"Daddy, where are the Sampras jerseys?" My son asked me as I steered him past the All-Alcatraz lineup of Bengals jerseys. His question stopped me in my tracks. I couldn't believe that in my tenure as commissioner of tennis the idea had never occurred to me. My boy wanted to be outfitted in the same Swoosh that Pistol Pete took the court in; wouldn't others as well?
The next day at work I stopped by the office of our Manager of Operations, Jesse Lusk, to find out what he thought of the jerseys. A day didn't go by without him telling me about the death of serve-volley, Round Robin formats, or which doubles team took the tournament with a 10-8 win in the Match Tiebreaker last week in Hong Kong. "Hey, how come there aren't any jerseys for tennis players?" I asked him. He shrugged.
"It's not a big deal. The tours have bigger fish to fry. They've got player withdrawals, too short of an off-season, and tournament directors that are threatening to cut doubles off at the knees!"
"Yes, but... jerseys!" I could only exclaim. "Every sport has them! This is the proverbial low-hanging fruit. Not only is it a great way for fans to connect with players, but it provides another source of revenue. This is a win-win!" Jesse gave me a dismissive wave and headed back to his desk.
Unwilling to be deterred, I pitched my idea to a rep at Nike who I knew from college. Before I knew it, my idea made it to Phil Knight, who suggested it to the King of Swing himself. The idea caught fire in the locker rooms of the ATP and (Sony Ericsson) WTA Tour, fanned into flames by the agents that inhabited these locales. Most of the players were all too eager to see their name in lights or, at least, in bold print across their shoulder blades.
By the time the U.S. Open rolled around the jerseys were in full swing. I walked through the turnstiles with a young Sampras in tow, or at least one dressed like him. My son was happily eating an ice cream cone, decked out in a jersey hanging down to his knees. "Sweet shirt!" said an attendant as she gave him a tummy tickle. She passed out fliers that read: “The Tennis Channel: Write to Roland Garros." After the jersey revelation I wanted to see what other ideas people had about the game.
Back in the office the following week, I walked by Jesse's desk and noticed he had on a brand-new Safin jersey. I walked closer and could see him filling out the flier. "Commissioner for a day, huh?" I teased. "Why don't you tackle something meaningful, like curbing racket technology, or the Davis Cup schedule?"
"One thing at a time," he smiled. "One thing at a time."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
3 comments:
I don't like the jersey thing for a host of reasons.
(1) Tennis isn't a team sport.
(2) At any one time, a given country is unlikely to have more than one or two prominent players.
(3) The vast majority of tennis viewers don't show up at the US Open specifically to root for a particular player. It's more of a buffet experience. It's a little weird to sit there at a Gulbis vs. Ginepri match wearing a Safin jersey.
Most of all, it's putting the cart before the horse. The way to deal with tennis' substandard popularity is not to mimic more popular sports. Jerseys are a result of a sport's popularity, not the other way around.
If anything, it might reduce tennis' popularity when some dude wears a Safin jersey and gets a bunch of "Who the hell is that?" comments from their football fan buddies.
Personally I don't have much of an opinion on the functional benefit of jerseys as it pertains to the viability of the game of tennis. However, I do think this was a pretty impressive piece of short fiction. You should consider writing on the side.
Also, tell Jesse Lusk that Dan Dowlath said "Wassssuuuuup?!"
Haha thanks Double D. Waaaaahzup!
Post a Comment