China - Big Country, Bigger Opportunity for Tennis

After just having completed my first trip to the Peoples Republic of China, it is easy to see what great opportunities China has taken advantage of as one of the world’s manufacturing powers and how extremely large the gap is between those who “can” play tennis and those who “want” to play tennis in that country.

Without a doubt tennis, like the entire Chinese economy, continues to grow and accordingly, most, if not all, of the major tennis companies in the US look towards China as one of the few true growth markets in the world right now. While their economy has taken a bit of a hit, I was struck by the amount of commerce being done and construction being built…if I saw one high-rise building going up in Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong I saw a thousand – the skyline is riddled with tall cranes building 20 to 40 story tall buildings everywhere.

In addition to housing and factories, tens of thousands of tennis courts have been built since the Beijing Olympics, and it seemed as though every city had built, or was building, a world-class sports venue. Cities you have never heard of are building 50,000 seat soccer stadiums, NBA quality indoor arenas, Olympic size tracks, modern aquatics centers, and huge tennis facilities. It’s becoming commonplace for a relatively small cities like Nantong or Changshu to build a tennis center with over 100 courts…I know…it’s mind boggling to most Americans.

But what is even more confusing is trying to understand how “Tennis” will find a way to become a part of the recreational choices made by the majority of the “people” in China?

While the factory owners and business people are doing fairly well, the vast majority of the population earns very, very little. Of the five factories we visited last week, the average wage of the workers was about $4 ¥ (Yuan) or 60¢ in US dollars (USD) per hour. So with the vast millions of people making less than $2,000 USD a year and the majority of the “middle class” making only between $10,000 – 20,000 USD annually, who has the time or disposable income to invest in a love of the game of tennis?

Assuming a factory worker could buy a “knock-off” tennis racquet for $15 USD at an open-air market in a Chinese city, he or she would need to invest 1% of their entire yearly salary to do so…that’s a tough sell in any country. And even if their passion for the game ran so deep that they did acquire a racquet and balls, most of the tens of thousands of courts are locked out to the masses. Operators would rather let the courts stay vacant, than allow the commoners to enjoy our sport.

In fact, one of the companies we visited had built a beautiful tennis court on their property to showcase the products that they made, and even though the factory had an on-site dormitory to house its hourly workers and sales staff, the company kept the court pad-locked and would not allow access to it for the people who lived and worked there. The same people who had built the products being showcased on it and the same people who had made their company profitable and a successful seller of tennis goods.

It seems to me that while the cities, provinces, and national governments build top-notch facilities to show-off to the rest of their country and the world, they are overlooking the opportunity to invest in their biggest and largest asset they have – their people…and until they do, tennis will never truly flourish in China.

I urge the Chinese government and the American tennis companies doing business in China to reach out, take action, and help grow tennis at all economic levels in China. For if we chose not to, the entire global tennis community will have missed a golden opportunity to build-on and expand the “game” that we all dearly love.

Randy Futty
General Manager
Lee Tennis Court Products