Big dreams, time to take risks and bridging the gender pay gap – The Women's Tennis Association at 50

As the Women’s Tennis Association, the WTA, celebrates its golden jubilee this year, Indian icon Sania Mirza chuckles when she realises she’s been around for 20 of those 50 years that have passed since the tour was founded by Billie Jean King.

“I think tennis has really made me who I am. It's not just in terms of what it made me on the outside but also what it made me on the inside, the person I am,” Mirza said in Dubai last month, where she officially retired from the sport, drawing the curtain on a trailblazing two-decade career.

When King established the WTA in 1973, she built it on the principle of equal opportunity. She hoped that any player, from anywhere in the world, if she was good enough, would have a place to compete on the WTA tour.

Mirza, a pioneer for Indian women in world sport, is one of many prime examples that personified King’s vision for the WTA.

The 36-year-old Hyderabadi shattered stereotypes, broke gender barriers, and carved a path for herself in women’s tennis, which led her to the top-30 in singles and the summit of the rankings in doubles.

“I think on a larger scale (my career in tennis) made people (in India) believe that you can - in a sport like tennis - earn a living and be very successful, earn a name, and do what you love. I think maybe that belief was missing about 15, 20 years ago,” said Mirza, a six-time Grand Slam champion in doubles and mixed doubles.

“Whatever I’ve given to tennis the past 20 years, it's also given me back twofold.”

Tennis is the biggest women’s sport in the world and its protagonists frequently headline Forbes’ annual list of highest-earning female athletes on the planet.

At the highest level in tennis, men and women compete on the same stage and all four majors offer equal prize money.

Still, there is a lot of work that needs to be done to close the gender pay gap across the board in tennis, and to ensure women get their fair share of prime-time scheduling.

So as 50th anniversary celebrations make the rounds on tour this season, what does the future hold for the WTA? How can its leaders build on the foundation that’s been laid and what do its stars hope for in the coming years?

“I think that it’s continuing to grow. Tennis is the leading women’s sport and I hope that it can get even more and more mainstream,” one of the sport’s biggest young stars, 18-year-old Coco Gauff, told Eurosport in Dubai last month.

“Obviously with the Williams sisters not playing as much; at least Serena retiring and Venus not playing as much, it’s definitely I feel like not as mainstream, just in a way, because Serena was just such a sports icon in general.

“Still I think I saw a stat that said the women’s final at the 2023 Australian Open was more watched than the men’s final and I think that’s really amazing.

“It grows women’s sports in general and I’m glad that tennis is leading that charge and that change and I hope that it continues to happen.”

Gauff feels tennis has produced a string of personalities that have transcended the sport itself, naming the Williams sisters, Naomi Osaka, Emma Raducanu and Roger Federer as examples.

“I’m just grateful to be part of a sport like that, where you’re kind of known more than just an athlete,” added the young American.

Although her popularity extends beyond the tennis universe, Gauff does not see herself yet as someone who belongs in the same category as the aforementioned stars.

“Definitely I want to take that role, I don’t know if I’m there yet. I don’t really look at myself like that. But sometimes I get those pinch me moments when like certain big names in Hollywood or whatever know who I am,” she says. “That I still will never get used to."

WTA CEO Steve Simon believes the tour fulfilled what it initially set out to do, which is to provide playing opportunities for any woman that had the ability to compete at the highest level.

“How do we take that to the next level?” Simon told Eurosport in a recent interview.

“What we have to fight, and what we hope to progress, is to begin to bridge the economic gap, that is the reality that drives a lot of the issues that we see and the pressures you see.

“There’s no question today that a male sport property will generate a higher level of revenue for his assets than the women’s professional sports property. I’m not saying it’s right, I’m not saying it’s wrong, it’s the reality of it. And we have to bridge that gap.”

Simon noted how there is a lot of positive talk and support around women’s sports right now, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the money has followed in the same direction as those conversations.

“The discussion of equal compensation is absolutely there. But when you go out and you begin selling it, the walk isn’t following the talk and you’re still not getting the same amount of money on the dollar that the male property is,” he explained.

“Even if you can prove that you’re providing at audience level. And that’s due to past comps and history that you have to make up. So what we’re working on is how do you bridge that gap?”

Simon is proud of all the work that has been done so far but believes the onus is on the WTA and its leaders to find solutions to this question.

World No.1 Iga Swiatek also mentions the overall gap in prize money between the men’s and women’s tours as a core issue that needs to be tackled and says the product itself is becoming more and more appealing for the audience.

“Right now, after a couple of years of hearing that we're not consistent, we are actually consistent. There are many top players who are playing great on most of the tournaments. I think fans can choose their favourite and really cheer for us,” said the three-time Grand Slam winner.

Two women who have dedicated significant time and energy towards helping the tour move forward are Victoria Azarenka and Jessica Pegula, who are both members of the WTA Player Council.

Azarenka, a former world No.1 and two-time major champion, feels there are many individuals among key stakeholders that belong to an “older generation” that have been holding the sport back from evolving and reaching its potential.

