Lynn Mennillo

I like Rafael Nadal. I really do. But on this one very rare instance, I have to side with the ATP over the young Spaniard.
When asked in Miami whether he was comfortable playing in the United States for two consecutive Masters Series events, Nadal said, “I’m very comfortable in United States, but not for this time. It’s not fair have one month, two tournaments, and after go back to Europe and we have to play three Masters Series on clay.”
What especially irked Nadal was that the schedule was changed to accommodate an American TV network. Since television coverage of the NCAA college basketball tournament would have interfered with broadcasting from the Sony Ericsson Open, Miami was pushed back a week. Consequently, the European clay season was shortened by a week, and the three Masters Series events there have to be played over a four week rather than a five week period.
“Everybody can say about the Olympics. Is not for the Olympics,” Nadal explained. “This year we have that. It’s because these two tournaments are one week later, because you have university or something like this, college basketball. I respect 100% the college basketball. I think it’s very important. I know here it’s very important, the college basketball, because I saw always the American players and the mens in the locker room watching always this. But, well, we can’t have the calendar thinking about the college basketball, no? So we are 100% disappointed about this decision of the ATP.”
Nadal then repeated his statements last week during Davis Cup as reported by Reuters: “The truth is the ATP is making our lives almost impossible. Moving Miami and Indian Wells back because of college basketball is something I understand because it’s very important to them but this is a world tour. We only have three Masters Series events and we have to play them with an important tournament like Barcelona all running together.”
At first glance, Nadal seems to have a legitimate argument. The ATP appears to have put monetary concerns over the welfare of their players, and Nadal and the rest of the players should have a say on the schedule and have every right to use the media to express their concerns and vent their frustrations. Even with the proposed changes for 2009, the schedule is a mess, and the ATP seems determined to lessen the importance of clay as a surface. And forcing the players to play three major tournaments in four weeks does border on insanity.
His frustration over the schedule being changed due to March Madness is also understandable. Should one major sport change their schedule to accommodate television coverage of another major sport? Many Americans can relate to Nadal’s frustrations because they are also tired of having the major TV networks dictate the dates and times of sporting events.
But the reality is that given the position of tennis on the sports popularity ladder in many countries including the U.S., the ATP unfortunately did have to create a calendar that took college basketball into consideration.
Sports are a business. Ticket revenues don’t pay for the costs to run a tournament, including those big fat paychecks that the players get at the end of the tournament. It’s the revenue from television rights fees and the sponsors that pay the bills. And sponsors want their corporate names and logos placed strategically on court so that they are visible on television.
CBS broadcasts the NCAA college basketball tournament, an extraordinarily popular event in the U.S. Tennis is not. CBS is also a business. Their revenues are based on ratings, and decisions made are based on that fact. If Miami had kept their original dates, the men’s final would have conflicted with basketball coverage, and the result would most likely have been no television coverage of the men’s final on a major network.
Tennis must be on TV, especially from such a large tournament as the Sony Ericsson Open. It’s not just merely to be visible to grow the game-it’s a matter of survival to be on TV in today’s sports climate. Tennis in the U.S.-and in many other parts of the world-is fighting for a place in a very crowded sports scene, and the ATP is very aware of that fact.
Nadal obviously has to think about his own career, but the ATP has to make decisions based on what is best for the sport in the host country of this very major tournament, not for what is best for one player or merely the very top players in the game. And note that it is only the top players who complain about the schedule. The guys out of the top 50 have to play every week anyway.
What is odd about Nadal’s comments is that he knew at the beginning of the season that Miami would be moved back and that the clay season would be shortened. If he was so concerned about being tired, why then did he fly all the way to Dubai before Indian Wells? You guessed it: $$$$.
In one way, you can’t blame players like Nadal for taking the money thrown at them by the Dubai tournament organizers. But then one may humbly suggest that these same players not complain that the ATP is making decisions solely for monetary reasons without any concern for the players, and of being tired and being forced to play too many tournaments when they are doing exactly the same thing.
This isn’t the first time a top player has complained about the schedule while at the same time flying to distant lands to compete in tournaments or participate in exhibitions that benefit their wallets.
Nadal’s complaints about the college basketball tournament also seem like a smoke screen. The top European players complain every year about having to spend 4-5 weeks in the U.S. for Indian Wells and Miami, and then again in the summer about having to spend August in America. In their own turn, the American players refuse to cross the pond to spend their entire spring on the clay in Europe and are often no-shows for many of the fall European indoor hardcourt events.
It’s a bit difficult to sympathize with either side: players from other parts of the world, including Latin America, Australia, and Asia, spend months on the road without being able to return home.
Players including Nadal also need to realize that when they complain, the average fan only sees an overpaid athlete who doesn’t appreciate their dream life.
These fans would trade places with the players in a heartbeat. Instead of sitting in a cubicle in an office, forced to listen to an irritating boss, and worrying about the mortgage payments, they could travel around the world and get paid enormous sums of money to chase down a fuzzy yellow ball. And play in cities like London, Paris, Rome, and yes, Miami, places that many fans can’t afford to travel to in a lifetime, let alone all in one year, even in the best of economic times.
Again, I like Nadal. It would be hard not to like the young Spaniard. A likable guy and a true warrior, he’s a player who never lets his fans down. Nadal fights for every point, never conceding defeat, even when down. The game’s own Raging Bull is one of the few top players who reveals his emotions on court, inviting the spectators to share the intense moments of a match along with him.
Everywhere he goes, fans clamor to get his autograph or picture, and far more often than not, he willingly complies. He’s a well brought up kid, polite and unassuming. Normally all business on court, he demonstrates an on court maturity far beyond his age.
Tennis players tend to live in an insular world, a bubble like existence since players are out there on their own, fighting to survive themselves in the game. So someone in Nadal’s entourage should explain the facts of life to him. No, not those facts of life. The business facts of life, particularly the importance of television to tennis.