Mens Tennis Forums banner

Worrying times: lots of challengers missing in 2013

11K views 143 replies 35 participants last post by  motorhead 
#1 ·
#3 ·
A very important topic indeed, and a good article indeed : although I don't think the 1/3 decrease of first 3 months will be the same in next months, it's clear that there has been a decreasing trend since 2008 which is very worrying.

A question I have : where are located the tournaments which disappear ?



What's the relationship ? it's not the same tournaments then not the same money :shrug: Besides, it would be shared between less players.
 
#19 ·
i was writing about it a long time ago in the challenger section on mtf
btw, as challenger calendar for 2012 is out for jan and feb

kazan, wolfsburg, florianopolis meknes and casablanca are cancelled... (at least comparing to last year)

in exchange dornbirn (austria) will be the biggest tournament of the first 2 months €106,500+H

while we're at prize money, challenger prizes not only don't grow, but usually go down! also, more players will have to be in futures in those weeks...
as for update, seems like other challengers fall out of the schedule :facepalm: :facepalm: really alarming

Not sure what I mentioned last time, but the calendar is up to March now, and these events are not scheduled (and were in 2012):

*Kazan
*Florianopolis
*Casablanca
*Santiago
*Guadalajara
*Pingguo
*Rabat
*Bath
*Barranquila

The only new event is this Austrian one :help:

At least Sao Paulo money goes up from 35K to 125K!!! And Michael Russell is the top commitment so far.
From Nathii's list, yes, there are more southAmerican tournaments to disappear (also Moroccan) but it's also the period when there are most southAmerican challengers together with the end of the year, the rest of the year will be more in Europe and the USA, we'll see the situation there.
 
#58 ·
This. All developing players need match play. Challengers provide that, so it's scary to see them become more infrequent if that is the case.
 
#21 · (Edited)
Never in doubt the ATP doesn't give a shit about the game.
 
#22 ·
There are 2 CH and 10 Furtures 15K tournaments in Australia in the first 3 months of the year.

How many players do you think have the level to play those 12 tournaments in Australia and nearby Asia?

Most players from this level (mid way from futures to Challengers) would start their year in Europe and they could spend their whole season between Turkey and France playing as much as they couldn't handle.

How many players in the World are eligible to play Challengers? 300? Less. So how many Challengers should there be?

On the contrary you have approximately 2000 players for Futures level and it's normal the big number of tournaments to be there.

I would personally cancel the Challenger tour, make the few big ones into ATP 250s and name all the rest Futures in different categories.

This way we will have just one naive tread spitting on ATP how they burried tennis and they should go to jail coz they canceled CH, which means for sure tennis is dead and bla, and bla, and bla, and tennis will continue to develop.

The other way around - the ATP and ITF should clarify a bit how things get done, for people who think they have just invented the hot water, to have some ready answers.
 
#23 ·
latso, the ATP plant is at it again. Doesn't actually understand that even the current top players played Challengers early in their careers.
 
#24 ·
And the future ones are doing the same.

The mentioned players in the article Diego Schwartzman played the whole year in South America only and he will do the same this year.

If he's good enough he will make it to the GS qualies and make more money he has ever made.

Then he might decide to spend some of these on tickets and try his luck in Europe, where if he performs well - he will step in ATP where together with professional level tennis comes the real pay days.

That's what everyone does. The good ones we watch on TV, the not good enough ones we shed a tear for and swear on the ATP.

And life goes on, while tennis is at the place it should be.
 
#28 · (Edited)
That is something really to worry about. Most of the players ranked between 150/170 and 300 will be forced to play quallies of ATP tournaments with the risk that involves if they don't manage to make it to the main draw while the other ones to fall one step to play Future events which will short the entry list cut off of that level of tournaments (just check the entry lists of Future January events and that is what is going to happen in February and March too). This is something really serious for the economy and rankings of many players .

And as well as people mentioned here and we spoke about that in the past the ATP is doing NOTHING to improve the Challenger tour but things are getting worse and worse with the bottom of the piramid.
 
#29 ·
i hope in spain we have the same amount of challengers than last year, which seems unlikely to be honest =(((
 
#31 ·
Never made sense why Tennis channel shows repeats of matches from a year ago and boring bio-pics about Sam Querrey instead of showing challengers, juniors, and qualies. Like challengers are never going to be pulling in millions of viewers but if there was a solid way to watch them and make money off it (instead of forcing fans to watch choppy illegal streams) both the ATP and the tournaments would be happier. ATP decisions never made sense though, they have the second worst marketing team in sports (WTA is the worst).
 
#32 ·
Never made sense why Tennis channel shows repeats of matches from a year ago and boring bio-pics about Sam Querrey instead of showing challengers, juniors, and qualies. Like challengers are never going to be pulling in millions of viewers but if there was a solid way to watch them and make money off it (instead of forcing fans to watch choppy illegal streams) both the ATP and the tournaments would be happier.
For a TV channel, showing repeats of matches for which they have the rights costs nothing, putting a camera on a court costs something.

And for whatever reason, TV channels feel obliged to send reporters to tournaments when they show them, which costs even more.
 
#37 ·
It's tough to market the clowns nowadays, I'm not expecting a miracle like making people love Djokovic/Murray finals. Just that they fail to do even the basics of their job, which is make sure TV coverage exists for the widest audience possible, make tennis news get into general sports news on ESPN and the newspaper, make sure the slams are run in a functional manner, and have highlights, previews, and replays since not everyone can watch 12 hours of tennis straight. There are so many problems with the ATP/ITF (which are basically the same corrupt organization), which can probably all be boiled down to greed and cronyism. Just a shame that challenger players, who are probably the hardest working sportsmen in the world, are the ones who suffer the most.
 
