CBS Sports will broadcast for the second year in a row the unusual tennis exhibition Superset Tennis. This year CBS will air Superset Tennis on Dec. 11 between noon and 2 p.m.
Superset’s promoter, Stephen Duval, is trying to create a decidedly non-tennis atmosphere, with one-set matches, instant replay for line calls and a TV production crew led by extreme-sport veterans.
“When people view Superset, they won’t want to go back and view normal tennis,” said Duval, an Australian who created the Superset concept.
The CBS telecast will be tape-delayed from a Thanksgiving weekend $250,000 winner-take-all competition among eight players at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. HDNet is expected to telecast it live.
Players committed to the event include Andy Roddick, Mark Philippoussis, James Blake, John McEnroe and Robby Ginepri, last year’s winner.
The format is single elimination, and when a player loses, Duval wants him to make an appearance in the broadcast booth to make some brief remarks and to comment on the match being played.
The 2003 inaugural affair occurred at the Rose Garden in Portland and was shown on Thanksgiving, fetching CBS a 0.9 rating, said Rob Correa, senior vice president of programming for the network. That event went up against the NFL, however, so the Dec. 11 time slot should be better, he said.
Duval’s Superset Tennis company will also stage an eight-man competition at Wembley Arena in London on Oct. 3, with Ginepri, McEnroe, Tim Henman, Greg Rusedski and Rafael Nadal. BBC will broadcast that event and promote it during its Wimbledon coverage next month.
Duval said that the Portland event was profitable last year and that total 2004 costs would be $1.5 million to $2 million. That includes time buys, prize money, players’ appearance fees and the production and arena expenses. The CBS time buy alone is about $500,000.
Revenue comes from TV ad sales, tickets and sponsorships, all of which are in the works. Duval said he hoped to extend the concept even further in 2005 to more dates and locations.
