By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, June 28, 2023
ESPN analyst John McEnroe says tennis' sponsorship negotiation with Saudi Arabia is "comical" given "the debacle you're watching in golf."
Photo credit: Showtime
Tennis is flirting with a fault line negotiating for Saudi sponsorship, former world No. 1 John McEnroe says.
In a conference call with the media to promote ESPN's Wimbledon coverage, which starts Monday, July 3rd at 6 a.m. on ESPN, McEnroe was asked his reaction to recent reports the ATP and WTA are negotiating with Saudi Arabia for sponsorship.
More: Kyrgios Welcomes Saudi Investment in Tennis
Hall of Famer McEnroe called it "comical that it's even being brought up right now" given "the debacle you're watching in golf."
The PGA Tour recently announced its plan to merge with Saudi-sponsored LIV Golf. It's the latest sports venture the Public Investment Fund, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, has tapped in moves critics call "sport washing"—an attempt to obscure Saudi Arabia's human rights violations and connection to the 9/11 terrorist attacks with high profile sporting investments.
McEnroe says everyone has a price tag and suggests tennis' governing bodies either lack self-awareness, are slightly bonkers or just plain greedy to even contemplate a deal given the public blow-back and potential governmental inquiries the PGA faces with its merger with LIV.
"I suppose it's only natural. Unfortunately it's like money talks," McEnroe said. "That's all that matters. But I don't think that's all that matters.
"Eventually you get bought out. It's like at some point someone will offer too much.
"I don't know why in the hell tennis would suddenly be, Let's talk to the Saudis after the debacle that you're watching in golf. To me it's comical that it's even being brought up right now. A pun: Par for the course."
Still, the man who held the world No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles says hypocrisy runs rampant on all sides of this issue.
McEnroe calls the PGA hypocrites for its relentless criticism of LIV and moral posturing before it jumped at the money when the price is right, calls critics of the PGA hypocrites for doing business with Saudi Arabia in other venues while pointing the finger at golf for its cash-grab and called out the U.S. government for its relationship with Saudi Arabia as well.
"It looked to me like the PGA were total hypocrites when they cut a deal after they've been fighting them, in my opinion," McEnroe said. "At the same time the people that are complaining about it, a lot of the people are hypocrites because our government does business with thing along with tons of other hedge funds, wealth funds, down the list, people that have dealings.
"What about Ronaldo? He's being paid a couple hundred million a year. They have been buying players in other sports, brought boxing fights, you name it. "
While the owner of a combined 155 singles and doubles title says Saudi sponsorship "is not something we should be pursuing" he also sounded resigned to the fact it's likely inevitable for tennis.
"I'm not surprised. I wouldn't encourage it personally, the Saudi thing," McEnroe said. "I'm not surprised that tennis is being thrown into the mix after what we saw in golf.
"I don't think that's something that we should be pursuing, per se. It's not in my hands."
Hall of Famer Chrissie Evert, McEnroe's ESPN colleague and fellow former No. 1, was more pointed in her point of view calling tennis' financial flirtation with Saudi Arabia "sport washing."
"I didn't comment on the Saudi thing, but I think it's sports washing. I don't think we need to go there," Evert told the media.
So why is tennis going there?
Money and growth are the primary aims with cash being the main motivator.
Tennis is a global game expensive to play and pursue.
Unlike team sports, which can offer athletes guaranteed contracts, tennis players are independent contractors who must win to earn.
Some players, including Wimbledon finalist Nick Kyrgios, welcome Saudi investment saying players deserve to be paid more, have more job opportunities and more financial security.
Amid reporting the Saudis are bidding to host the ATP's NextGen Finals, Kyrgios tweeted "sign me up" along with 10 emojis of money bags.
"Finally. they see the value," Kyrgios tweeted. "We are going to get paid what we deserve to be get paid. Sign me up."
Negotiations between the Saudis and the ATP emerged after the Saudi-backed LIV golf tour and the PGA announced a merger earlier this month. Following the merger announcement, The New York Times reported tennis will be the next sport the Saudis target.
