Finding Their Swings

By Sean Gregory

Fronting the tennis industry's new website is a photo of Andy Roddick, the most popular male player in the U.S., roaring like a pinched lion, his right fist pumping. Look closer, and you'll see he might not be celebrating a cross-court winner. The caption reads, "If you are single and looking to meet active people, I definitely would recommend playing tennis." Perhaps Roddick, who recently split with pop singer Mandy Moore, just scored a date. The industry's message to the rest of us: Tennis can turn singles into doubles. Who can blame tennis for serving at love? After all, nothing else has worked to boost the game over the past decade. Since 1992, the number of people who play has dropped 42%, from 17.3 million to 10 million, according to the National Sporting Goods Association (NSGA). Apparel sales totaled $254 million in 2002, a 31% decline from 10 years earlier; sales of tennis shoes were down 33% from their 1992 levels. "It's safe to say the tennis business is lethargic right now," says Brian Dillman, vice president of marketing for Wilson Sporting Goods' racquet-sports division, whose profits have fallen 23% since 2000. "There's not much to get excited about."

The sport's country-club partner, golf, is also on the downswing. Participation is flat: annual rounds played have fallen 4.5%, to 494 million, since 2000. In the five-year period from 1997 to 2002, according to the NSGA, spending on golf clubs, balls and apparel shrank from $5.33 billion to $4.6 billion, a 14% drop. Equipment sales fell again last year. Golf has even taken down a Wall Street firm. Gotham Partners, a hedge fund with $300 million in assets, shut down last year because of losses on golf-course investments: too many new courses have been built.

Faced with these depressing figures, the two sports are launching a marketing blitz to attract new players. Each is spending about $10 million on a campaign to generate more interest in the game. It's all taking shape on two new websites: tenniswelcomecenter.com and playgolfamerica.com Both enable players, novice or experienced, to type in a zip code and search for local facilities that offer lessons, leagues and other programs. For the first time, the alphabet fiefdoms of golf and tennis (the PGA, USGA, ATP Tour, USTA and others) and major manufacturers such as Nike, Wilson, Prince and Callaway seem united under a single cause: to persuade more people to put down the remote and spend money on sports. "You've got to appreciate the spirit of this campaign--give these industries credit for coming together," says David Carter, founder of the Los Angeles-based Sports Business Group, a consulting firm. "It's a solid first step for these sports."

More than 3,000 public parks and commercial tennis facilities have signed up for the Tennis Welcome Center designation. That gets them into the center's database and access to free marketing on the website. The only qualification is that the facility must offer introductory lessons taught by a licensed pro. The United States Tennis Association (USTA) alone is spending $4 million on the program, which also includes TV spots during this year's U.S. Open that will promote the site, and print ads in obvious places like Men's Health and not-so obvious places like Vibe magazine (to attract the hip-hop crowd, which has long avoided tennis). "If novices go out to a park and try to learn tennis on their own, they're most likely not going to stay with the game," says Kurt Kamperman, president of the USTA's community-tennis program. "The website makes it easier than ever to get the necessary instruction."

That may not be enough. After all, tennis lessons have been around longer than Martina Navratilova. A website adds convenience, but "standing alone, the Tennis Welcome Center program will have marginal impact," contends Marc Ganis, president of Sportscorp Ltd. in Chicago. "What's missing is aggressive economic incentives like equipment discounts and free lessons." Jim Baugh, the former president of Wilson Sporting Goods who now heads up the Tennis Industry Association (TIA), says no tennis governing body can mandate price controls. But Web transparency can create local competition. Says Baugh: "If I'm a tennis club and I know that three or four other clubs will appear when a customer does a ZIP-code search, I'm now going to offer the most attractive package."

Golf is trying to create a similar online marketplace at playgolfamerica.com The Professional Golfers' Association of America (PGA), which is organizing the Play Golf America website and advertising campaign, is selling speed rather than price, given that the cost of a round has been declining anyway amid the surplus of courses. "The complaint we hear more than any other is that golf takes too much time," says PGA of America president M.G. Orender, who claims that more than 17 million adults have expressed interest in playing golf. "We're asking our Play Golf America members to get back to the basics--not only to offer the introductory lessons programs but also to offer nine-hole or even six-hole leagues, and couples and family leagues, so that people can manage their time."

The PGA's plan has doubters too. "It's a stab in the dark," says Casey Alexander, a research analyst who covers the golf industry for Gilford Securities in New York City. "Even if the p.r. does reach a new audience, Play Golf America doesn't change any of the problems that crop up once you get to the golf course." These include matters of etiquette--How many practice swings can I take?--that can intimidate new players. Alexander says the course owners, not the golf pros, must run the reforms. Ron Drapeau, CEO of Callaway Golf, the $814 million Big Bertha manufacturer that will imprint playgolfamerica.com on its advertising, says any strategy is better than none at all: "It can't be put on one group's shoulders. Look, we're going down some blind alleys, and we're going to make mistakes. But I'm excited, because for the first time in golf's history, we at least have something."

Some experts contend that no amount of marketing can boost golf and tennis. Like basketball in the late 1970s, they say, the sports need a rivalry like Larry Bird vs. Magic Johnson to capture fans' imagination. After all, tennis peaked in the 1970s, when John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors and Bjorn Borg played epic matches. That's why tennis recently revamped the pro tour to create the U.S. Open Series, which will try to build rivalries by forging a six-week summer "season" that links tournaments. Golf sales hit a 15-year high in 1997, when Tiger Woods arrived on the scene. TIA president Baugh is more optimistic: "An Andre Agassi or a Jimmy Connors is icing on the cake. You can't count on that." He points out that exercise walking is the largest participation sport in the country. "There are no big-time professional walkers kids are looking up to," Baugh says. But unlike tennis and golf, walks don't cost a thing. And you don't have to swing.