> During a weeklong visit to the stadium and Porcupine Creek, it became clear that on the strength of Indian Wells, Ellison isn’t content with adding a fifth Grand Slam to the pro tour. With help from Mark Hurd, Oracle’s co-CEO and fellow tennis aficionado, he wants to restore tennis to prominence in the U.S., and make the game more profitable globally. “I think we simply have to do something to improve the quality of American tennis,” Ellison says, sounding for a moment like someone determined to end malaria. To do that, he and Hurd are plotting an all-new American tennis tour, and they want to cultivate the next Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras.
> Unlike Ellison, Hurd played tennis throughout his youth. He was good enough to earn a full ride to Baylor and to play No. 1 for the team. Without any prodding at all, Hurd will pull out trophies earned at National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I championships. “You would never have seen one of these,” he says, knowing that I managed to play only Division III tennis. When the Indian Wells tournament is on, Hurd flies down from Oracle’s headquarters to mix business and pleasure. He speaks with customers and takes in the matches. He also plays at Porcupine Creek and can be found showing off his guns in a tank top.
Then they are perfect for each other. I like the story of how Ellison will violate smaller airports no-fly times (due to the noise and close neighborhoods), and land his private jet anyway and just pay the fines.
>>instead of spending a minimum of $60,000 a year of their own money traveling the world and working their way up tennis’s ladder.
Right the article spent a lot of time being Life Styles of The Rich and Famous but that's the punchline if you want to talk about "saving american tennis" there's not just no money at the bottom, there's negative money. The article mentioned Hurd donating to one college club but if either of them want to save tennis they need to be buying or starting smaller regional tournaments with enough money to keep food on the table for the lower rungs. Or donating to dozens of colleges. Something that gets more players in the bottom. Increasing the payout for one tournament and turning one complex into tennis heaven is useless.
The article makes no mention of the USTA Junior Development program and how it could be enhanced. Nor does it mentioned their effort to court more African American players. Donating to a few colleges (which will likely be the schools with the top 1-50 rankings; take a look, they are the same as in every other NCAA sport) will do very little to scale up young American talent. My two cents: more red clay courts. Young players need to learn how to think and construct a point as opposed to over powering an opponent. Also lower the cost of participation. Maybe Ellison can donate to the USTA which would in turn subsidize the cost of lessons for those who are talented but from an economically disadvantaged background.
The next time HN readers run into the weeds and start complaining when some billionaire isn't solving world hunger, etc and is instead trying to solve a crazy technical problem, going to space, etc let's try and remember that most billionaires just have fun with their money
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-04/oracle-s-m...