Andy Roddick Calls for Excitement in the Business of Tennis

By Dennis Bray                     Photo Credit: Natasha Peterson / Corleve

(September 10, 2011) Tennis used to be a game of rivals, strong personalities, and emotion which gave tennis the sense of excitement and flare needed for any sport to keep viewers coming back for more.

In the 1980’s, fans witnessed a hot-headed American John McEnroe who packed more emotion than any player on tour right now, or so it seems. When things weren’t going McEnroe’s way, it certainly wasn’t a secret.

During one instance against Ivan Lendl, McEnroe fully expressed his displeasure late in the match when he was aced on an important point. As soon as the line call was not made, McEnroe threw his racquet across the court, yelled at the chair umpire (with obscenities of course), and continued to heckle the umpire for the remainder of the match.

And no, he didn’t even receive a point penalty. What happened to those days of unpredictability that kept fans coming back while winning over new ones? Andy Roddick wonders the same thing.

"I think if you took a poll of who would want to see someone go mental and hit something into the stands or something, I mean, people would probably vote for that. I said in Cincinnati, there's a reason that Monday Night Raw (wrestling) gets better ratings than we do,” Roddick said.

In 2007, U.S. Open telecasts drew just 1.7% of all U.S. households, the lowest in the last 30 years. That’s roughly two million viewers. The WWE Raw, which Roddick refers to, boasted a 3.9% rating, more than doubling that of the Open.

"I mean, what does that tell you?  Love it or hate it, but watch it. I'm purely looking at this from a business standpoint, not trying to justify my own actions by any means.  Let's not get that confused,” Roddick added.

So what does that mean? Do tennis players need to start throwing tantrums, yelling at officials, and losing control to boost ratings? Roddick seems to think that by taking out your anger on yourself shouldn’t be discouraged.

"This is the only sport that I know where you can break your own stuff and get penalized for it," he complained. "If you take your shoe and throw it and break it, what happens to you? You're out of a shoe, but it doesn't really affect anyone else."

He may have a point. In the NFL you can drop a pass and throw your helmet in frustration, in baseball we see players use bats to beat water coolers, and in the NBA, players hassle officials when they don’t get the call they want.

What makes tennis any different? Why must tennis players be silent through periods of frustration and stay calm when something doesn’t go their way? If the sport of tennis is ever going to attract viewers here in America, some things might have to change.

Gemba, a sports and entertainment research company, puts it simply as, “The sport must invigorate what it offers [to the public] if it is to gain relevance. It is losing ground to other sports in terms of consumer appeal.”

So, let’s make tennis a popular sport once again. Players need to show emotion, and not just positivity, but negativity as well. If the fans can see emotions in players, then it becomes a personable sport where fans will want to come back for more.