Does anyone have any other reasons that they believe the US Open is performing beyond expectations this year, in addition to the ones previously stated?
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Prospering in a Recession, The Open Bucks a Trend
Over the past week, The United States Open tennis tournament has been ongoing. The US Open-one of the largest professional tennis tournaments-is held in Flushing Meadows, NY. One may expect the sales and attendance to be down this year, as the United States is in a recession and other sports teams and tournaments have not performed as well in comparison to previous years. However, this is not the case concerning the US Open, as all 140 box suites sold out four months ago. The US Open is performing as strongly as it ever has, for a variety of reasons. The first reason is sponsors. Surprisingly, the US Open has retained its main sponsors and has added six new sponsors. Surprisingly, this growth may have come from the recession, as many companies have ended sponsorships to focus on certain events that they feel are important to their brand image and audience. The second reason is timing. Tennis at the US Open stretches over a two week span, which allows fans who want to watch the event greater flexibility to do so. In addition, the US Open overlaps Labor Day weekend, when many families can travel to New York and watch high level tennis. For the most part the US Open has done well economically, but ticket resales have decreased by 39 %. This may not be due to the recession, but because many American players, like Andy Roddick, have lost early in the tournament.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I feel like tennis is more of a "rich-person sport" in comparison to other sports that have more mainstream appeal, such as baseball or NASCAR. It could be that because of this, the people who attended the US Open were from the economic class least effected by the recession, whereas fans of other sports have given up attending events due to economic necessity.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kyle Herman that tennis is considered a classier sport than most others and hence companies are more willing to continue their sponsorship, knowing the elite class will continue to attend and their firm will get the marketing it needs. The upper class may continue to attend as part of their status symbol (considering it a necessity). Tennis also has a more diverse audience in terms of age and the sponsorship allows firms a wider base to market on. It is possible that the weakening of the US economy, alongside the Labor Day Weekend, has made it more possible for people to take a break and travel to New York to attend the US Open, as hotel prices have decreased due to the recession (the occupancy rates dropped as vacations have become less affordable and hotels have larger unused capacity.)
ReplyDelete