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Is tennis too expensive?

8K views 43 replies 23 participants last post by  Laminar Animal 
#1 · (Edited)
tennis is a very expensive sport and nobody can be sure if his child will play pro tennis.Is this the raison for this useless generation in the last 10 years ?
 
#2 ·
Re: tennis is going to die

Has it become more expensive in the last ten years?
 
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#3 ·
Re: tennis is going to die

In my country, tennis has been slowly dying for years, no player currently is ranked in the top 500. However, Morocco has a real history with tennis and remains the last African country to host an ATP tour-level tournament, There are also a lot of challengers and futures as part of the "Morocco Tennis Tour".
I can number the tennis clubs and academies at over 100, but the costs of membership and acquisition of equipment still prevent the masses from accessing the sport.
 
#6 ·
Re: tennis is going to die

Tennis has traditionally been a sport for the higher classes. If anything, it's become less so the last couple of decades. Feels like it's a bit more accessible now.

It still costs a bit but other sports do too. Look at golf.
 
#7 ·
Why do people say tennis is an expensive sport? I am genuinely not understanding this. Many working-class people in Canada are plunking down $600 in protective equipment, skates, helmet, stick for their kid to play hockey -- then the skating and hockey lessons, then the league fees just to play recreational hockey.... and then buy all the equipment again two years later when the kid outgrows it! And everyone knows not all these kids will grow up to play pro hockey. This is just to get started... to find out if there's even any potential or sustained interest.

I don't think the costs in tennis are comparable. Sure, later, when you start looking at tennis academies and stuff, but that's true of any sport when you transition from casual enthusiast to trying to become an elite athlete that might go pro.
 
#10 ·
I think most people would say hockey is an expensive sport as well.

With tennis I think most of the expense comes from the amount of land you need to play it and the fact it has to be reasonably well designed for tennis. With something like association football you can easily play a rudimentary form of the game and all you need is a flat stretch of land, a ball and two markers to act as goalposts. It's not proper football but you can still develop your skills in it as a kid, you can easily find out if you're any good or not and you can more easily develop an interest in it. With basketball similar applies, except you need is a hoop.

With tennis you can't really play unless you've got a marked court with a net, the courts are all standard sizes and you can't really play with more than 4 people per court. Unless you grow up near some tennis courts you've little chance of ever getting started.

I think this explains why it's more of a middle class sport than things like basketball and football, but these things have always applied so I don't think they really explain the last ten years. Maybe for that you need to look at video games. Playing Top Spin 4 requires a TV and an Xbox.
 
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#8 ·
It costs a lot if you want to become a pro. Equipment, coaching, travel, hotels, it adds up quickly. You have to pay for all of that, very few kids have sponsorship deals. Also, when you're a junior one of your parents needs to travel with you.
 
#9 ·
Like anything, it's how much you're willing to spend. My 8yo plays year round. I spend $1600/year on squad twice a week.

Now he is having a one hour semi private every week (he and a friend are on court with the pro). Hours per week in squad and private lesson = 7. Plus another hour with he and I = 8hrs / week. Can't see that changing in the next several years.

With privates looking at 1.5K per year total tennis cost. Junior membership at the club is $30 a year which allows he and I to play whenever we want. He is now at 27" so the racquet cost has slowed. Non major clothing brands are not expensive.

I suppose compared to other sports it is expensive, especially if more than one kid plays. In summary, unless you're doing okay or you're a coach it's unlikely your kid will excel.

Cost per hour on court and training, excluding equipment, clothing, or travels is about $8.50/hr. Not too bad when it's broken down.
 
#13 ·
To play is not that much. You can always find a court if you look, at least here. The coaching is ridiculously priced, and I say that as someone who makes 100% of my income from coaching.

When I have kids, I don't know if I will put them in tennis. Maybe only if they are really really passionate for the game.
 
#14 ·
Of course I can always just coach them myself. But that is risky. Is it worth it to gain a champion but lose a kid? Yes everyone wants both, but what if you end up with neither?

For every Fed or Nadal, there are 10 million at least who didn't make it
 
#22 ·
Not for me, It costs me few dollars per year for the balls. I already bought my babolat racquet (how do you spell this?) before 5 years and didnt change it since now. We play in abandoned asphalt tennis court. Anyway if you want to do something, there is always a way, even if you dont have the money. Just look how good the yugoslavian players are.
 
#29 ·
Tennis is not an expensive sport. At least not if you look at the basic cost of the court and equipment. It's probably about the same as basketball.

American football is an expensive sport. Especially in Texas. I drive by a brand new $70+ million, 1200 seat stadium everyday all for the towns HIGHSCHOOL football team.
 
#30 ·
It's not the players who paid for that stadium though. :) And even a highschool team is going to cover all the costs for their players, coach/physio, traveling etc, a tennis player has to pay for all that out his own pocket and is supposed to travel internationally even at the junior level.
 
#34 · (Edited)
Being elite at anything is expensive. I have a coworker that says to train a kid to be competitive at roping in rodeo costs about $40k to $50k per year. You hear the same thing about gymnastics, volleyball. Going to college is expensive, so what?

