ATP Advisory Boards

The WTF is so exciting this year, that I had the time to read this article.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2014/11/46/ATP-Forms-Business-Legends-Advisory-Boards.aspx

The Business board is less exciting than Legends Advisory Board (LAB-oratory for what?). It has exciting names like John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Mats Wilander, Carlos Moya and Lleyton Hewitt.

(This is why they all showed up at WTF, on camera, watching matches).

Kermode said (quoting from the link)...

It’s important that we not only look to take into account the views from people outside the game, but also those of our former players who know our sport inside out. Both these boards will enable us to do that and I look forward to working with them as we evolve our long-term strategy aimed at harnessing the full potential of our sport.

Very curious to see what is cooking in the ATP kitchen with such chefs on hand.

^ Rumor has it they are plotting a new rule to address the annoying way Rafa places his water bottles so neatly

I see this as a broad-minded, imaginative move by Chris Kermode and commend him for the decision.

Far too often, sport administrative bodies can become both introspective and blinkered, and IMHO bringing in people with new ideas & perspective can only be a positive thing. As well as the comments quoted by laverfan, Kermode also referred to the fact that top-level tennis is currently in a very healthy state, seeing increased interest from TV audiences, live attendances, advertisers, and social media ; hence the business advisory board.

Seems like a worthy collection of past 'legends' - although I was a tad surprised by the inclusion of Moya and Hewitt (good guys though they both are) and it made me wonder whether higher-achievers such as Connors, Sampras and Borg were perhaps not interested or otherwise unavailable. Or maybe not even invited at all, because they may be considered (??) a little 'out of touch' with all that's happening in the modern game .....

I saw a comment on the ATP FB page suggesting that there should also be some form of official representation/committee for tennis fans. In principle, that makes sense to me simply because without fans the pro game would die pretty sharpish. But the mind boggles as to what might constitute an appropriate selection process .......  

So .....good move overall as I say. But of course we need to wait and see what comes from these new fonts of wisdom .......the proof of the pudding and all that .........

I would've liked a more diverse board. I just think the only way to find out the global state of the game and where they can make inroads in these areas.

I hope the 'legends' can offer some input on the state of the game and explore ways of giving the whole field of players a 'fair' shot of making the most of their skills.

lags72 wrote:I saw a comment on the ATP FB page suggesting that there should also be some form of official representation/committee for tennis fans. In principle, that makes sense to me simply because without fans the pro game would die pretty sharpish. But the mind boggles as to what might constitute an appropriate selection process .......  

The way ATP is currently regionalized, perhaps the regional bodies like TA, USTA, FFT and AELTC, under ITF/ATP/WTA could constitute a regional 'fan' body for an annual summit and provide input to ATP/ITF/WTA. It would be excellent feedback loop for the Professionals, too.