#38 ·
you say that it's hard to market Djoko-Murray and you imagine that the ATP could "make sure" that "tennis news get into general sports news on ESPN and the newspaper" ? I don't see the logics in that, there's no way to force newspapers, esp. in the US where you come from, where tennis marketting seems to have big problems comparing to other sports.

In France and probably in the whole Europe, tennis is widely in sports news, and surely not because of the ATP, but just because people like tennis on our continent :shrug:
 
#46 ·
well I've heard that tennis audiences are not good in many countries, when the sport is shown.

It seems to me that even when golf audiences are much much worse as it's the case in France, still TVs and sponsors find an interest in it because this audience is rather composed of rich people. That's why there's a golf channel in France but it's very expensive. Still they created that channel because they thought that golf amateurs could afford that money.

On the opposite I read tennis fans speaking a lot on forums who only watch tennis when it's free :rolleyes:
 
#47 ·
It is a natural thing: here in Mafialand we have much more than a dozen of Challengers and almost no one goes and see them, and moreover they are almost all free, I don't even know how they managed to survive that long.

The Challenger that was closer to me was the one in Reggio Emilia, transformed into an ITF female tournament in 2011 and then closed for good in 2012.
 
#48 ·
You get barely a few hundred watching the streams and you would get a few thousands watching it on TV, which is not an audience any sponsor would pay for.

Challengers happen in smaller halls and clubs, it's not like watching Chatrier. Anyone who has watched a challenger knows that only a few are worth to be seen, also because of the bad tennis level there.

When you're used to watch the big guys you could suicide from boredom watching the actual mugs of the game.

We get bored watching Tipsarevic, Ferrer, etc. and we are hardcore fans, what to say about their lesser versions...

Not even the betting sites are showing this tennis and they have both the possibility and interest, but obviously not enough interest compared to even Philipino Basketbal..

So get real with the TV situation and keep trying to find what dozens of professionals cannot.

It would be great to see it at least once in my life how average Joe finds the answer that multinationals couldn't. Once i see this i could die in peace.
 
#50 ·
You get barely a few hundred watching the streams and you would get a few thousands watching it on TV, which is not an audience any sponsor would pay for.

Challengers happen in smaller halls and clubs, it's not like watching Chatrier. Anyone who has watched a challenger knows that only a few are worth to be seen, also because of the bad tennis level there.

When you're used to watch the big guys you could suicide from boredom watching the actual mugs of the game.

We get bored watching Tipsarevic, Ferrer, etc. and we are hardcore fans, what to say about their lesser versions...

Not even the betting sites are showing this tennis and they have both the possibility and interest, but obviously not enough interest compared to even Philipino Basketbal..
Betting sites stream Challenger tennis pretty much every day of the year.
 
#54 ·
latso, you are uninformed. The Challengers in Asia aren't streamed, but in other continents it's quite easy to find streams.
 
#55 · (Edited)
In Argentina Challengers are working quite well. There was one Challenger event for years but in 2012 they kept the one of Buenos Aires and extended two more to the inland of the country. Those two more tournaments were really succesful to the point they are planning to add 5 tournaments in total to that list. Those 5 tournaments will be running on the 2nd semester.

They had not televised (San Juan and Villa Allende's ones) to the rest of the country ( I don't know the real reason to be honest). The challenger of Buenos Aires was televised and that didn't affected the public attendance as SF and F tickets were almost all sold out.

A good calendar organization plus a raise in prize money in some of them/hospitality may lead to improve the quality of players attending them and a good broadcast would bring more public and in consecuence sponsors and TV contracts. Definitely a marketing plan is compulsory. But is the ATP who should be doing that job...
 
#56 ·
honestly, best challenger are european ones, in general, asian and american(specially south american) have way weaker fields. so they should increase prize money specially in europe imo
 
#61 ·
It's probably because of that stupid new rule that they are going to try, no one wants to see it, so once the first quarter is over, things will be back to normal.
 
#65 ·
you act like only young players play Futures. If you cut Challenger events where do you think devilder and robert will play?

Anyway, financially it's mostly the responsibility of local organisers to raise the cash. It's not just the ATP's job.

There are always businesses willing to sponsor local sporting events. It's about having the skill and passion to sell the product to them.

However, there are areas they could help. There could be some sort of hardship fund where established Challengers could apply for assistance if struggling to attract sponsors.

A fund of even 1 million euros could potentially save a dozen struggling events. We're not talking big money here. Prize money, some wages and equipment are the only real expenses.

Another area the ATP could help is by trying to attract a global sponsor or at least regional ones. To make this viable there would be some minimum requirements expected of tournaments as regards livescores, streaming, etc. 2012 was the first year every event (I think) even had a livescore.

That shows you how badly the tour has been neglected. (But according to the cranky Bulgarian, above we're just whinging for nothing).

Formally dividing the Challenger tour into some regional blocks might help. e.g. a company would be sold sponsorship of portion or all of east Asian swing. (An upcoming Asian sporting goods company for example might not be too concerned with having its name on a billboard in Ecuador.

You only have to look at the success stories of last year to see that the Challenger tour is underexposed to potential investors.

You could have tied Jerzy Janowicz down on a multi-year contract last year for pennies, whether it be clothing, shoes or a sleeve patch. This year he is signing deals with Peaugot. Klizan the same. And these guys were hot juniors. Not some secret fluke successes.
 
#71 ·
Bad for the game.

I'm already pissed off because they cancelled my local challenger in Ljubljana and more bad news coming up.

No.100 barely has enough for a decent living out of his prize money, while top10 are millionares and don't tell me they are SO much better. Federer doesn't need 150 million $ on his bank account, does he?

I want a world where money is spread out consistently and fairly. :angel:
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top