

Larry Ellison Is Spending a Fortune to Save American Tennis - orin_hanner
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-06-04/oracle-s-larry-ellison-plans-u-s-tennis-revival-indian-wells-growth

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capkutay
I thought it was Mark Hurd (the current oracle co-CEO) who was trying to save
tennis

[http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-04/oracle-
s-m...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-04/oracle-s-mark-hurd-
wants-to-revitalize-american-tennis-by-starting-with-schools)

~~~
Kluny
Unrelated, Hurd sounds like an ass.

> Unlike Ellison, Hurd played tennis throughout his youth. He was good enough
> to earn a full ride to Baylor and to play No. 1 for the team. Without any
> prodding at all, Hurd will pull out trophies earned at National Collegiate
> Athletic Association Division I championships. “You would never have seen
> one of these,” he says, knowing that I managed to play only Division III
> tennis. When the Indian Wells tournament is on, Hurd flies down from
> Oracle’s headquarters to mix business and pleasure. He speaks with customers
> and takes in the matches. He also plays at Porcupine Creek and can be found
> showing off his guns in a tank top.

~~~
legohead
Then they are perfect for each other. I like the story of how Ellison will
violate smaller airports no-fly times (due to the noise and close
neighborhoods), and land his private jet anyway and just pay the fines.

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Avshalom
>>instead of spending a minimum of $60,000 a year of their own money traveling
the world and working their way up tennis’s ladder.

Right the article spent a lot of time being Life Styles of The Rich and Famous
but that's the punchline if you want to talk about "saving american tennis"
there's not just no money at the bottom, there's negative money. The article
mentioned Hurd donating to _one_ college club but if either of them want to
save tennis they need to be buying or starting smaller regional tournaments
with enough money to keep food on the table for the lower rungs. Or donating
to dozens of colleges. Something that gets more players in the bottom.
Increasing the payout for one tournament and turning one complex into tennis
heaven is useless.

~~~
Expeditus419
The article makes no mention of the USTA Junior Development program and how it
could be enhanced. Nor does it mentioned their effort to court more African
American players. Donating to a few colleges (which will likely be the schools
with the top 1-50 rankings; take a look, they are the same as in every other
NCAA sport) will do very little to scale up young American talent. My two
cents: more red clay courts. Young players need to learn how to think and
construct a point as opposed to over powering an opponent. Also lower the cost
of participation. Maybe Ellison can donate to the USTA which would in turn
subsidize the cost of lessons for those who are talented but from an
economically disadvantaged background.

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late2part
It's great that someone cares enough to use their own money to help shape
things like this.

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shabble
I presume it's only a matter of time until he manages to fit some giant Yachts
in there.

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weirdmantis
What tech titan is worse than Larry Ellison? I have a hard time thinking of
any. He makes the Uber guy and the Snapchat dudes seem like mother teresa.

~~~
dylanjermiah
Specifically, what's wrong with Ellison? Kalanick? and Spiegel?

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peterbsmith
Ellison lands his private jet during no-fly times and happily pays the fines
while local neighborhoods have to take it.

Spiegel has a Steve Jobs painting/poster in his office and is REALLY touchy
about it.

Kalanick has a whole "I'm going to squeeze every penny from this industry and
call it a disruption" vibe.

~~~
dylanjermiah
>Kalanick has a whole "I'm going to squeeze every penny from this industry and
call it a disruption" vibe.

Interesting, do you think the same impression migrated to Uber? Do you think
they're 'squeez(ing) every penny from the industry'?

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dysinger
Is this hacker news? Where do I go to read news about hacking?

~~~
baddox
Larry Ellison is closely associated with a prominent technology company.

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melling
The next time HN readers run into the weeds and start complaining when some
billionaire isn't solving world hunger, etc and is instead trying to solve a
crazy technical problem, going to space, etc let's try and remember that most
billionaires just have fun with their money

