By Kyle Revall

My first NY Sportimes experience was this past Wednesday as the NY Sportimes faced the Boston Lobsters at Randall's Island Tennis Center in New York City. The match also featured a special event, the "Tennis Champions for Children" gala to raise money for the Randall's Island Sports Foundation, which enables kids to participate in healthy, fun activities.

I had a blast! 

And I had a realization: Even though I've been working in the tennis industry for the last three years and I've been an avid tennis fan for close to 10 years, I was shocked that I’ve never even heard of this league before. 

The matches are extremely exciting and it is very good tennis.  Furthermore, the atmosphere is laid back and you don’t need to be primped up like you might for a match at Wimbledon.

There are so many cool factors in this league that aren’t publicized enough. Here are a few from the New York vs. Boston match.

Top Talent: Big names are invited to play.  Jan-Michael Gambill and John McEnroe faced off in a singles match.  Martina Navratilova partnered with James Auckland to compete against McEnroe and his partner, Abigail Spears, in mixed doubles for the deciding match. Both sides of the court were full of talent. The home team eventually won 21-20.

New Rules: The matches are extremely relaxed.  Any ball hit into the stands can be kept.  Music plays between points, the announcers get the crowd involved, coaches continuously chuck the challenge flag to argue calls, and an awesome mascot, Tennis the Menace, entertains the crowd and, most importantly, the children. 

Play to the Crowd: McEnroe is a true entertainer.  He was born to participate in this league.  His antics keep the crowd glued to the matches.  At one point, he missed an easy forehand into the net and proceeded to fire that ball, after one bounce, over the roof of the brand new Advanta World TeamTennis (WTT) Pro League .  This really got the crowd going--and he received a warning from the umpire!

So why is World TeamTennis such a secret?

There just isn't enough publicity.

This particular event brought big names to the stadium and a lot of the seats were filled for the halftime award ceremony honoring Chris Lacopo, Eugene L. Scott, Ken Solomon, and the great Billie Jean King, but there were still a lot of empty rows. Something must be done to get this league more exposure.

Tennis fans will go to watch tennis whenever because we love the sport and enjoy watching great players.  We need to get people who aren’t tennis enthusiasts to attend these kinds of events.

The WTT matches have all of the components that other sports are using to appeal to non-enthusiast fans:
- The score-keeping is much simpler with a “first to four points wins the game” system. 
- There is a fun DJ and announcer to keep people involved and cheering.
- The warm-ups are kept short, the arena is intimate, and fans get to interact with the action! 
- There is no “Wimbledon whites tennis code.” 

Something must be done to gain viewership and boost tennis enthusiasts all over the country. I think a full-blown marketing research effort must be undertaken by the league to find what non-tennis fans look for in a tennis event and what would draw them to the stands.  Any ideas?