[duong]

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

[Helevorn]

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.

[latso]

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.

[ciprianned]

bad newz ! (

[Henry Chinaski]

Originally Posted by latso

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.

[latso]

Originally Posted by Henry Chinaski

Betting sites stream Challenger tennis pretty much every day of the year.

Which ones?

And the point here is - there aren't cameras at 80% of the challengers and if the organizers don't put some 10 bucks cams in 2 points of the stands, no one would even bother.

Anyways, there aren't even a third of challengers streamed mate, so every day of the year is a solid exaggeration imo. Maybe the fact i'm not betting for a couple years makes me uninformed, but i keep a few bucks at b365 just for the stream and there aren't that many overall.

[Smoke944]

Originally Posted by latso

Which ones?

And the point here is - there aren't cameras at 80% of the challengers and if the organizers don't put some 10 bucks cams in 2 points of the stands, no one would even bother.

Anyways, there aren't even a third of challengers streamed mate, so every day of the year is a solid exaggeration imo. Maybe the fact i'm not betting for a couple years makes me uninformed, but i keep a few bucks at b365 just for the stream and there aren't that many overall.

This simply isn't true.

[Henry Chinaski]

Originally Posted by latso

Which ones?

And the point here is - there aren't cameras at 80% of the challengers and if the organizers don't put some 10 bucks cams in 2 points of the stands, no one would even bother.

Anyways, there aren't even a third of challengers streamed mate, so every day of the year is a solid exaggeration imo. Maybe the fact i'm not betting for a couple years makes me uninformed, but i keep a few bucks at b365 just for the stream and there aren't that many overall.

yes, you're uninformed. you could count the weeks of the season without a streamed Challenger on bet365 on the fingers of one hand.

[Action Jackson]

latso, you are uninformed. The Challengers in Asia aren't streamed, but in other continents it's quite easy to find streams.

[fran70]

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...

[Sombrerero loco]

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

[latso]

My bad then.

[Leo]

Originally Posted by nole_no1

Indeed bad news for tennis. These tournaments should be supported financialy because here is where the young players are being formed and they should be promoted as they represent the future of tennis

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.

[latso]

Originally Posted by Leo

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.

The young players play Futures and those are increasing big time year after year.

Sometimes instead of some useless challengers indeed.

[Leo]

Originally Posted by latso

The young players play Futures and those are increasing big time year after year.

Sometimes instead of some useless challengers indeed.

Look at Benoit Paire. 23 and developing. All credit to match wins at the challenger level which last year he took to greater success on the ATP tour.