seanthornley31 · Mar 4

"I could get my ranking back to 200-300ATP but what would be the point? Id earn more if I stacked shelves in asda" #sadtruth

Josh · Challenger level

Sean's just quoted part of Josh Goodall's quite long and pretty interesting Facebook posts from a few weeks ago.

Think it should be viewable to everyone whether you have an account or not:

www.facebook.com/joshuajakegoodall/posts/10153174669093824

BeefyDeedz · Pro player

Josh's post is interesting, although I never really related to the guy. What's his beef with Andy Murray and fellow leading tennis players, anyhow?

Spectator · All-time great

This seems to be where the general discussions of prize money are ending up, so: via Courtney Nguyen, a very interesting interview (in translation) with Gilles Simon on expenses, prize money, the ATP council and more: tennistranslations.wordpress.com/2015/04/07/a-pro-tennis-team-costs-a-fortune-gilles-simon-on-money-distribution-in-pro-tennis/.