Petty or Powerfu. Sharapova Uses Her Site To Air Internal Politics

As always, Darren Rovell has the time to cruise into areas on the edge of the media and find issues worth addressing or uncovering…on Friday he took a look at women's tennis phenom Maria Sharapova's website and found that Sharapova had posted on her site a problem that she was having with the WTA Tour about having to do a photo shoot before her Tier I Rome event or else risk a substantial fine.The problem here is not that both sides obviously had an issue that was escallating. The problem i.how it got to this point in the first place.?Now if you are a fan of the sport, you don’t really care about an athlete's internally scheduling issues…you want to see them perform and get their work done below the line just like everyone has to do…we all have duties at work that we don’t like to do but we find a way to get them done. If you are a business partner you HATE to see these things aired publicly…it shows you that there is a lack of communication and lack of trust between the NGB (or the team and the league) and the athlete and her management. If you are the NGB or the league or the team you are now disappointed at the athlete and her management team for making this public and probably annoyed at your management for letting it get to this point. So who wins and who holds the hamme.? Actually no one wins, and in individual sports the elite athlete usually holds the hammer.

The answer is going to be in a compromise, which will probably have the WTA try and find a scheduling spot, decreasing the time and eliminating the fine, and Sharapova, one of the WTA's most marketable athletes on or off the court, doing what she needs to do and has agreed to do by being part of the Tour. Do both sides need each othe.? Tough question for individual sports. For years the ATP and the WTA have worked very hard to make the tours make sense for athletes and market those athletes sensibly. However there are certain athletes (Sharapova in that group) who could play exhibitions, the Grand Slams and do promotional work and make big money. They are few and far between (Anna Kournikova being another one) but unlike team sports they do have that ability.

End of the day, there is no need for this type of issue to be aired on a website…fans probably don’t care (and by asking them, what kind of response did the athlete think she was going to ge.), the Tour doesn’t need th.distraction and they need to find a way to co-exist for business partners, TV partners and the athletes and the players. Find a way to keep these issues private.

The use as of the personal website for elite athletes who take pride in their brand and reaching directly to their fans and their partners (and the media in more and more cases) is becoming a very valuable tool, and it is something which done well can give the athlete a very strong voice that he or she can control. Although most athletes are not yet at that point, some like Tiger Woods and Roger Clemens have used their sites to break stories and give out information, and it can be a potential new field for those entering the sports field to assis.athletes and managers with.

On to some other pieces worth a read…Media Post has a nice piece today on IndyCar. Marco Andretti and the new Indiana Jones movie embarking on a ten city tour to promote the upcoming Indy 500 along with the movie…nice creative tie and a good example of how movies can use sports to creatively activate…also on the expansion role, the LA Times had a good piece on Sunday on the UFC’.stepped up efforts to reach the Hispanic community with a new reality show targeted just to that market…lastly, a great piece from the Kansas City Star's Joe Posnanski on the blog war that exploded online last week with the whole Buzz Bissinger attack on Will Leitch and his take on Bob Costas…as always a very solid perspective on a very silly “controversy.. Blogs are here to stay, can be used as a valuable tool by sports brands but as we have said in the past, have to have some responsibility in their reporting tactics in order to be taken seriously….