Author Topic: Tennis players having to talk to the media.  (Read 9201 times)

Re: Tennis players having to talk to the media.
« Reply #50 on: 01 June, 2021, 05:49:46 pm »
Loads of people suffer from mental health issues and still have to turn up for work.

Almost none of them earn $55,000,000 a year.

nicknack

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Re: Tennis players having to talk to the media.
« Reply #51 on: 01 June, 2021, 11:11:38 pm »
There's no vibrations, but wait.

ian

Re: Tennis players having to talk to the media.
« Reply #52 on: 02 June, 2021, 10:15:25 am »
Honestly, I have no idea what that article is even about, I think she must have started the gin early.

Anyway, an incredibly rich and successful woman, one who's never actually been exactly shy, has a tantrum. It's just so rage against the machine.

Mr Larrington

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Re: Tennis players having to talk to the media.
« Reply #53 on: 02 June, 2021, 10:16:52 am »
It's sticking the boot into colossal bellend Piers “Morgan” Moron.  What more do you want?
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ian

Re: Tennis players having to talk to the media.
« Reply #54 on: 02 June, 2021, 10:24:11 am »
Someone should have said, if Piers CBE is annoyed, then more power to her.

Wowbagger

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Re: Tennis players having to talk to the media.
« Reply #55 on: 02 June, 2021, 10:44:11 am »
Someone should have said, if Piers CBE is annoyed, then more power to her.

Quote from: Marina Hyde
This drew frothing anger from all the usual suspects, including the only highly paid news anchor in history so fragile that he recently stormed off air on his own show.
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ravenbait

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Re: Tennis players having to talk to the media.
« Reply #56 on: 02 June, 2021, 10:48:04 am »
Loads of people suffer from mental health issues and still have to turn up for work.

Almost none of them earn $55,000,000 a year.

Which is a damning indictment of how seriously (not) we treat mental health issues.

If someone was suffering from the flu or a broken leg, you wouldn't expect them to be carrying out their regular work, but because it's a mental issue, she should just tough it out? Adjusting someone's duties to take their health into account is part of the responsibility of a humane employer. Actually hitting the ball over the net to a skilled opponent is what people pay to see, not the bear pit of older white men badgering her with questions about how poorly she thinks she's done or whether her latest outfit makes her a sex symbol.

I don't agree anyone should earn £55m a year for playing sports any job of work, but the amount of money she gets paid shouldn't affect how compassionate we are regarding depression. She isn't paid that much because it's danger money for having to deal with the press while suffering from mental illness. Otherwise people who didn't have to do that would be paid less. She's paid that much because of society's ridiculous fetishisation of sport.

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Wowbagger

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Re: Tennis players having to talk to the media.
« Reply #57 on: 02 June, 2021, 10:55:18 am »
^ Well said!
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

ian

Re: Tennis players having to talk to the media.
« Reply #58 on: 02 June, 2021, 10:55:43 am »
Is anyone saying she can't take time off? Which it seems she should. Job done.

Re: Tennis players having to talk to the media.
« Reply #59 on: 02 June, 2021, 11:02:55 am »
Is anyone saying she can't take time off? Which it seems she should. Job done.

^ this

Professional sport is Professional sport. It's a circus and she has chosen to be part of it. It's media driven. If she likes the $55m she got last year then a huge part of that is for being a media personality, in the media. She doesn't have to take the $55 million a year but she chose to sign a contract which includes media appearances.

It seems she accepts this, which is why she has withdrawn from this tournament. Let's hope however many tens of millions she gets this year will be enough for her to scrape by on.

Sorry, no tears from me.


ian

Re: Tennis players having to talk to the media.
« Reply #60 on: 02 June, 2021, 11:16:52 am »
The commentary is a bit weird, the same people who appear to be saying 'dastardly press making her dance' are then demanding that she continue to entertain them by playing the sport.

I evidently don't get sport, which often seems an exercise in contradictions. She's sitting on a pile of earnings that would embarrass Mammon and people are oh, but the horrible racism and sexism. Really holding her back, is that.

Genuinely, we should support her choice to take a break. It's just sport.

Re: Tennis players having to talk to the media.
« Reply #61 on: 02 June, 2021, 11:39:05 am »

If someone was suffering from the flu or a broken leg, you wouldn't expect them to be carrying out their regular work, but because it's a mental issue, she should just tough it out?

Let's treat mental health like physical health. So, no, she shouldn't be forced to carry out her regular work she should withdrawn and take a break.

Maybe withdraw entirely from a life which is almost certainly going to damage one's mental health. Restricted diet, massive restriction on lifestyle and freedom, huge physical and mental strain.

But, yanno, who can live on less than $55 million a year these days...

ravenbait

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Re: Tennis players having to talk to the media.
« Reply #62 on: 02 June, 2021, 11:46:41 am »
Question: does anyone here saying she should tough it out because DOSH think she would be doing something else if tennis didn't pay millions?

What if you got your dream job, and you got ill but could continue doing parts of it, the parts you live for, the bits that made you devote yourself to gaining the skills to do the job, but someone said, "If you're too ill to do this [part you hate that makes you worse], you can't do any of it, even the parts you can still do despite your ill health," then how would you feel?

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Jaded

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Re: Tennis players having to talk to the media.
« Reply #63 on: 02 June, 2021, 11:49:04 am »
If £55m is a sum that gets no sympathy, at what level income would sympathy be given?
It is simpler than it looks.

ian

Re: Tennis players having to talk to the media.
« Reply #64 on: 02 June, 2021, 11:59:48 am »
No, I'm saying she should take a break. Unlike most people, she certainly has the resources to pretty much do what she wants.