“I want to think about WTA as limitless, I really do,” said the 33-year-old Belarusian.

“I want to see a lot of things grow. I want to see a lot of things change. Unfortunately we are dealing with so many moving parts that changes are hard. We also have so many people who are - with no disrespect - but older generation that may be harder to see the future.

“I think we need a little bit more unity hopefully in sport, more involvement from players, which I do feel at least from this Player Council that I've been on is very, very involved. We do want to change. But it takes time.

“It's very difficult to change the ways things have been done, to break sort of traditions. But I do feel that tennis needs to change, it needs to grow, it needs to become quicker in terms of timing. It needs to change the schedule.

“The tournaments, we need to definitely grow with more competitiveness. I don't believe that this long of a season is exciting for fans. It's hard to follow.

“I do feel there's a lot of potential. We just need to have people who are willing to take a little bit of a risk and step off the conservative bubble that tennis is about.”

The tour’s calendar structure has been a key talking point for Simon, ever since he was appointed WTA CEO in October 2015.

Simon insists there is a better way to structure tournaments so fans can know what to expect and who will be present at each and every event.

“There’s nothing wrong with having the number of events and opportunity; it’s how is it structured and how do you manage your product?” said Simon.

“When you run three or four events in the same week, you dilute your product; unless the system clearly defines what each of those events should be, and based upon your ranking and performance where you should play.

“If we’re going to drive the economic forces, we all know tennis does very, very well from a viewership perspective when we aggregate our top. When you look at the Grand Slams, when you look at the combined events, you look at these events here (in Dubai), where your talent is there, the results speak for themselves. But when we dilute it, you regionalise your product a little bit more and we have to do a better job of defining and creating structure there, that won’t take away the event but better define it so you can drive value across all of them.”

Simon also added that the way the tour handles the broadcasting of live and non-live content must improve and that they need to utilise existing technology that allows for better communication with the consumer so they can alert them when their favourite is playing and directing them to the channel that is airing that specific match.

World No.3 Pegula spoke about the need for more air time for women’s tennis on television and feels that through her role on the Player Council, she can see slow progress being made in various areas.

The American says promoting the men’s and women’s game together via mixed team events like the United Cup is a step in the right direction.

“As far as the future, that's always what we're pushing for, is just for people to appreciate us playing and wanting to see us play and getting more exposure,” said the 29-year-old Pegula.

“I think it's always just to keep inspiring each generation because those are the next people. That's also who we're fighting for. Some of us are older on the Council. We're fighting for prize money for people in 20 years.”

In the last week, the WTA announced a new global partnership with Morgan Stanley and a strategic partnership with private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, that will invest $150 million for a 20% stake in a new entity that will be called WTA Ventures LLC, which will handle the tour’s commercial activities, including broadcast rights, data, gaming, sponsorship, licensing and NFTs.

Last year, the tour’s long-time search for a title sponsor finally came to fruition with a landmark deal with medical technology firm Hologic.

Still, the fact remains that the WTA took a serious financial hit by suspending operations in China due to the unresolved situation surrounding Peng Shuai, who has not been seen outside of China since first making, and then withdrawing, accusations of sexual assault against a high-ranking official.

That decision, along with Covid, has meant that the WTA Finals – the tour’s biggest asset – have not been staged in Shenzhen, China for the past three years and the event has yet to find a stable home.

“We need something that is deserving of the Finals. Last couple years with such a short announcement, absolutely no time for marketing - my opinion - it's been undervalued,” said Azarenka.

Simon knew the risk that was being taken when he made the decision to suspend operations in China, despite there being a record-breaking 10-year agreement with Shenzhen in place for the WTA Finals.

“I strongly believe we did the right thing there,” he insisted.

“We hope to find a resolution, which I’ve always said that’s our goal, we never said we’ll never go back, we said we’d suspend it. Obviously we had a great Finals there (in 2019) and we hope to in the future. There’s a lot of interest in the Finals.

“We’ve had to do it at the end, and we financed the Finals the last two years (in Guadalajara and Fort Worth), because we haven’t been able to make a multi-year agreement out of respect for our agreements in China and the process we’re going through.

“We can’t continue to do what we’ve been doing, that isn’t healthy either, so we have to make a decision one way or the other what we’re going to do. Because we have people that are ready to invest in that specific product. But again, it’s an expensive deal and unless you’re going to do it multi-year, it’s not going to make economic sense for them.

“So we’ve always said we’ll make the decision in the first quarter of this year, and we’ll do that. We’re working towards a decision, wherever it falls in that deal; we’d like to find a resolution but we need China obviously to step up and do what’s right here and help us get a resolution to this issue.”

At the end of the press release announcing the WTA’s deal with CVC, there is a statement that reads: “This WTA and CVC partnership has the backing of the players and tournaments, with critical changes to the Tour calendar planned that will make it easier for fans to follow their favourite players through the year.”

With a 50-year history behind and an eye on the future, such “critical changes” can’t come soon enough!

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