September of last year brought the news that the men’s and women’s professional tennis tours are considering changes to speed up the game, such as no-ad scoring, tiebreakers instead of third sets and possibly even shorter sets, to four games instead of six.
“It will help us with broadcast,” said WTA CEO Steve Simon. “It will help us keep people in the seats.... The attention span of the audience today is shrinking.”
It brings to mind similar changes enacted in football in the early 2000s. As in tennis, the NFL was reacting to the growing length of contests but not by addressing the issues that led to the problem.