Life in the lower levels

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Life in the lower levels

emmsie69 · Top national player

Just came on here to post the same article. Shows the discrepancy between Mens Football and Tennis, 6th best footballer in Sweden would be making more than a million a year.

Born2WinTennis · Club Coach

I read the article, it's incredibly hard to manage the finances. They almost need to introduce a minimum wage for players ranked 200-500. Say £30000 a year, paid in monthly instalments, to cover costs. If you win prize money less than £30000 then you don't owe it back. If you win prize money more than £30000 you only receive the part above £30000.

600 x £30000 = £18m

If half the players are lucky enough to win more than £30000 you only need to fund half of them. So the ATP/WTA/ITF/National Federations perhaps need to budget roughly £10m per year for the scheme, sounds reasonable!

-- Edited by Born2WinTennis on Friday 13th of September 2019 03:31:37 PM

-- Edited by Born2WinTennis on Friday 13th of September 2019 03:31:55 PM

wolf · Tennis legend

Born2WinTennis wrote:
I read the article, it's incredibly hard to manage the finances. They almost need to introduce a minimum wage for players ranked 200-500. Say £30000 a year, paid in monthly instalments, to cover costs. If you win prize money less than £30000 then you don't owe it back. If you win prize money more than £30000 you only receive the part above £30000.

600 x £30000 = £18m

If half the players are lucky enough to win more than £30000 you only need to fund half of them. So the ATP/WTA/ITF/National Federations perhaps need to budget roughly £10m per year for the scheme, sounds reasonable!

I'm such a fan of your posts. It's sad no one up top can come up with a solution as good as this.

EddietheEagle · County player

Born2WinTennis wrote:
I read the article, it's incredibly hard to manage the finances. They almost need to introduce a minimum wage for players ranked 200-500. Say £30000 a year, paid in monthly instalments, to cover costs. If you win prize money less than £30000 then you don't owe it back. If you win prize money more than £30000 you only receive the part above £30000.

600 x £30000 = £18m

If half the players are lucky enough to win more than £30000 you only need to fund half of them. So the ATP/WTA/ITF/National Federations perhaps need to budget roughly £10m per year for the scheme, sounds reasonable!

Sounds like social security for wannabees. Nice work if you can get it. Why can't we all live like that?

the addict · Tennis legend

EddietheEagle wrote:
Sounds like social security for wannabees. Nice work if you can get it. Why can't we all live like that?

Would be nice, wouldn't it. Still got the problem of getting to WR500 in the first place though !

But the LTA could do that for the Brits if the rules allowed it - wouldn't cost them a lot either.

Born2WinTennis · Club Coach

At the moment the system undeniably favours players with secure sources of funding. Largely from parents. I would be in favour of any system that increases the chances of the most talented players over the most wealthy players. Perhaps you could tier payments according to average rank over 12 months, I.e. 200-300 £30k, 300-400 £20k, 400-500 £10k

Kolohead · Junior player

Wouldnt that be an idea . I wish there actually more governing bodies players could approach and take away the monopoly that is the lta and Wimbledon which is a boys club hard to join. Just got to look at the wealth of the top players. Young Arthur prime example . Whilst talented there is no doubt that the family wealth has put him where other equally talented can only dream to be. Good luck to him and the others flying the GB flag but without ideas like above or other bodies the boys club will remain.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

100%.

Of course, there are many other sports like that, it's not unique to tennis. You don't get many poor equestrian champions, for instance....

But it's certainly a big loss to the sport, and in the UK in particular.

Kolohead · Junior player

Yep a big loss. and I think a decline of junior players now too. There was a huge push in recent years of wannabe juniors because of more exposure perhaps on tv (more tennis to watch) the atp finals at 02 and the lta talent id programme. Parents have wised up. You just have to look at regional tournaments and see the standards are lower and the numbers declining.

A recent visit to one remaining performance academy with full time programme showed in one age group just 3 players. Whilst another had 6. A few years back when my lad was at that age and a talent id player that number was in the tens to 15 per age group

Parents have seen its so expensive and moved on .

So unless things change the talent pool will be based on who is paying which in my view will just see the decline further of home grown talent with the only choice for those that are rich enough to leave to an overseas academy. Oh hang on that sounds familiar doesnt it? smile

-- Edited by Kolohead on Saturday 14th of September 2019 01:59:53 PM

Elegant Point · Satellite level

An article echoing many of the points above re the cost of travel to tournaments; but the article also highlights the benefits of continuing in education, the contacts made playing tennis and the transferable skills tennis players acquire

www.tennisrecruiting.net/article.asp Rake Transitions From Tennis to Lucrative Career in Finance
by Rhiannon Potkey, 6 September 2019

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Thought this video might interest some folks

www.youtube.com/watch