A press release from Barclays today carried the headline: 'Murray to boost UK economy by £400m in 2009'.
This is clearly nonsense and makes me wonder if my savings would be safer elsewhere. However, the report does show the remarkable value of the UKs number 1 tennis player, which on further reading is around £145m per annum.
The bank also says Wimbledon and the ATP World Tour Finals attract well over 750,000 fans
each year 'bigger than any football, golf, cricket or rugby event' - this obviously isn't true either. I really must change my
bank.
Whatever the outlandish claims, it's clear that tennis is enjoying a resurgence in the UK.
Last year, RBS came in for a lot of grief for its sports sponsorship strategy with certain MPs calling for its ambassedors, including Murray, to terminate their contracts.
While Murray may not be the '£400m man' just yet, RBS' strategy made a
lot more sense than some of the media gave it credit for.There are many reasons RBS got itself into a pickle, one of which was not its abassedor strategy.
The £400m figure, for what it's worth, is the combined value of 'The
Murray Effect', the Barclays ATP World Tour Final at The O2, the
redevelopments at Wimbledon, increased likelihood of scuccess in the
Davis Cup and the impact of superstars like Federer and Nadal.
