Game-Changer: Grand Slams Forge Path for ‘Premier’ Tennis Tour 🎾
Plus, Arsène Wenger visits India, and the Women's Super League and Championship opt for NewCo...
Welcome to Sports Pundit, the sports business newsletter updating you in less time than it takes to serve a visit to the sin bin 🗑
In today’s email;
Grand Slams Push for Premier Tour 🎾
The Growth of Football in India 🇮🇳
A New Era for Women’s Football ⚽️
A massive thank you to Zarah for being the first guest of the Sports Pundit Podcast and also a huge thanks to all of you who have listened and shared kind messages.
Next week (7th of December) sees events in both London and Los Angeles! 📆
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TOP STORY
Game-Changer: Grand Slams Forge Path for ‘Premier’ Tennis Tour 🎾
The Grand Slam tournaments in tennis are pushing for a ground-breaking transformation of the professional game.
The objective, as reported by The Athletic, is for Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, the French Open, and the Australian Open to collaborate with the top 10 tournaments, to establish a premium tour reminiscent of Formula 1.
Acknowledging the inefficiencies in the current tennis landscape, key stakeholders highlight issues like fan confusion, untapped financial potential, and the taxing schedule that leads to player burnout and shortened careers.
A more formalised plan is set to be unveiled in January, preceding the Australian Open, with unanimous support from all Grand Slam events seeking to fortify themselves against potential disruptions in the tennis calendar – such as those experienced by golf due to the emergence of the LIV Golf tour.
Sports Pundit says
🤔 The Grand Slam tournaments' initiative to establish a premium tour, prioritising quality over quantity, breaks away from the prevailing sports model of adding (yet) more games.
Contrary to this trend, as seen in the NFL's success with a concise 17-game regular season, this shift aims at creating more meaningful experiences for fans and players, challenging the belief that more matches equate to greater success.
The NFL's viewership underscores that brevity need not compromise popularity - 82 of the top 100 TV broadcasts in the U.S. in 2022 were NFL games (as per Sportico).
The comparison could also be extended to cricket's IPL, a league which has demonstrated that a shorter, more focused calendar can yield substantial revenue – and which has surpassed the financial achievements of many year-round sporting properties.
So the significance of this news lies in tennis’ prioritisation of quality, engagement, and financial efficiency, over the conventional quantity-focused approach.
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OPINION
Is a Football Revolution about to Kick-Off in India? 🤔
Last month, Arsène Wenger visited India to kick off FIFA’s Talent Development Scheme (TDS).
The four-day tour included a visit to a new training academy in Bhubaneswar in the state of Odisha, which is part of a wider national initiative to identify and develop the best young talents in the country.
As FIFA’s Chief of Global Football Development, Wenger has said that he believes there is a "gold mine" of football talent in country that needs to be tapped into so that India can play a more significant role on the world stage.
James Torvaney, Managing Director at Pulse Sports and author of Yet Another Sports Newsletter, commented on the visit, suggesting that this focus on the world’s most populous country makes a lot of sense:
“Cricket is still the most popular sport in India, but football is closing the gap.
According to Nielson’s, football is the second most popular sport in the country, with 56% of the population being interested (vs 73% for cricket). This is up from just 30% in 2013.
If India can be built into a nation with a strong grassroots and a competitive national team, it presents massive opportunities for talent development, broadcast rights, and sponsorship deals.
It may also be an interesting test-bed for different revenue streams, including the much-fabled FIFA/ English Premier League direct-to-consumer (D2C) play [think: Premflix].
And it's not just FIFA - City Football Group own Mumbai City FC, and RB Leipzig, Rangers, Atletico Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, and Watford all have partner clubs in India.”
HIGHLIGHTS
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban selling majority stake to Miriam Adelson at ‘US$3.5bn’ valuation 🏀
Hardik Pandya’s return to the Mumbai Indians will go down as one of the biggest off-season moves in the IPL’s brief history 🏏
British sportswear firm Castore set for near £1bn valuation after £145m injection from investors including the Raine Group 💸
Federal authorities have approved the pending merger of the two rival spring football leagues, XFL and USFL 🏈
Billionaire Steven Rales has reached an agreement to purchase a 15% minority stake in the Indiana Pacers at a $3.47 billion valuation 🏀
Nascar lands seven-year ‘US$7.7bn’ broadcast rights deal with Fox, NBC, Warner Bros Discovery and Amazon all securing packages 🏁
ON THE BREAK
Miss Independent: Women’s Super League and Championship Go Solo ⚽️
The Women's Super League (WSL) and Women's Championship are set to liberate themselves from the FA, having unanimously opted for governance under a new independent body (NewCo).
Nikki Doucet, former Nike and Citigroup executive, will assume leadership of the newly formed organisation with immediate effect. Doucet will spearhead the transition of all 24 clubs in the top two divisions of English women's football into this new governance structure, slated for implementation in the 2024/25 season.
NewCo, mirroring the Premier League's 20-club governance model, marks a pivotal phase in the commercial expansion of English women's football.
In this restructuring, every WSL and Championship club will function as shareholders, representing a significant stride toward the envisioned billion-pound domestic women's football industry within a decade, as was highlighted in an independent review led by former England international Karen Carney earlier this summer.
Sports Pundit says
🤔 The establishment of NewCo takes place amid a flourishing era for women's elite sports, not confined to football alone.
A broader context reveals a booming period, with Deloitte forecasting that next year (2024), revenue from women's elite sports will breach the historic US$1 billion mark for the first time.
This positive trajectory aligns with the collective desire to make the Barclays Women's Super League and Barclays Women's Championship distinctive, competitive, and globally influential.
Nikki Doucet's leadership in this pivotal moment amplifies the ambition to capitalize on the current strength of the women's professional game.
As I stated at the end of the Sports Pundit Podcast with Zarah Al Kudcy, I believe there is a huge opportunity for women’s football to become the second biggest sport in Europe (after men’s football) over the coming years.
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THE PODCAST
Want to hear more from my conversation with Zarah?
We discuss the NWSL finals, the case for women’s football to be standalone from the men’s, the difference between international and domestic growth for the women’s game, and what lessons can be taken from men’s football as well as men’s rugby.
Listen to the full podcast via the link below - and I’d love to hear what you think!👇
JOB BOARD
Marketing Manager, AUS & NZ - UFC (Sydney, Aus)
Partnership Marketing Manager - Newcastle United (Newcastle, UK)
Senior Marketing Manager - Pro Triathletes Organisation (London, UK)
Senior Creative Operations Manager - Strava (Remote, US)
Senior Manager, Sports Marketing - Red Bull (Santa Monica, US)
Do you have a job you’d like to promote to the amazing readers of this newsletter? Drop me a note at andy@sportspundit.co
SOCIAL CLUB
The Sports Pundit Social Club (SPSC) was designed to enable you as readers to hang out with one another without the heavy cost that often goes with traditional sports industry events.
So far, it has achieved that goal. We’ve had 40+ attendees at the past three events in London and has even seen the concept expanded to New York 😀🗽
Rounding out the year, we’ve got events coming up on the 7th of December in London (here) and Los Angeles (here) 🥳
If you’d ever like to come to one of these events, or you’d like to request a future meet up location (current suggestions include Sydney, Dublin, and Lisbon), please register your interest below 👇