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Opinionopinion

Sport looks increasingly to Asia for big-money opportunity

Formula 1 and tennis latest to cash in on a growing demand

Rafael Nadal(Image: Buda Mendes/Getty Images)

It's a fair bet that most readers were unaware of the fact that Monday was World Tennis Day. This fresh addition to the sporting calendar was celebrated with a showdown of oldies who renewed rivalries at London’s Earls Court in front of an enthusiastic audience comprising mostly respectable folks sporting an abundance of grey hair.

For the record, Pat Cash beat Ivan Lendl, after which Andre Agassi defeated Pete Sampras, presumably before the quartet finished the evening off with a nice cup of Horlicks.

The market for nostalgia, be it sporting or musical, continues to expand; baby boomers who once struggled to scrape together the money to see their heroes live can now afford to watch them in relative comfort and ensure they’re tucked up in bed before 11pm. This means that, for years to come, the ‘grey pound’ will be targeted by impresarios and organisations capable of attracting former sports and music stars out of retirement with the promise of lucrative pay days.

Despite their inability to perform at anywhere near the level they once did, such is the emotional power of undimmed images seared into our memory banks that once their names appear on the bill, ticket sales soar. No matter that their achievements were consigned to the record books decades ago, we desperately want to remember our sporting and musical aces (and ourselves) the way they (and we) were.

In addition to recognising the grey pound’s value, several tennis-focused entrepreneurs are simultaneously seeking to target the nostalgia market and combine this strategy with another whereby they make a concerted play for a market tackled most recently (and lucratively) by cricket and, for much longer, by Formula One.

Bernie Ecclestone may be derided in some circles, but it’s undoubtedly true that the ubiquitous 83-year-old was amongst the first to recognise the value of Asia’s burgeoning fan base to a sport he effectively reinvented.

Since then, Formula One’s push into Asia has been part strategic, part governed by good business sense. As European nations blanched at being asked for upwards of $40 million to host a grand prix, their Asian counterparts stumped up without asking any questions, even though several high-profile mistakes have been made.

Meeting Bernie’s price has, however, tended to yield dividends.