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It appears that the leading governing bodies in tennis are coming together to offer relief funding to some extent for professional tennis players. In addition, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) has announced the rollout of a World Tennis Tour Player Panel. On the surface, this seems like a great idea, but looking at it through the lens of professional sports this seems to be a distorted trick to offer players a placemat for their voice. ITF Tour Player Panel is 100% created by the ITF and directed by its’ appointed directors. This is all a distraction from the greater issues the professional tennis tour(s) have. Whether it’s the ATP Tour, WTA, or ITF World Tennis Tour the core concerns stem from the same root cause. One of its key issues starts with the players as the overall problem. If knowledge is power, then a fundamental concern is the lack of appropriate skill and wisdom professional tennis players have for managing the necessary aspects of their professional career, opportunities, and overall best interest.

WHERE IS THE MISSING LINK?

Providing some funding for players is a great idea, but it only treats the symptoms. There are so many underlying factors that contribute to players' lack of funding, lack of preparedness, and lack of opportunities. The overarching issue starts with poor vision for a scalable framework and a huge lack of skill for insulating revenue streams for players. Players are not equipped to make business decisions regarding this type of discussion. Organizations such as ATP Tour (men) & WTA (women), along with governing bodies like the International Tennis Federation (and other major governing tennis bodies) fail the players by isolating the players to their own thinking. Meaning, the players don't have proper representation on any level of the game. An example of this is the ATP Players Council and now the ITF desire to form a Players Panel for its World Tour... These are absolutely horrible for the progress and best interest of professional tennis players. It's honestly what you'd expect out of a High School administration to offer its students.

WHAT DO PLAYERS NEED?

Collective Empowerment
Professional tennis athletes and coaches must have a Union/Organization to represent their sole interest. This provides a collective voice for each person by qualified and capable people to advance and maximize the Tour's offering and framework as it relates to the professional growth of the player and the coach.

Management & Marketing
All professional athletes (and coaches) need professional representation. Representation for tour event scheduling, crafting & managing agreements, relationship development, partnership activation, creating & vetting opportunities, and so on. Management serves as the central point of communication and week-to-week decision making regarding when-to-do, what-to-do, and how-to-do the next steps. Leadership is required for real advancement, innovation, and security.

HOW DO WE MOVE THE NEEDLE FORWARD?

Tennis has too many quasi professionals. This isn’t a call for more parental participation in professional tennis. Nor is it the time to go soliciting on a begging campaign to more of the same (over tapped) tennis brands for free sponsorship dollars. Forward steps for professional progress might include the following:

• Players and Coaches need to shift their tennis conversations to thoughts regarding their business development…

• Players & Coaches collectively should consider the formation of Coach Players Association for the purpose of bargaining with the ITF, ATP & WTA…

• Players should consider joining management teams to have proper independent representation for the overall navigation of their careers…

• Consider creating opportunities in marketing that are not connected to your on-court performance…

• Every Player and Coach should have a professional website that is verified by linking it to their profile located on ITF World Tennis Tour, ATP Tour and WTA website…

• There are many more things to be added to this section of moving the needle forward. This will require an in-depth conversation to outline relevant next steps.

I believe, with forward-looking leadership, we can all bridge the gap of problems to solutions Together with JesseCooper.com

Ref Source: ITF Announcement