Tennis SA bids to be big with new CEO

RICHARD Glover has a month to discover the Holy Grail of Cinderella sport.

The newly appointed chief executive of Tennis SA (TSA), who took office yesterday, must draw up a commercialisation plan within the next 30 days or so.

That means finding new ways of making money for the oncepowerful federation that, like many others these days, is light in the cash received column.

Swimming, athletics and rowing — which have produced Olympic medals at the past two Games — have failed to woo cash-splashing corporates.

So why should tennis succeed where others fail?

Glover, the former managing director of a sports marketing company who has also worked at Cricket SA and Arsenal along the way, digests the concept of money in sport differently.

“Federations in this country think all of their ills can be solved by bringing in sponsors,” Glover said in an interview in Johannesburg this week.

“But the reality is it’s challenging to do that and the reality is there’s lots of other ways of bringing in revenue and it’s really understanding those and unlocking those revenue streams.

“I do believe there’s a lot of money that flows in the tennis eco-system, if you think about the number of courts still being built, if you think about the number of tennis coaches that operate in this country, the number of tennis racquets being bought, number of balls, tennis kit, tennis shoes.

“There’s a lot of money flowing through the system and it’s really understanding how that money’s flowing and how it can be used.”

Glover admits he has a limited knowledge of tennis, and in the next month he plans to learn as much as he can while drawing up his financial blueprint. AT THE HELM: Richard Glover

“I come with a different worldview and a different view of sport and maybe I’ll ask some questions that haven’t been asked for a while or that have been forgotten.

“There’s a huge amount to be done. I obviously came in with a perception of where tennis was and how big a sport it is and how much potential it has, but I’ve actually been blown away by the media interest in the sport.

“That actually scares me a bit . . . [but] I’m also excited.”

Glover wants to work with other sport federations too.

“One of the things that I really want to do moving forward is collaborate a lot more with other federations. I don’t think these federations in South Africa collaborate enough and share their ideas and really look at how each one is approaching challenges.”

He is particularly interested in learning more about rowing’s successful elite national team, which thrives on a limited budget.

There was a time tennis had a Super Squad of eight men and eight women, and their coaches, who were sponsored to tour for 26 weeks of each year.

The benefits were obvious by the early 1990s, with South Africa boasting the third highest number of players at Wimbledon across the main draws after the US and Australia.

But diminishing finances brought that to an end in the mid-1990s. Nowadays, for one kid to travel abroad for 32 weeks costs R400 000.

TSA’s governance may be good, but the kitty is poor — and this is where Glover walks in.

It may be a tough ask, but other federations might just want to start watching tennis.

I’ve been blown away by the media interest in the sport