Sports Business: Tennis Gets Reset

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He is planning to revamp the sport from day one--starting tourneys on Sundays instead of Mondays to gain more weekend fans. Those four-hour, five-set matches? Gone by 2008, except at the Slams, replaced by best-of-three matches, to reduce player injuries and increase fan interest. The most radical alteration is a round-robin format at smaller tournaments until the final rounds, which would revert to the traditional knockout. That setup would give spectators more opportunities to see marquee players. But the draws would be smaller to accommodate more matches, so fewer low-ranked players could compete. "As much as fans will never come to watch me give a trophy in a beautiful blue suit, they won't show up to watch the 156th guy play," says De Villiers.

The Disney man took over an organization that inked a $1.2 billion TV and marketing deal in 1999 with Swiss company ISL, only to watch that outfit go belly up two years later. To weather the loss, the ATP cut staff, eliminated player bonuses and pushed for more sponsorship dollars. Worse, the sport's U.S. television viewership leveled off; it's nowhere close to golf's.

The ATP's total prize money has remained stagnant for the past two years even as the Grand Slams continue to increase payouts. The tour's 64 events have an estimated total purse of about $60 million for 2006, which is about 8% lower than five years ago. De Villiers is raising the prize money 10% at tour events in 2007--the first significant hike in years.

De Villiers intends to drum up interest by promoting plotlines and player drama--reality TV for the country-club set. "We have the most phenomenal characters of any sport, but we're not doing a good enough job telling the story," he says, his entertainment background evident. (His staff even calls him E.T.) To pitch tennis to the public, De Villiers hired marketing ace Phil Anderton, a veteran of Coca-Cola and the Scottish Rugby League, where he garnered the nickname "Fireworks Phil" for the countless fan-friendly ideas he brought to the sport (yes, including fireworks).

Anderton oversees the ATP's new global-marketing fund, which will increase from $500,000 this year to $5 million next year and reach $10 million by 2009. To pay for it, De Villiers tapped sponsors and taxed tournament directors, insisting that better marketing creates money across the board. "He realizes that tennis is about show business," says Perry Rogers, an ATP board member and president of Agassi Enterprises.

He also thrives on confrontation, which can rub tennis vets the wrong way. "I'm not sure if he knows the difference between a forehand and a backhand," says a tennis insider who requested anonymity. That wouldn't bother De Villiers--and it doesn't matter. Tennis doesn't need a tennis expert; it needs someone who can execute a business plan. It's your serve, Etienne.