This is the third and final part of the three-part series of Debra Rose’s reports from the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells this past March. Debra covered the event for TennisGrandStand.
Unfortunately, the most disappointing aspect of covering the 2008 Pacific Life Open was some of the negative things I witnessed. In this third and part of my report, I’ll share some of what I saw and why I find it so disconcerting. I want to preface this by saying that this is just based on my own observations across four days. I’m not pretending that I saw everything and everyone and that I have all the answers. There are always exceptions to the rule and different ways to look at things. I also don’t intend for this column to be a reflection upon the individual people working at the Pacific Life Open or in the media; all of them, just like all of us, are just getting up every day to do our job and do it the best that we know how. This is jus tanother take on things.
Mainstream Tennis Media is Out of Touch With the Fans
I’ll just be blunt: the mainstream tennis media is out of touch with the fans; they seem to have no idea what we want, the players we like, and how we view the sport. One of the most shocking things I witnessed in my time at the tournament was how little these journalists actually watched matches. As I said Part Two of my report, I never saw another media member sitting in a media seat with me. How can we tennis fans expect the media to properly promote this sport if they don’t even get out and see it? The vast majority of the media seemed to sit at their computers while they watched Stadium 1 and Stadium 2 matches on a small 13 inch or so television. From time to time, some would sit at the bar inside, or go out into the Press Box and actually watch the ball being hit live. But rarely did I see this happen. They’re analyzing matches based on what players say in their press conferences and the stats sheets that are handed out after each match, not based on what they actually viewed.
Perhaps the most shocking thing I saw was during the match between James Blake and Carlos Moya. Tennis legend Bud Collins came and sat in the press box with his lunch a few seats away from me. He tells someone else more or less: “I can only come out here to eat my lunch; otherwise they make me stay attached to my computer all day.” I could not believe my ears. Here we have one of the best tennis journalists – and fans – this sport has ever seen, and instead of going out and watching these matches, and assuming he was serious, his employer forces him to sit at his computer and watch the matches on a small TV Screen?? What’s the point? Why even send him to the event? What a shame, and what a waste of a person who has done such good things for the sport over the past several decades.
Joel Drucker and Brad Falkner were the only two journalists I saw out and about watching practices (and perhaps this explains why Joel Drucker is one of the best – he actually had a notepad and was taking notes as he watched players practice); it was so impressive to me in light of everything else I observed that I felt it deserved special mention. Of course, there are other great tennis writers who understand the fans’ perspective; I would be ignorant to pretend there are none. But what I witnessed was less than encouraging.
The Players Can Do More
Something disappointing about Indian Wells is that because of the great golf and tennis community in the area, many of the players’ hotels have tennis courts. Thus, many players choose to practice at their hotels instead of on the tournament grounds. I think this is a shame, and I think that players should be encouraged if not required to practice on the grounds at least some of the time. There were certain players I always saw on the grounds practicing, and certain ones I rarely saw, like Maria Sharapova, Bob and Mike Bryan, Lleyton Hewitt, and others.
These are all stars of the game, and seeing players practice is one of the best fan experiences of attending a big tournament like the Pacific Life Open. I understand the convenience for a player to be able to roll out of bed, go out and hit, and go back to his or her hotel room to shower instead of dealing with fans and peers and media and cafeteria food, but I don’t think asking players to make appearances on the grounds to interact a little with fans is too much to ask, considering that tennis is nothing without its fans, especially its fans who pony up the money to attend these tournaments and support them when they play.
Let the Fans in Early!
One of the changes at this year’s Pacific Life Open was that instead of opening the gates at 9am, they waited until 10am, only one hour before matches start. At an event where the day session crowds peak at over 20,000 people, this is just an illogical and poorly-reasoned decision, for many reasons. The line of people waiting for the main gates to open was so long it extended out into the parking lot. Fans got tired and cranky before even entering the grounds.
Of course I understand that certain things need to be set up for the day, but the tournament misses a real financial opportunity by making people wait another hour to get in. Because no matches started until 11am, fans entering at nine could check out the practice courts, then get a coffee or go to one of the many tournament shops and vendors and spend money. So not only did the tournament make the beginning of each day difficult for fans, it lost a real money-making opportunity.
Stadium Seating Problems
For some reason, the Pacific Life Open organization has decided that half of the lower seating on Stadiums 2 and 3 should be sold as separate tickets. Well, it’s easy to understand why; it’s a better money-maker; they can give people the feeling of being up close on smaller show courts, but charge more than the regular session tickets. This is just plain ludicrous. No matter how full these stadiums were, the side reserved for seats bought specifically for each court was nearly empty. During the first round match between Tommy Haas and Julien Benneteau, fans who waited deep into the cold windy evening to see this match were turned away while over 100 seats were empty because they were reserved for people who bought seats specifically for that court. Clearly there is either no interest for those seats or the people who buy them aren’t using them. But the real tennis fans are the losers here, and it’s a real shame.
For all its faults, something Wimbledon does so well is provide fans the opportunity to obtain seats on the big show courts after the ticketholders return them. For a significantly reduced cost, die-hard fans can get to see their favorites on the big court, and all of the seats are used. There is no reason the Pacific Life Open cannot do this for all of those special reserved Stadium 2 and 3 seats and all of the Stadium 1 Box seats that are always so empty. Besides the logistics of setting up a couple ticket windows and hire a couple of staffers to deal with the logistics, I see this as a win-win for everyone. The seats are full, which pleases TV broadcasters and advertisers and players who love the support. The fans are happy because they get the chance to see the top players, and the tournament is happy because they get to re-sell and make extra money on these returned tickets that have already been paid for once.
Fans Love Doubles!
There’s no other way to say it: fans love Doubles!!!! It’s such a shame to see the Pacific Life Open organization shove Doubles on the smallest courts – Court 5 and Court 7 – that have almost no seats (Court 5 has three rows of seating on each side and none at the ends, Court 7 has three rows of seating on ONE side and none at the end). While I was at the event, a string of doubles matches were put on these courts, and the crowd control was nearly impossible! There were no Roger Federers or Andy Roddicks playing; just doubles specialists and lower-ranked singles players. But the fans were there, fighting and clawing to get in and see these matches.
I understand that singles is the priority; there are TV deals for the Stadium 1 and 2 courts at Indian Wells; the stars of the game are mostly in singles, but the fans actually play doubles more. They understand it better because it’s what the fans who play do. They know the players, and they want to see it. While the ATP has improved somewhat with it’s Doubles Rules campaign, both the tours and the tournaments can – and need to – do a better job with promoting doubles, because from what I witnessed, the fans are there and are interested.
There Are Some Positives
I don’t want you to finish reading this and think it’s all bad news. The Pacific Life Open is a very fan-friendly tournament and in a lot of ways is better than most.
But some improvements would be easy and inexpensive to implement. But if the fans are always put last, the fans will start to attend other tournaments or just stay home and watch on TV. The Pacific Life Open is a great event that, if they could fix these few problems, could be amazing.
As for the tennis media, what I saw was disconcerting. If those journalists who ostensibly have the task of promoting this sport and covering it to make it accessible to the average sports and tennis fan don’t even get out of the media room and experience the sport, how can we die-hard tennis fans, who badly want to see this sport grow, expect the situation to improve? In this case, the outlook seems a little bleak.