Posted in The Soapbox
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09/15 2010

Fixing the U.S. Open (Suggestions for CBS, ESPN & USTA)

Posted by Ken Fang.

Now that another U.S. Open tennis tournament is in the books and yet another finals weekend was butchered by weather and television, it’s time to come up with a solution that doesn’t end up with multiple networks covering one final. When rain delayed the men’s final between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic from Sunday until Monday, CBS and the U.S. Tennis Association announced it would begin the final no earlier than 4 p.m. Eastern. This has been the case for the previous two years when weather wreaked havoc with the schedule.

When another rain delay arrived one set into the match, CBS decided it was not going to have tennis butcher its primetime schedule and shuffled it to ESPN2 which is the U.S. Open’s partner on cable. This is somewhat understandable. CBS felt that tennis didn’t have enough ratings heat during a weeknight and decided to give up on the final.

So the match is running into the 10 p.m. hour in the East. On ESPN, a lightning delay, the same weather that caused the U.S. Open men’s final to stop for more than an hour, has forced the Monday Night Football opener between the Jets and Ravens to push back its start by 30 minutes. That’s going to run into the kickoff of the San Diego-Kansas City game that’s scheduled for 10:15 p.m. It’s announced that the U.S. Open will be pushed to ESPN Classic. Luckily, the final ends, but the trophy ceremony for Nadal is awkwardly cut off for the start of Chargers-Chiefs. Check out the awkward transition here.

So what have we learned? Well, we’ve learned that once Labor Day weekend arrives, we’re in football mode. So what should the U.S. Open do? I suggest that for its own and its TV partners sake, the USTA should move the tournament back a week so it can end on Labor Day. What? That’s right, move the U.S. Open so we can avoid NFL conflicts, CBS mistreating the finals and tennis fans can have some peace.

Last year, rain forced the women’s and men’s finals to played on Sunday and Monday, respectively. CBS gave the women’s final to ESPN2 and aired the men’s finals the next afternoon. And in 2008, CBS aired the men’s final on Monday afternoon as well. However, not all CBS affiliates picked up the match and some shuffled it to secondary channels.

So to avoid all this malarkey and confusion, start the U.S. Open earlier and start it on a Sunday. This way, the tournament gets three weekends of coverage. The French Open does this and gets a full day on Tennis Channel and ESPN2. Next year, I would have the Open begin on August 21st and end on Labor Day, September 5. Give CBS the opening day of play, that way it would be guaranteed to have the stars, Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal, one of the Williams sisters and Maria Sharapova.

Then, ESPN2 and Tennis Channel can share coverage through the second weekend of the tournament (August 27 & 28) where CBS would have the daytime sessions and then hand off to ESPN2 or Tennis Channel. The best part would be the women’s semifinals would be scheduled for Friday, September 2, the men’s semis can still be a Super Saturday, September 3. And finally there would be a scheduled day in between the finals, the women can play late afternoon or primetime Sunday, September 4 and the men’s final would be held on Labor Day, September 5 with the entire CBS network airing it.

The U.S. Open is the only Grand Slam tournament where the finals are scheduled the day after the semifinals and it lends for some bad tennis. We’ve seen this with the women’s final for the last 15 years. There’s not been a three set final since 1995. Not good.

Will the weather delays end with this schedule? Probably not, but that’s an issue that’s not going to be addressed here. Will one U.S. Open prep tournament get eliminated as a result? Most likely, but no one cares about it anyway. With this scheduling, there’s no fear of football conflicts, the U.S. Open will gets its share of sports coverage and it will be done on Labor Day leaving us all ready for football and the baseball pennant drive.

Should the USTA, CBS, ESPN2 and the Tennis Channel sign off? YES! Will they? No. But this makes too much sense for all parties involved.

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Posted on September 15, 2010 at 1:06PM
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  1. It’s A Mid-Week Linkfest
    09/15 2010

    [...] have a post over at Press Coverage suggesting how to fix the US Open for the US Tennis Association and its TV [...]

  2. RICH
    09/15 2010

    WHAT DO U MEAN SOME AFFILIATES PUT IT ON SECONDARY CHANNELS? WHAT ARE SECONDARY CHANNELS? NEVER HEARD OF IT
    HAMMER@LIVE.COM.PH