Soccer Outdraws Tennis

nancyb · Apr 22, 2004

Noted in this column in the Washington Post by Sally Jenkins. Used to show what a sorry state of affairs tennis is in these days.

Here are just a few of the spectator sports with better attendance figures than tennis, according to a 2002 survey in the Sports Business Journal: rodeo, soccer and greyhound racing.
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dcajedi · Apr 23, 2004

nancyb said:

Noted in this column in the Washington Post by Sally Jenkins. Used to show what a sorry state of affairs tennis is in these days.
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although i bet the only tennis stadium in the country over 15K is arthur ashe in new york, and maybe louis armstrong as well... most tennis stadiums are not that big at all.

Justin O · Apr 23, 2004

No time to register and read the article now, so I don't know if this is addressed, but keep in mind tennis has grown substantially in South America, Asia, and north Africa. On a global scale it's more popular than ever, arguably second only to soccer. Go anywhere in the world and if you watch the sports report where you are, you'll see ATP and WTA highlights.

I think tennis has suffered from the trend in US sports coverage to devote more and more coverage to fewer and fewer sports. IMO there are some parallels with soccer, notably many many in the mainstream media don't give a rat's ass about a bunch of foreigners whose names they can't pronounce playing tennis, especially when so much of the sport's most high profile action takes place in far away lands.

monster · Apr 23, 2004

This is insane. Of course soccer draws better than tennis. The men have 70 tournaments, no counting the Davis Cup. The women have 58, not counting the Fed Cup.

That's 128 events, maybe close to 150-175 when you count the Cups. So there are roughly 1,190 competition days. There are that many pro soccer games in England alone if my math is correct.

That's not to let tennis off the hook - the sport has serious issues. But to even suggest it can draw like soccer or any team sport with multiple leagues playing long schedules in multiple countries is just stupid.

SoFla Metro · Apr 23, 2004

Of course soccer outdraws tennis. What I want to know is how soccer does in relation to rodeo and greyhound racing.

Andy_B · Apr 23, 2004

I think they were talking about American soccer not world soccer.

The idea of mentioning soccer, along with dog racing and rodeo is because all 3 are considered niche sports in the US.

Even the most clueless columnist should know that soccer is enormous world wide.

Andy

boffo · Apr 23, 2004

monster said:

This is insane. Of course soccer draws better than tennis. The men have 70 tournaments, no counting the Davis Cup. The women have 58, not counting the Fed Cup.

That's 128 events, maybe close to 150-175 when you count the Cups. So there are roughly 1,190 competition days. There are that many pro soccer games in England alone if my math is correct.
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I'm not sure these are the right comparisons to make, though I think we're suffering from a lack of details on that blurb Jenkins throws out.

First, the implication of the article as I read it is attendance in the U.S. for these sports, but that's not completely clear. Second, if you're going to count English matches other than the EPL (and maybe FA Cup) as in the example above, then we should also count the B-circuit pro tournaments for tennis, which are very numerous.

Bottom line, I don't think we have nearly enough information from the blurb to know what is being compared, but I don't think what's described above is it. Would be nice if we had info on the original study.

monster · Apr 23, 2004

Andy_B said:

I think they were talking about American soccer not world soccer.

The idea of mentioning soccer, along with dog racing and rodeo is because all 3 are considered niche sports in the US.

Even the most clueless columnist should know that soccer is enormous world wide.

Andy
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Then she's lazy.

Andy_B · Apr 23, 2004

What I want to know is how soccer does in relation to rodeo and greyhound racing.
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Rodeo is similar to what NASCAR used to be 30 years ago. Huge but only in small (very small) pockets of the country.

For example, RodeoHouston (a 20 day rodeo event held every year) has broken the 1 million mark 10 years in a row and recently broke their single day highest paid attendance with 70,668 in Reliant Stadium on March 17.

Greyhound racing used to be very big around the country. But the recent decade has seen this form of sport been decimated. Tracks have closed, revenues and attendance are dramatically down (some close to 60% or 70%) all over the country.

Andy

SoFla Metro · Apr 23, 2004

Andy_B said:

Rodeo is similar to what NASCAR used to be 30 years ago. Huge but only in small (very small) pockets of the country.

For example, RodeoHouston (a 20 day rodeo event held every year) has broken the 1 million mark 10 years in a row and recently broke their single day highest paid attendance with 70,668 in Reliant Stadium on March 17.

Greyhound racing used to be very big around the country. But the recent decade has seen this form of sport been decimated. Tracks have closed, revenues and attendance are dramatically down (some close to 60% or 70%) all over the country.

Andy
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I was kinda just being a jackass , but that is interesting information. Thanks!

kenntomasch · Apr 24, 2004

A chart of how American soccer leagues stack up to other leagues in terms of average attendance.

It's hard to get attendance figures for some of those other sports, the touring-tournament type sports like golf and tennis and auto racing (though I have some NASCAR figures). They don't put them in the boxscores for those events. If you had the time to read the Monday morning paper in the town hosting a tournament, they might mention attendance in a notes column or something, but not always.

