The Grueling Economics of Tennis

比NBA还黑?揭秘网球界的金钱陷阱。

Big Take

2026-07-11

22 分钟
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Some of the world’s top tennis players will face off at the Wimbledon finals this weekend. The players who make it to Centre Court have already achieved a bigger feat: a career as a tennis player. On today’s Big Take podcast, Bloomberg’s Hannah Miller and The Athletic’s Matt Futterman break down what sets tennis apart from other sports and the challenges the tournaments and players face to stay profitable. Further Listening : Rafael Nadal's Retirement Is So Great He Doesn't Miss Tennis Read more:  Grand Slam prize money is enormous. The economics of tennis tournaments is complicated Wimbledon Investors Cash In With VIP Seats Costing Over $500,000 Matt Futterman’s book, The Cruelest Game, is available for pre-order We have a special Bloomberg subscription offer for podcast listeners at Bloomberg.com/podcastoffer. Hosted by David Gura; Produced by Julia Press; Reported by Matt Futterman, Hannah Miller; Edited by Aaron Edwards. Fact-checking by Laura Newcombe; Engineering by Alex Sugiura. Senior Producer: Naomi Shavin; Deputy Executive Producer: Julia Weaver. Executive Producer: Nicole Beemsterboer. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  • Bloomberg Audio Studios.

  • Podcasts, Radio, News.

  • The Wimbledon finals are this weekend, the pinnacle of the oldest and most revered tennis tournament in the world.

  • Tennis has its established rituals, and Wimbledon is probably the most entrenched in those rituals.

  • Hannah Miller covers media for Bloomberg, and she got to see the action up close.

  • The grounds are amazing.

  • There's flowers everywhere, there's high tea.

  • People are allowed to bring champagne into the grounds.

  • Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, if you could avoid opening bottles of champagne when the players are about to serve.

  • Oh, come on.

  • If someone actually pops a champagne bottle and you hear the cork, like, that's the noise interruption.

  • It's not necessarily people screaming.

  • Wimbledon brings in a lot of money.

  • If you wanted to attend the tournament this year without waiting hours in the queue for cheap tickets,

  • it could take you over $500,000 to secure a guaranteed seat on Center Court.

  • That's almost double last year's price and triple the year before.

  • Prize money for the marquee tournament is also on the rise.

  • This year, the singles champs will each take home 3.6 million pounds, or nearly $5 million.

  • But while players in other leagues have gained ground toward benefiting from their sport's overall profitability,

  • The Athletic's tennis reporter Matt Futterman says tennis sits in a more complicated gray area,