Sharapova is a person who's particularly well-served by this website/blog approach, simply because of the amount of resentment directed toward her for being, well, so successful and broadly appealing. She now has a platform to which she is entitled - to which all of us are entitled - from which to make her case on any issue. And so. ..
I made a bunch of calls this morning to WTA personnel and various agents and tennis establishment types in an effort to get to the bottom of this controversy. Why would Sharapova deliver such a broadside, without even having warned the WTA (a survey on how she should proceed? - gotta love it!)? The best answer I can come up with is "frustration", and a protest against the way the tour is going about its marketing business.
Some WTA officials were surprised by Sharapova's strong stand, as in, Whoa, where's THAT coming from? The backstory is that Sharapova is disgruntled by the fact that this is a lengthy (four hour-plus) shoot coming on the eve of, or, for some players, during, a major tennis tournament, the Italian Open. This is a valid complaint, and it may yet be made even more forcefully by players included in the shoot who might be playing over the weekend in Berlin. Anyone who thinks that a four hour video shoots ends in four hours, and isn't a draining experience, has never been to one. So the scheduling of this shoot was ill-advised, and problematic enough to have a real impact on the on-court fortunes of the women who take part in it.
Now the WTA is not asking for the players to do anything that they themselves have not lobbied for: increased, better marketing of the tour (in other words, themselves). And the WTA rule book makes it clear that the women are obligated to give up to five hours of their time to projects marketing the WTA Tour. Like the Aces program, it's part of the WTA's official policy regarding media and marketing obligations. Another relevant rule deals with the "clean-clothing contract" many women have with their sponsors. Players who can't or won't sully their comely Adidas or Nike outfits with a WTA arm or breast patch must give "commensurate value" in promoting the tour. You can certainly position the shoot as an attempt to get commensurate promotional value for the tour from Sharapova.
Still, the timing - and time-required - issue is pretty formidable. By contrast, look at how the US Open filmed its excellent Greatest Road Trip campaign for last year's tournament: The USTA had a bus decorated and delivered to the Indian Wells site. It set up the shoot so that each player was in and out of the bus in half-an-hour. It all went off without a glitch.
As I understand it, this video shoot is part of the effort to promote not just the WTA, but the fall WTA Championships in Doha, or Dough-ha. It's part of the package the WTA promised Doha in its negotiations to hold the tournament there. Nothing wrong or sinister about that. But to me this controversy is, aptly, symbolic of the WTA Dough-ha sellout. The cash payout to the WTA from Doha was massive, but it still seems like taking the championships to Doha is going to have no up-side besides the quick money. Nobody is going to see the event, and nobody is going to attend the event.
Well, I'm off to the farm in game-rich Andes shortly, for a "boys'" weekend with my son Cowboy Luke and his fellow kindergartener, Declan Friedman, who'll be chaperoning his dad, Andrew Friedman/Rolo Tomassi. It's going to be a fun weekend filled with horseback (as well as tractor and ATV) rides, fishing in the pond, a little tennis. Unfortunately, this also means I won't be able to catch-up with a Tribe elder who's visiting from Los Angeles this weekend, Hank Moravec.
Have a great weekend!