Some limited network TV tennis data from 2003:

Tournament............Date......Net...Day...Rtg....TVHH....
Wimbledon.............6/28/03...NBC...Sat...2.0...2,128,000
Wimbledon.............6/29/03...NBC...Sun...1.8...1,887,000
Wimbledon.............6/30/03...NBC...Mon...1.9...2,352,000
Wimbledon.............7/01/03...NBC...Tue...2.1...2,655,000
Wimbledon.............7/02/03...NBC...Wed...1.4...1,725,000
Wimbledon.............7/03/03...NBC...Thu...1.7...1,851,000
Wimbledon.............7/04/03...NBC...Fri...1.9...2,661,000
Wimbledon.............7/05/03...NBC...Sat...2.9...3,421,000
Wimbledon.............7/06/03...NBC...Sun...2.2...2,670,000
RCA Hardcourts........7/26/03...NBC...Sat...0.8.....862,000
RCA Hardcourts........7/27/03...NBC...Sun...0.7.....759,000
Pilot Pen Intl.Final..8/23/03...CBS...Sat...1.2...1,245,000
US Open...............8/30/03...CBS...Sat...1.4...1,448,000
US Open...............8/31/03...CBS...Sun...1.8...1,889,000

And from 2002:

Tournament..............Date.....Net...Day...Rtg....TVHH....
Pacific Life Open.....03/17/02...ABC...Sun...0.8.....866,000
French Open...........06/01/02...NBC...Sat...1.1...1,159,000
French Open...........06/02/02...NBC...Sun...1.8...1,857,000
French Open...........06/07/02...NBC...Fri...1.1...1,153,000
French Open...........06/08/02...NBC...Sat...2.8...2,909,000
French Open...........06/09/02...NBC...Sun...1.3...1,374,000
Wimbledon.............06/29/02...NBC...Sat...1.8...1,875,000
Wimbledon.............06/30/02...NBC...Sun...1.2...1,233,000
Wimbledon.............07/01/02...NBC...Sat...1.8...1,873,000
Wimbledon.............07/02/02...NBC...Tue...1.7...1,756,000
Wimbledon.............07/03/02...NBC...Wed...1.7...1,845,000
Wimbledon.............07/04/02...NBC...Thu...2.0...2,097,000
Wimbledon.............07/05/02...NBC...Fri...1.8...1,861,000
Wimbledon.............07/06/02...NBC...Sat...3.4...3,631,000
Wimbledon.............07/07/02...NBC...Sun...2.4...2,578,000
US Open...............08/31/02...CBS...Sat...1.7...1,771,000
US Open (Rain)........09/01/02...CBS...Sun...1.6...1,746,000
US Open (Rain)........09/02/02...CBS...Mon...1.5...1,598,000
US Open (Rain)........09/02/02...CBS...Mon...1.5...1,626,000
US Open (Rain)........09/02/02...CBS...Mon...0.5.....524,000
US Open...............09/06/02...CBS...Fri...2.6...2,778,000
US Open...............09/06/02...CBS...Fri...1.9...2,050,000
US Open...............09/06/02...CBS...Fri...1.4...1,528,000
US Open...............09/07/02...CBS...Sat...5.2...5,531,000
US Open...............09/07/02...CBS...Sat...2.9...3,067,000
US Open...............09/08/02...CBS...Sun...6.2...6,571,000
Family Circle Cup.....04/20/02...CBS...Sat...1.2...1,256,000
Family Circle Cup.....04/21/02...CBS...Sun...1.0...1,019,000
Acura Classic.........08/04/02...ABC...Sun...1.1...1,206,000
Pilot Pen Intl........08/24/02...CBS...Sat...1.6...1,663,000

That 6.2 on 9/8/02 was the classic Sampras/Agassi final.

I don't think I have very much cable tennis data.

Has The Tennis Channel launched yet?

Real Ray · Apr 24, 2004

You can get an idea from some of these ATP figures

2003: The U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships at Houston has reported record attendance figures of 50,737 during the week of April 21-27. Meanwhile, major preparations also have begun for the Tennis Masters Cup, which will be held at the Westside Tennis Club from November 8-16.

During a week in which ATP Champions Race 2003 leader Andre Agassi became the World No. 1 and collected his second U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship, 4,936 people attended each session and all 10 sessions were sold out, which totaled 49,360 for the week. Grounds passes also proved to be a big hit with 1,377 being sold.

Stella Artois-(London)
Record crowds all week in 2003 totalling 52,553.
Monday 9th June: 7,662 - Record crowd for the Championship's first day
Tuesday 10th June: 8,167 - Only 5th time in tournament history to pass the 8,000 figure
Wednesday 11th June: 8,362 - An all-time crowd record
Thursday 12th June: 7,978
Friday 13th June: 7,428
Saturday 14th June: 6,478 - Centre court capacity
Sunday 15th June: 6,478 - Centre court capacity

1999 Cinicinnati - For the second straight day, an attendance record was set. Tuesday afternoon's session drew 11,413 fans, surpassing the mark of 11,194 set in 1996.
On Monday, the tournament set a record for an opening session by having a paid attendance of 10,913. After three main draw sessions, the 1999 tournament has outdrawn last year's by more than 300, tallying 31,909 through mid-afternoon Tuesday. Tickets are available in limited numbers for most of the remaining sessions. Both Saturday night's semifinal session and Sunday's final are sold out.

2002 ATP: Five tournaments in the Americas region established tournament attendance records in 2002: Abierto Mexicano in Acapulco (36,466), U.S. Clay Court Championships in Houston (48,626), Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells (213,792), Costa Do Sauipe, Bahia in Brazil (24,120), Tennis Masters Series - Toronto (143,037), and the Bellsouth Open in Vina del Mar, Chile (22,000). Three other tournaments in the Americas region during 2002 topped their attendance marks from the previous year: the Kroger St. Jude in Memphis, the Miller Lite Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in Newport and the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, D.C.
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