"At the same time there's obstacles for a lot of players because it's still too expensive a sport to play as a kid growing up. It's not accessible enough," McEnroe said. "That's why I have this tennis academy. You try to raise money and get people to chip in so you can get more people to play."
What would a Saudi-backed Public Investment Fund investment into tennis look like?
The group could buy the license(s) for an existing tournament or tournaments or propose its own mini-swing within the larger Tour calendar.
The fact golf set aside Saudi Arabia's human rights violations to essentially sell the sport to the Saudis makes its forays into tennis more likely and more acceptable, former ATP Board Member Justin Gimlestob told The Street writer Dan Weil citing the Saudis essentially "unlimited" resources.
“This seems like a tipping point moment,” Gimelstob told Dan Weil of TheStreet.com. “There will be an ability to rationalize partnering with Saudi Arabia moving forward, considering they have such significant resources and such an interest in sports.”
The PGA has experienced some backlash among some American fans, who charge golf with "selling its soul" in exchange for the big bucks. Will a potential partnership with Saudi Arabia tee off tennis fans too?
When the PGA Tour announced its merger plan with Saudi-sponsored LIV Golf, 9/11 Families United slammed the PGA as "paid Saudi shills" who are "sport washing Saudi Arabia's reputation."
The 9/11 Families United is an organization "consisting of family members of those murdered in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, as well as many of those who survived, were injured in or sickened from the attacks, a community that numbers well over 10,000," according to the group's website.
“Saudi operatives played a role in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and now it is bankrolling all of professional golf,” 9/11 Families United Chair Terry Strada said in a statement. "[The PGA is] taking billions of dollars to cleanse the Saudi reputation so that Americans and the world will forget how the Kingdom spent their billions of dollars before 9/11 to fund terrorism, spread their vitriolic hatred of Americans, and finance al Qaeda and the murder of our loved ones.
"Make no mistake—we will never forget.”
How will tennis, a sport that prides itself on teaching values like integrity, honesty, sportsmanship, calling your own lines in juniors, navigate a potentially complex political and public relations quagmire if takes money from the Saudi Public Investment Fund?
Supporters say tennis must tap into available resources in order to provide players with better pay and grow the game globally in a highly competitive sports and entertainment market.
Skeptics say tennis hasn't learned a lesson from golf's controversial sell-out nor has it learned from the ITF sacrificing Davis Cup tradition at the altar of a 25-year, $3 billion deal with the Gerard Pique-led Kosmos. Despite objections from champions ranging from Lleyton Hewitt to Roger Federer to McEnroe, the ITF did the deal only to see it implode after five years. In Davis Cup's case, Kosmos also touted its investment into growing the game globally.
The challenge tennis faces is it must generate sponsorship from non-endemic sponsors to grow yet sometimes those investments require the game's governing bodies to compromise or sell out the very principles it promotes touting tennis as a lifetime sport.
McEnroe says the most likely path forward is a combined ATP and WTA Tour.
"I think we're headed soon to where the men and women will be playing the same tour," McEnroe said reiterating remarks he made to Tennis Now in 2021.
We've seen the game's governing bodies both take strong human rights stands—and wave the white flag at times, too.
The WTA Tour initially cut the cord with China in December of 2021 and issued a statement calling for a “full, fair and transparent investigation, without censorship, into Peng Shuai’s allegation of sexual assault."
Last April, the Tour, after reportedly suffering some crippling financial losses cutting ties with China and not gaining any traction in its calls for transparency into the investigation of Peng Shuai's claims, announced it will return to China this season.
Some point to the fact tennis has taken sponsorship money from betting firms for years now and viewers are force-fed odds before, during and after matches on Tennis Channel as a sign the game slipped off the high moral ground slope some time ago.
Some say it's just the cost of doing business in today's world. Though some fans and players insist sports and politics should not mix, when you follow the money they often seem baked into the mix anyway.