The difference is that that the WTA actually has leverage on China because China loses legitimacy in sports from this decision. No Chinese woman can ever be the best tennis player anymore. The NBA and John Cena actually have negative leverage on China. Both are purely American exports, so getting them banned in China only serves to widen the trade imbalance. China would love to find an excuse to do so.

The NBA has orders of magnitude more leverage than women's tennis. There's a serious number of NBA fans in China who would be pissed if it were banned.

> No Chinese woman can ever be the best tennis player anymore.

China already struggles mightily in both men's and women's tennis. They don't have any player in men's or women's that cracks the top 100.

It's a good thing you can pirate the NBA or use a VPN. Less committed fans will simply accept that China just censor the NBA for telling "lies." You can't pirate your way into hosting a international tournament.

Would Blizzard and the IOC be closer to the WTA here, in that their are also hosting tournaments and events?

That's closer, but I don't think that's quite the same. Esports seems to serve more so as marketing for videogames. The CCP is trying to discourage its population from playing videogames, so they doubt that they care if they lose out on American ones. Also, esports don't have nearly the prestige of physical sports at the moment, though that could change in the future.

> China already struggles mightily in both men's and women's tennis. They don't have any player in men's or women's that cracks the top 100.

bizarre thing to say given the story is literally about a former WTA #1 Chinese female doubles tennis player.

Go ahead and fact check me. I am referring to single's (far more popular).

In terms of leverage on China, I think Apple has a lot, since they employ a lot in China. Although the next question is, can they afford (of the order of) 1/3 of their revenue?

This is where we need to make Apple remember 2/3 can evaporate and make them worst off then losing 1/3. Yeah 2/3 won't go off completely. But so is that 1/3. The whole point is that as international community we need to vote properly with our wallets to make them behave. Apple cancelled? Now that is a trend that Steve wouldn't even thought of back then.

It's revenue already lost. No tournament was happening since October 2020 already. Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamzagoria/2020/07/23/wta-to-c...

Then when China eases Covid restrictions they'll quietly add China back to the schedule like nothing happened.

Unfortunately, "China" holds grudges (in quotes, because I suspect it might not even be the government, but different officials wanting to appear as good citizens to the government, and definitely not Chinese people), so it won't be that easy: Simon will likely need to step down (though he's kinda being diplomatic in only "wanting answers", not putting particular blame on anyone, but he's still pretty adamant).

Witness NBA-Houston Rockets case which caused Houston Rockets games to be blacked out for 15 months even though Morey moved on from Houston late in 2020 after tweeting in support of Hong Kong protests early in the year.

What did CCTV do? Ban 76ers NBA games who are the current employer for Morey.

I'm not interested in tennis at all but I admit feeling an urge to find some way to support tennis.

It would be great if the internet could somehow make this a fantastic decision for WTA.

Ideas?

Absolutely. I’m in. I am hopeful viewership goes up.

Maybe some artistic soul could make a great meme with NBA stars and Winnie the Pooh on one side and WTA on the other and the text:

TIL: tennis balls are bigger than basket balls.

I know there are quite a few here who also hang on other parts of the internet and who knows how to generate memes.

Anyone up for the challenge?