In the past few decades, the biggest role of Chinese sports has been to boost national self-confidence and pride, which has become the biggest connection between professional sports and us ordinary people. However, when it comes to winning glory for the country and fighting for gold and silver, the relationship between professional sports and us ordinary people seems to be separated. Domestic "inner loop" events lack the blessing of patriotic enthusiasm, often living in the shadow behind the gold medal, becoming a game of self-amusement within the system.
Last week, the CTA China Tennis Tour Finals ended in Macau, and the China Tour also went through its second year. At the beginning of its inception, this question was also in front of the Central Tour: Without a sports event maintained by patriotic enthusiasm, what do we use to connect with the audience?
From the perspective of the audience, the domestic professional tennis tournaments of the past are indeed boring. It's like a roster – not only flat, but also black and white. More often than not, we see cold results and a bunch of unfamiliar names that don't know who they are, because for most people, the only results that really make sense are the results.
I am reminded of a passage from Yang Kasa's talk show conference this year: Why people laugh is that when the person you like talks, no matter what he says, you want to laugh. The same is true of tennis, where it is human nature to be more inclined to focus on familiar things. In the golden age of China's women's networks, their opponents will also be slowly familiar to us, which once made WTA's attention not inferior to ATP in China.
The birth of the Central Tour has finally made many names have a vivid face and frequent exposure. Whether it's recording the games and lives of players in the official photography stadium infield, or the players in the lottery ceremony who make stunning appearances in costumes, the Central Tour has done a lot of work in disseminating the image of players.
First of all, let the players become the "acquaintances" of the fans, so that the fans can feel that the game is related to themselves. This is the premise and foundation of everything.
I have to say that repetition is really a magical power. When we see a name repeatedly, we want to see his game; when we watch one more person's game, we will have feelings for that person; because of emotion, we will pay attention to the process of the game, the connotation of the game, not just the result.
When we pay attention to the course of the game, tennis becomes as vivid as a movie. This is exactly how the international tennis world has been continuously exporting its own blockbusters. "Good movies" are popular, "good actors", and "good actors" attract everyone to continue to pay attention to sequels, which is a virtuous circle that an event should have. It is said that the style of culture is not divided into families, and the core of literature and sports is indeed the same.
The Central Tour is also staging its own movies every day, and in my opinion, many players in China may not have such perfect skills, but many of them have vivid and interesting personalities and experiences. The level of the game is divided into big and small, but for the display and test of the rich connotation of human nature, small players and small games will also have a deep understanding. It's not just "the great cause of nation-building" that can shock people's hearts, happiness and pain, anger and relief, loss or satisfaction... Competitions are a mirror of life, and parents have five tastes and miscellaneous tastes.
In two years, the Chinese Tour has also begun to have Wu Yiyu and Terrigal's "love and killing" is difficult to solve, but also from here to push Bai Zhuoxuan, Yuan Yue from here to a larger international stage, the depth of the script is slowly brewing with the accumulation of time, in the future may need better "director" to ferment, but at least for now, the Chinese Tour has set up a complete stage, "actors" please take place!
I love the Slogan of the Central Tour – "Find Your Love"! For the audience, everyone's love for tennis comes from the strength we have drawn from the game, making us strong and optimistic in the face of this beautiful and cruel life. Let the audience find such a love, is the real link between us and tennis.
For the organizers of the Central Tour and all Chinese tennis people, tennis was not a "fast money" industry in the past, and most of them engaged in this industry were with love and ideals for tennis. We look forward to forming a truly market-oriented healthy tennis ecology through the power of the China Tour, so that these loves will not be worn down by the cruel environment.
At the beginning of the establishment of the China Tour, many people were worried about whether these dreams were "castles in the air". Two years on, a lot of small signals have given us positive feedback.
In the past, the fan base only discussed a few Chinese players participating in the International Tour, but now more names are remembered. After the sweet and cute post-00s player Wang Meiling shined in the Central Tour, she actually received two commercial endorsements. In the first year of the Central Tour, we were afraid of the absence of domestic tennis stars, but now, the Central Tour is starting to make its own stars.
Bai Wenbo, a 15-year-old amateur player who just played in the amateur team competition of "Every Day Tennis" this year, appeared in the CTA800 arena a few days later to face Wu Yixun. The goal of the Central Tour when it was founded to break down professional and amateur barriers and create a smooth upward passage seems to have begun to reverberate.
So, going back to the question we asked at the beginning, what do we use to connect with the audience? Maybe the Central Tour itself is the answer to that question. In the middle of the tour, little by little, it practices the original intention of two years ago, and it will also slowly innovate the inherent thinking of the public with its own influence, and interact and resonate with the audience.
The ideal state of the future Of the Central Tour should be to change from a professional event to one of our "ours" to become more connected to each of us. Of course, everything still needs time, but don't forget to applaud the progress of the Central Tour, because here you can find yours, find mine, find our common love!