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Women's Tennis:
The Marketing Model
Part 2: A Good Script
for the Price
In March of 1998, 53-year-old tennis enthusiast
Arnon Milchan took steps to bring his favorite sport to
a wider audience. Milchan, producer of nearly 50 films including
"Pretty Woman" and "L.A. Confidential", met with WTA Executives
at his Malibu, California home. Through Regency Enterprises
(a $1.4 billion film and television production company of
which he owns 49.5 percent) and Puma (his stake: 32 percent
of the German sportswear maker), he secured global television
rights to the WTA Tour for 9 years. The $120m deal also
made Puma the official tennis apparel and shoe company of
the tour.
The
coupling of professional sports and Hollywood hucksters is
nothing new. Media magnate Rupert Murdoch owns baseball’s
L.A. Dodgers and broadcasts all of the team’s games on his
Fox Sports Network. Ted Turner practically founded his TBS
Superstation on Atlanta Braves games. Women’s tennis, though,
is rife with rivalry and sex appeal; ingredients long and
largely ignored. "The people who have been running the tennis
business have either been career people or amateurs as far
as understanding the entertainment side," Milchan said.
For the producer, the WTA Tour is simply
another film project to which he gave the green light. The
players are his actors and the plots play out both on and
off the court. 
Lights, camera, action.
40-30. 5-4. Anna Kournikova to serve.
She has proven her detractors wrong by finally reaching
a Grand Slam final. Up a set against her more lumbering
opponent, Lindsay Davenport, Kournikova has a championship
point, even. She bounces the ball - nine times before lofting
it over her head. Her tossing left hand stays pointed at
the rising ball as her right shoulder comes around with
ferocity. Fully extended, she smacks a 110 mph serve add-court
ward.
Davenport’s expectant eyes widen and she
steps just inside the baseline. She cocks back a two-fisted
backhand but stops short. Kournikova has dumped her serve
into the net. As the ball dribbles back to her feet, Anna
crinkles her nose and mutters, "dropped my head." She is
painfully aware that her serve is the first stroke to fail
her under pressure.
A quick tug at her ponytail and a glance
to the adoring crowd, though, restores her confidence. Arnold
Schwarzenegger flashes a gap-toothed "Yah!" grin and double
thumbs up from his celebrity box seat. Brad Pitt, lounging
between Jennifer Aniston and Queen Elizabeth II in the royalty
box, nods and grin coolly. A stadium-wide chant of "Anna
– Anna – Anna" grows stronger as the beauty prepares to
slay the beast.
Kournikova strikes her second serve as
furiously as her first, sending it screaming down the T
and past Davenport’s flailing forehand attempt. "Ho," the
center lineswoman bellows, her right hand outstretched,
signaling the serve wide. A few scattered whistles punctuate
the crowd’s silence. With a frown and skirt-flipping twirl,
Kournikova approaches the chair umpire. "How did you see
it?" she asks with intended innocence. He shifts uneasily
in his high chair, trying to avert her pleading stare. "Overruled"
he coughs into his mic with a slight crack in his voice.
"Game, set, championship Kournikova."
| "...the
girls aren't going to be the Spice Girls and still win
tennis matches" |
Okay, so this never happened. Anna Kournikova
has not won a professional singles tournament let alone
Wimbledon. But she is arguably the top draw on the women’s
tour and, without question, the embodiment of Arnon Milchan’s
vision.
He thinks in terms of cameras anchored
over players’ benches to capture the slightest exposure
of cleavage. To boost the game’s glamour, he has asked his
Puma designers to costume players in non-traditional tennis
garb. Think Kournikova’s shiny gold Adidas dresses and Venus
Williams’ "Star Trek" – inspired Reebok pieces. He
would even like to change the way the game is scored, hoping
to quicken its pace and appease advertisers by allotting
more time for change-overs.
Tennis purists may cry foul but some see
Milchan’s vision as ingenious and ultimately beneficial
to the women’s tour. Billie Jean King, for instance, a living
tennis legend and founder of the WTA, supports Milchan’s
plan with one proviso: "You’ve got to give people a spectacle.
The trouble is, the girls aren’t going to be the Spice Girls
and still win tennis matches. I’ve got news for you: Being
a professional athlete is a full-time job. If they think
they’re going to be in movies and do their sports, they
won’t be able to maintain their performance level."
NEXT:
Sponsorship Woes >>
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