Yesterday we discussed how the organization known as the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) was established as an influential force in tennis via the Wimbledon player boycott of 1973. When the ATP was first founded, the fledging organization considered creating their own tour. However, the ATP lacked both the financial resources and confidence to make it happen at that time. The Men’s Tennis Council (MTC) was formed to fill the void and oversaw the professional men’s tennis tour from 1974 to 1989. The demise of that arrangement is a fascinating tale of power and politics in tennis.
The MTC Council was structured with a total of 9 voting members. The ITF, the tournament directors, and the players each had 3 representatives on the council. In practice, the players were consistently outvoted 6-3. According to the ATP Tour website,1 the primary points of dissatisfaction for the players was a calendar packed with compulsory tournaments and concerns over the way the sport was marketed. However in an interview in the Washington Post at the time, Donald Dell shared a more nuanced perspective.
“Basically, they are fighting over control of the game,” said Donald Dell, chairman of ProServ Inc., and a supporter of the players. “You can talk about circuits and dates and money, but what both sides really are saying is they want to control the game.”
Men’s Tennis in Limbo, Washington Post, December 9, 1988.
Two days prior to the start of the 1988 US Open, the ATP threatened to withdraw from the MTC and start its own tour unless the council was restructured to give the players more control. The ITF rejected the player’s plan. Hamilton Jordan, a former Carter Administration White House Chief of Staff who was the ATP CEO at the time, requested an interview room at the US Open to conduct a press conference to outline the player’s plan to the media.
The USTA initially denied Jordan’s request and refused to host the meeting. That is how the “Press Conference in the Parking Lot” came to be. While the USTA later reconsidered and offered to provide a room, the ATP recognized that it would be more attention grabbing for it to be conducted outside the gates of the US Open. The offer was refused.
In the “Press Conference in the Parking Lot,” Jordan outlined how the MTC was too fragmented and “chaotic.” He also asserted that each representative on the council “all pursue their own interests at the expense of the game.” The ATP plan was to pattern men’s tennis after the PGA Tour. The objective was to establish control over all aspects of the professional game including marketing.
Tomorrow we will examine how this series of events led to the transformation of the ATP from it’s origins as a players only association to a full fledged tour. In the meantime, you might be wondering what was going on in the women’s professional tennis during this time. A Washington Post article from December 1988 provides an interesting observation.
No one says it, but they would like to be more like the women’s tour, which has been a model of stability, has cultivated its rivalries and enjoys the leadership of its top players.
Men’s Tennis in Limbo, Washington Post, December 9, 1988.
In other words, the professional men’s tennis players were trying to emulate the success of the women.
- The Tour Born In A Parking Lot, James Buddell, ATP Tour News Archive, August 26, 2013.
- Men’s Tennis in Limbo, Christine Brennan, The Washington Post, December 9, 1988.
- Pros May Design Tour Similar to Golf’s, Peter Alfano, The New York Times, August 30, 1988.
- A.T.P. Plans Tour in ’90, The New York Times, August 31, 1988.
