What constitutes power in sports? Is it talent or titles? Is it access to money? Is it fame? Is it control of the rules or infrastructure of a sport? Business Week magazine in the United States has recently unveiled its
"Power 100" i.e. its list of the 100 most influential people in the world of sports. One could debate who they selected, the people chosen for the panel which made the selection of the "Power 100" and/or the criteria used to select the members of the 2007 "Power 100." However, what's of more interest to us is who and how the sport of tennis is represented on this list and other "best of" lists. Unlike the major American team sports, e.g. NBA, NFL, and other popular global sports, e.g. "football/soccer" or the Olympics, tennis is primarily known for its athletes/players rather than its leadership or "Tours." This is not surprising given the fact that the top tennis stars are seen close up on TV around the world for a couple hours every time they play a match. The closest "competitor" for tennis is often golf and therefore it's of interest that Tiger Woods is number two on the Power
100 list and golf legend, Arnold Palmer, is number seventy-six. At the same time, the only tennis players to make the list are Roger Federer (number thirty) and Maria Sharapova (number seventy-three). PGA Commissioner, Tim Finchem, is listed at number thirty-four while no one from the leadership in the tennis world is listed at all. Public relations and marketing are vital to the success of businesses, entertainment ventures, etc. It is not enough to do good work... you need to tell everyone about it! Those in the tennis world clearly need to work a little harder to make themselves and their accomplishments more well known.
