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Thu 19 Jun 1969 - The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995)
Page 30 - Power struggle on the tennis courts
Power struggle on the
tennis courts
With Wimbledon only four days
away, MICHAEL THOMPSON
NOEL in London discusses the im
pact "open" tournaments are Iiav~ : -
ing on the tennis world.
Rod Laver — earned SUSIOO.OOO (SA893 00 ) last year.Help
Rod Laver — earned SUSIOO.OOO (SA893 00 )
last year.
WIMBLEDON —
"open" Wimble
don ■— is just a few
days away. The straw
berries are ready, the
courts like emeraldine.
And at Bristol last week,
under a fierce sun and
Wills's five-figure sponsor
ship, the stars of interna
tional tennis polished up
Iheir grass play in the Bris
iol Open championships.
But behind the bland
prosperity of modern tennis
— the fat professional con
tracts, the glamour and the
cash — lies chaos.
It all comes down to a
struggle for power between
the International Lawn Ten
nis Federation and the na
tional associations on_ the
one hand — the professional
promoters on the other.
'EXPENSES'
Britain's brave pioneering
for an "open" Wimbledon
— last year's was the first
— was merely the opening
salvo of an unfinished
revolution. At stake: the fut
ure of the game, and huge
financial fortunes.
Britain forced "open"
tennis upon the ILTF for a
very simple reason: to ban
ish "shamateurism". With
the colossal success of Jack
Kramer's legendary circus of
professionals — Sedgman,
Hoad, Gonzales, Rosewall,
Trabert — top amateurs be
gan to squeeze higher and
higher "expenses" from the
game.
Kramer, too, was being
squeezed. He quit. Today
the professionals are in two
camps — George McCall's
National Tennis League,
which owns all the older
stars (Laver, Rosewall, Gon
zales, Emerson and Stolle);
and Lamar Hunt's World
Championship Tennis, which
owns the second-generation
pros: Roche, Newcombe,
Taylor and Okker, plus four
others who comprise the
"Handsome Eight".
But the professional pro
moters are in trouble. They
are short of money. Com
bined guarantees to players
resulted in a reported de
ficit of SUS150.000 for the
NTL last year; and al
though Lamar Hunt's World
Championship Tennis can
always be written off as a
tax loss for his Texan oil
empire, he is hardly mining
gold.
In the meantime, the
ILTF had compromised on
"open" tennis. Jealous of
the power of the profes
sional promoters, and fear
ful that they would take
too much money from the
game, the ILTF agreed to
a limited number of "open"
tournaments. Wimbledon
was one. But the Davis
Cup remained all-amateur.
The ILTF may compro
mise still further — per
mitting, perhaps, a few
more "open" tournaments
in 1970. But it is deter
mined not to lose control of
the sport to the promoters.
The promoters control the
world's top players, the
Lavers, and the Roches, the
ones with crowd appeal.
The national associations
control the prestige tourna
ments — and most of the
world's established stadia:
Wimbledon, Forest Hills,
the Stade Koland Garros in
Paris. It looks like dead
lock. On the other hand,
the professional promoters
may be forced out.
But, however tangled the
structure of modern tennis,
the professionals themselves
are on to a winner. Gon
zales is said to have made
£500,000 during his playing
life; Laver, with SUS100,
000 in earnings last year
(and £10,000 in the last
three weeks) is on a guar
anteed £210,000 over five
years; Roger Taylor's con
tract will bring him in a
basic salary of about
£41,000 over three years;
and Arthur Ashe, winner of
the US Open at Forest l-Iills
last summer, is earning so
much money as a "regis
tered" player that he re
cently turned down
SUS250.000 from George
McCall.
STRUGGLE
At the other end of the
scale in lawn tennis, things
are slightly easier for the
amateur. Mark Cox, the
British No 1, receives ?
guaranteed BP Internationa!
Tennis Fellowship worth
£2,000 a year. Gerald Bat
trick and Paul Hutchins ge
£1,500. But it is sometime!
still a struggle.
At Beckenham last week ]
spoke to Pattie Hogan
America's No 10. "If I gc
£20 a week on tour 1'rr
lucky", said Miss Hogan
21. "I get free accommoda
> tion and my meals ar<
usually paid for. But no
travel. It costs JUS500 tc
come to England—$US40(
' supplied by my parents
■ Prizemoney? I'd be lucb
■ to get any of that. But it';
: worth it. It's difficult earl;
: on but it acts as a natura
i eliminator. Unless they'vi
1 got unlimited private funds
i a player — a girl at anj
[,at? ~ f® either made pt
finished by the time she'»"
21. If she hasn't made the ,
®r.„ _ V t'len she never "'
will. For a boy it's more
(like 24". ' -
With huge guarantees for
the players, the professional
promoters are desperately
in need of the sort of extra "
revenue which "open." ;
tennis — whether sponsored '■
by manufacturers or pri
valely promoted by the ^
national associations •—. r
can provide.
The professionals' own •'
tournament circuit has al
ready been forced to resort ; I
to the sort of entertain
ment gimmickry which
characterises US footba(T
In a series last year, lines
men were issued with
whistles, the players wore
coloured shirts (and nick- '
names — Roger Taylor;
toiled as the "Red Baron") •!
and conventional scoring 1
was scrapped in favour >'al')
the Van Allen Simplified
System — first to 31 points.
SHRINKS
But whatever the course
of "open" tenrtis, sponsor
ship is vital. The four main ,
sponsors of the sport in
Britain are Wills, Rothmans,
Dewar and BP. Rothman's
reputed involvement in the >
sport is £50,000 a year. Do
they get their money's /
worth? "Let's say we ■
achieve a happy balance",'
says_ George Hendon, Roth- ,'!
man's sales promotion''
manager.
But while tlie number ctf
UK tournaments has
; shrunk from more than 200
i to little over 60, Wimbledon
; —■ glorious, solvent Wim.-,
; bledon —- is in a remark-'
i able position. From an in
I come of £200,000 for the
i last championships, the All'-,
• England Club finished with;
t a surplus of £50,000 — al-1"
; most all of it ploughed''
straight back into tennis via
[ the LTA.
, And although admission
t prices are slightly higher
\ this year, the Club was
, forced to return £125,000
- to unlucky tickct applicants.,
; (Small wonder that som« "
t ticket touts make £1,000 pn
) Wimbledon). Prize money."*
) has been increased By "'
. nearly £8,000 to £33,370. ,
/ (£3,000 for the men's singles
s winner — half that for the' '
I women's). Its future is as
I sured.
i Yes, there'll always be a '
, Wimbledon — and straw- ,rt
' berries for tea. « >
Article identifier
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131790899
Page identifier
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page14538340
APA citation
Power struggle on the tennis courts (1969, June 19).The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), p. 30. Retrieved November 24, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131790899
MLA citation
"Power struggle on the tennis courts"The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995) 19 June 1969: 30. Web. 24 Nov 2025 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131790899>.
Harvard/Australian citation
1969 'Power struggle on the tennis courts',The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), 19 June, p. 30. , viewed 24 Nov 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131790899
Wikipedia citation
{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131790899 |title=Power struggle on the tennis courts |newspaper=[[The Canberra Times]] |volume=43, |issue=12,342 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=19 June 1969 |accessdate=24 November 2025 |page=30 |via=National Library of Australia}}

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