When the United States Tennis Association’s National Tennis Center is renamed August 28, 2006, it won’t be for money. According to a New York Times story, the USTA is foregoing, at a minimum, four million dollars a year to name the center for tennis great Billie Jean King.
Ms King won 71 professional singles titles, including 12 in Grand Slam events, and was the founder or co-founder of the Virginia Slims Tour, the Women’s Tennis Association, the Women’s Sports Foundation and World Team Tennis. ESPN notes that she was one of just four athletes included in Life magazine’s "100 Most Important Americans in the 20th Century" and Sports Illustrated named her to its list of "Top 40 Athletes" (she was awarded the #5 spot).
That the National Tennis Center is home to the US Open, one of the premier events in the world of tennis, is not news. That the 46-and-a-half acre, 45-court center is a public facility is not so widely known. This strikes a chord with both the USTA and Ms King who learned tennis on public courts in southern California.
"Think about it;" the Times quotes Ms King, "I didn’t pay $10 trillion for this."
Four to five million dollars a year is a lot of money for a nonprofit to waive. Speaking for the USTA, Arlen Kantarian said, "Certainly, it’s obvious that this is not your typical naming deal. It’s also obvious that Billie Jean King is not your typical champion. I think that’s what went through our mind immediately. I think in this day and age of corporate naming rights on venues, this remains a clear signal that not everything is for sale. This was not about the money; this was about doing what was right."
This is perhaps an interesting exercise in long range thinking for a nonprofit. The USTA intends to engage Ms King’s considerable energies to expand it’s mission to promote and develop the growth of tennis. Still . . . four million dollars a year.
What makes this story worth mentioning at InsideWork is a question rather than a statement. And here it is:
What business asset (intellectual, spiritual, human, goodwill) would you protect because doing the right thing by that asset is worth more than cash?
