Why Tennis is a Dying Sport in the U.S.

Abstract

This paper focuses on an economic approach to why tennis is a dying sport in the U.S. Three main reasons are analyzed. The first reason is the emergence of football and basketball as profitable sports in this country. The second is the nature of tennis itself that lends to its demise in an environment of sports as big business in the U.S. Lastly, tennis is mostly an individual sport and hence doesn’t create profit opportunities for colleges and/or professional leagues. Football and basketball are a major source of revenues for many universities, the NCAA, and professional leagues. Even though it is concentrated on college and professional levels, the effects reverberate all the way down to the earliest recognition of talent in a child. Sport talent is recognized at a younger age now. Children who possess talent or a skill unique to sports start to focus on a sport (or two at the most) at an early age. The nature of football and basketball as team sports necessitates an institution (usually schools) to organize, train, and coach the young athletes. This continues up to college level (at least one year for basketball). The NBA changed the minimum age for draft eligibility to 19 years old in 2005, practically forcing high school basketball players to spend at least one year in college. The second reason tennis is a dying sport in the U.S. is the nature of the sport itself. The skills that are applicable to tennis are eye-hand coordination, being able to run fast, and endurance. These skills are transferable to other sports. Eye-hand coordination is important in baseball, basketball, and golf. Athleticism is central to success in football, basketball, and pretty much any other sports. Since these kinds of skills can be recognized in a child at an early age and football and basketball are profitable sports, the result is that those youths who possess one or more of these skills are encouraged to focus on one of those sports (or, if the eye-hand coordination skill is striking, baseball or golf).The third reason is that tennis is an individual sport. Tennis players peak at a young age and they usually leave school to become professional athletes. This is the complete opposite of football and basketball, which are team sports, and hence require organization and coaching (at the very least for players to play as a team). Hence, tennis provides few, if any, opportunities for colleges or universities to profit off of it. In fact, it is one of the sport programs that incur costs but not revenues to a higher educational institution.In this paper, I provide a qualitative analysis on each of the aforementioned causes of the dying of tennis, supported by data and interviews with coaches and tennis players. I hope that this paper can contribute to the discussion on tennis as a dying sport and help explain the intricate, and sometimes unclear, relationship among sports. My hope is to also try to explain the effects of the emergence of football and basketball as big business on other sports.