If you are talking about being at the absolute highest level it's impossible to compare cost of training. It's all relative to where you grow up.

Even looking at the newest crop of American players: Francis Tiafoe and Ernesto Escobedo's parents spent significantly less money on their kids tennis than Noah Rubin and Taylor Fritz. Does that make tennis inherently more expensive for Fritz and Rubin?

Let's say table tennis is wildly popular in China and some parent is complaining in mandarin on a message board about the cost of coaching, table tennis academies, and taking their kid all over China and South Korea to compete in table tennis tournaments. Does that make table tennis an expensive sport?

For 99% of the population a sport is just a game played for fun. There isn't going to be an astronomical cost for coaching and travel. Even for kids that are competitive it's incremental and somewhat relative to your kids aptitude.

Tax payers in my town are paying the equivilant of $2500 for every kid that steps on the field of their $70MM stadium. That's still a cost. Just because something is publically funded doesn't make it less expensive.
 
#35 ·
Being elite at anything is expensive. I have a coworker that says to train a kid to be competitive at roping in rodeo costs about $40k to $50k per year. You hear the same thing about gymnastics, volleyball. Going to college is expensive, so what?
You are missing the point. Being a relatively unsuccessful tennis player (for example ranked around top 300 or 400 or something) is still pretty expensive and in many cases you're not even breaking even. Otoh being the worst player in the NFL or NBA or playing in a 2nd league in most of soccer leagues in Europe is still going to pay handsomely.
 
#37 ·
For pro level surely it is too expensive, just look at basics: coaches (tennis and for condition), tennis court few hours every day, equipment, traveling (accommodation in tournament place not only for player but for coaches and accompany + airplane tickets + daily costs on tournament like food)...this is extremely expensive sport without support of national association or sponsors. So, this is very difficult, especially in poorer countries where associations do not have enough money to support talents and player still lack some bigger result to attract sponsors.
Sometimes, we just see lights of Wimbledon center court but love and passion that those players that are in 1000s in the rankings or unranked (often are playing on some bad courts with nobody watching somewhere far from home) feel for sport and are not giving up is so inspiring! It seems even ITF is getting aware of this problem so that's why they did research (how average player can cover its costs by playing ITF) and decided to restructure tour for 750 professionals. :yeah:
http://www.itftennis.com/news/256730.aspx
 
#41 ·
Based on my experience with tennis and other sports, tennis is about average in terms of cost of play. This holds true at every level in terms of real and made-up expenses.

There's no real science to this and there really can't be. Every single person is completely different. Professional sports is only about 50 years old.

Personally, I got more benefit in playing in tournaments and traveling than I got from lots of instruction, but but other people are different.

You are treating money as a prerequisite and it isn't. Many of the best players in the world didnt have to invest as much money in tennis as the ones that didn't make it to the top level.

For most reasonable people, you only invest as far as your talent takes you. You don't put your unathletic kid in an expensive tennis academy. In part because of the cost, but mostly because the kid will be miserable.
 
#42 ·
Here in Argentina it's quite expensive. You have to pay 20-30 dollars for 1 hour of play, or pay 60-100 dollars for a club membership (in a country where the minimum wage rounds $600).
There are no public courts, and coaching is REALLY pricey.
The gear isn't THAT expensive, but racquets are overpriced: we usually pay $50 or $100 more for one.
However if you dig in the recent argentinian tennis history you will find that most of players come from a middle or lower classes in some cases
 
#43 ·
I think it is a bit of a chicken or the egg situation.

Has tennis got the perception of an expensive sport because almost all the top pro's come from middle class backgrounds?
Or do middle class parents CHOOSE tennis for their kids because they want to avoid mixing with the masses in the working class sports such as soccer etc?

I agree with many here in that many sports are comparable in cost so it's not just financial but parental commitment.
This is where it differs from team sports.

For example, working class parents cannot possibly take as much time off work for their kids to pursue dreams the way middle class families can.
In general, middle class families will almost always outcompete them when it comes to resources whether financial or otherwise.

As a result, one thing that is unique about tennis though is that there seem to be fewer variables to being successful.
By the age of 12-14, the future top 10 were already virtually identified.
Could you say that about many other sports?

In conclusion, i think if tennis were cheaper then the middle classes would just migrate to another sport.
 
#44 ·
I think it is a bit of a chicken or the egg situation.

Has tennis got the perception of an expensive sport because almost all the top pro's come from middle class backgrounds?
Or do middle class parents CHOOSE tennis for their kids because they want to avoid mixing with the masses in the working class sports such as soccer etc?

In conclusion, i think if tennis were cheaper then the middle classes would just migrate to another sport.
I agree with most of your post. I think there some interesting cultural incongruities though. Mainly the distinction between working class and middle class and soccer being a working class sport.

I'm not sure I understand where you are drawing your conclusion that richer people would play other sports if tennis were cheaper.

In the US the only sports that are almost exclusively affluent are polo and lacrosse. Tennis and soccer have traditionally been more upper middle class sports for reason I don't fully understand. You make a good point about the time commitment associated for parents and tennis though.
 
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