It surely is the job, she's not really being paid to knock a ball over a net. That's modern sports. Mad, I'll agree, I not sure what value hitting or kicking a ball has, but evidently some people think it's worth $55 million.

Re: Tennis players having to talk to the media.
« Reply #65 on: 02 June, 2021, 12:12:26 pm »
If £55m is a sum that gets no sympathy, at what level income would sympathy be given?

Why so keen to manoeuvre away from the sum in question?

ravenbait

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Re: Tennis players having to talk to the media.
« Reply #66 on: 02 June, 2021, 12:15:40 pm »
I guess what I'm trying to say is that you don't get to that level of tennis just because you want to earn a lot of money. It takes a level of dedication and passion that requires a love for the game. The competition is part of that; the media circus may be the way the Grand Slam organisers have set things up, but it's not part of the sport in the strict sense. You could have a tennis competition without a bunch of media hacks asking if she feels her current outfit is flattering or whatever other nonsense gets asked. What even is the purpose of those press sessions? I have no idea.

In my job, I started suffering from depression because some of the duties I had to perform badly affected my mental health. I got moved away from those duties. I don't see what how much she gets paid has to do with anything. It's an entirely separate argument from whether or not someone should be expected to participate in a part of her job that has nothing to do with what she has trained and dedicated her life to when it contributes to a worsening of her mental health. Even if you bring the sponsors into it, I doubt anyone is going out to buy whatever is advertised behind her head just because they see a sign for it while some journo asks pointless questions like, "Your first service seemed to go poorly, are you having a bad day on court?"

Sam
P.S. I do not watch tennis, so I'm imagining the kind of banalities that get asked. I used to watch motor sport, and have occasionally watched boxing, and my response to post-competition interview has always been, "Gods, can they not just get back to doing the sport, I don't want to listen to this boring nonsense."
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Re: Tennis players having to talk to the media.
« Reply #67 on: 02 June, 2021, 12:20:05 pm »
If £55m is a sum that gets no sympathy, at what level income would sympathy be given?

Why so keen to manoeuvre away from the sum in question?

So, is there a level, or not?
It is simpler than it looks.

ian

Re: Tennis players having to talk to the media.
« Reply #68 on: 02 June, 2021, 12:24:29 pm »
But surely the media circus is the sport, from that comes the sponsorship, which of course, pays for the training and everything else that makes playing the game at the high level possible. And not just at the high-level, that media interest and sponsorship trickle down into the game itself, and that – I imagine and hope – gives other young athletes the resources to come up.

I think she has a responsibility in that. She benefitted from the same structure, which not only enabled her to play professional tennis, but also made her very rich.

Re: Tennis players having to talk to the media.
« Reply #69 on: 02 June, 2021, 12:29:32 pm »
If £55m is a sum that gets no sympathy, at what level income would sympathy be given?

Why so keen to manoeuvre away from the sum in question?

So, is there a level, or not?

"When did you stop beating your wife?"



Re: Tennis players having to talk to the media.
« Reply #70 on: 02 June, 2021, 12:40:46 pm »
The argument that professional sport is toxic and should change is a different argument to the one that a person who has chosen that profession should be permitted to not participate in certain parts of the profession because it is toxic.

...and at $55 million a year, it is very much a first-world problem.

ian

Re: Tennis players having to talk to the media.
« Reply #71 on: 02 June, 2021, 12:49:00 pm »
That really, she can walk away.

If you're stuck beheading chickens for ten hours a day for less than minimum wage to feed your family and keep a leaking roof over your head, you don't get that opportunity. And in part, that's because some of us earn $55 million.

Jaded

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Re: Tennis players having to talk to the media.
« Reply #72 on: 02 June, 2021, 01:00:11 pm »
If £55m is a sum that gets no sympathy, at what level income would sympathy be given?

Why so keen to manoeuvre away from the sum in question?

So, is there a level, or not?

"When did you stop beating your wife?"

So, there is no level, and as you say, it's a FWP.
It is simpler than it looks.

Re: Tennis players having to talk to the media.
« Reply #73 on: 02 June, 2021, 02:05:01 pm »
I'm not sure where £55m comes from? As far as I can see, $55m is her lifetime earnings, from tennis and endorsements (mostly from endorsements).
But surely the media circus is the sport, from that comes the sponsorship, which of course, pays for the training and everything else that makes playing the game at the high level possible. And not just at the high-level, that media interest and sponsorship trickle down into the game itself, and that – I imagine and hope – gives other young athletes the resources to come up.

I think she has a responsibility in that. She benefitted from the same structure, which not only enabled her to play professional tennis, but also made her very rich.
I don't think tennis works the way you think it does.  Anyone not in the top 100 is essentially broke, and generally the player pays for their own coaching etc (unless you get sponsors or agents involved early, in which case you are a commodity from your early teens). Her family coached her from the age of 3, and they moved to Florida for more training opportunities when she was 8 or 9. She was playing qualifying for pro tournaments at 14, and turned pro at 16.
Some tennis associations put money into coaching kids, generally the ones that host grand slams to generate the income needed, but Osaka was only invited to a USTA camp at 16!

ian

Re: Tennis players having to talk to the media.
« Reply #74 on: 02 June, 2021, 02:34:49 pm »
Well, that's a structural problem with the sport really. I don't think the actual amount really matters, those at the top of the sport evidently take the money.

Honestly, given the evident pushing by her parents from a young age, I'm not surprised she has problems. Coached from the age of three? Training opportunities when she was 8 or 9. Good god, that sounds awful.

Reading that, I don't think the problem is press conferences.