Richard Williams had been fairly quiet since the U.S. Open, where he made the charming suggestion that Martina Hingis should get her legs amputated and replaced with longer limbs. But the father of Venus and Serena re-emerged with a flourish this week. The Williams patriarch made headlines this time by implying that he was witholding Venus and Serena from the season-ending Chase Championships as the first phase of an apparent attempt to convince the WTA that it should give the sisters additional monetar
y compensation out of the increased ticket and television revenues that their popularity purportedly gives the women's tour.
Richard is evidently taking his cue from Tiger Woods, the immensely talented and popular golfer who is considered responsible for golf's upward spike in popularity in the past two years. But there are significant differences between the Woods and Williams cases.
While Tiger Woods has said that "in a perfect world" he would be receiving a cut of the television revenue that his popularity helps to generate, this is not the matter that has caused his anger with the PGA. Rather, Woods is most concerned with the arcane commercial issue of the rights to his name and image, which are owned by the PGA Tour and allow the tour events to use his persona to promote events, even when they are sponsored by firms who compete with the firms that sponsor Tiger.
Woods has also suggested that this state of affairs prevents him from pursuing promotional opportunities on his own. Perhaps, but there are not too many teary eyes in the sports community for this young man who earns upwards of $50 million per year and is constantly seen in lucrative television commercials.
The Williams family, on the other hand, seems to be after a cut of revenues. "I was trying to show [WTA CEO Bart McGuire] how Venus and Serena have increased television ratings and sold more newspapers," Richard told the New York Times, "and how they've brought more attention to the Tour than there has ever been before, even when it was in its best condition. I was trying to share with him why I feel we should be able to share in the revenue side of it."
This certainly puts a novel spin on the notion of revenue sharing. In other sports, such as baseball, the term applies to a procedure whereby the richer teams share revenues with the poorer teams. In the inverted Williams world, revenue sharing means the rich get richer (the Daily Telegraph suggested that the Williams sisters each earned a total of £10 million, or US $14 million, in each of the last two years).
Sensibly, McGuire does not appear ready to concede anything to papa Williams. Players earn what they deserve in prize money based on their results, and cash in on their popularity through endorsements and sponsorships (who can forget the silly Williams sister dolls that were rolled out ? on U.S. network television, mind you -- during the U.S. Open this year?). "There is no direct payment to Venus or Serena," McGuire told the New York Times, "but the money is there to win."
Unfortunately for the Williams clan, their bargaining power is pretty limited. Richard suggested that he might limit the playing schedule of his daughters. This is an empty threat if there ever was one: he already does that! While Tiger Woods has the option of playing the Asian or European golf tours, such avenues are not open in tennis, where there is only one global tennis tour.
I suppose the Williamses could decide to stage their own series of exhibition events. But who would play them and thereby risk the wrath of the WTA? Monique Viele, maybe?. Say, where is Monique these days?