The holder of 24 Grand Slam singles titles (and 64 overall, counting doubles and mixed), Margaret Court, has come under fire for years for her opinions against homosexuality and her willingness to express those opinions publically. Ubi’s Adam Addicott gave us a rundown of the situation, and it’s likely that we’re going to hear more about it as the Australian Open gets underway. It’s worth your time to listen to Jon Wertheim’s podcast with Mary Carillo, too, as they discuss the issue in a thought provoking, nuanced fashion.
I have no patience for Court’s opinions. The calls by (and for) players to not play on Margaret Court Arena are misguided, however, and a few analogies illustrate why:
- Does a pro’s playing at the O2 Arena honor O2?
- Is playing on a court with a Kia advert around it, or one for PNB Paribas, demonstrate a player’s personal endorsement of that company’s activities? (PNB Paribas was cited for setting up off-shore tax havens for clients in the Panama Papers, for example.)
- When the ATP tournament in Washington, D.C., is held a the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center are the players honoring Fitzgerald? (Do they even know who he was?)
- Should the National Basketball Association’s Philadelphia 76er’s and the National Hockey League’s Philadelphia Flyers not play at the Wells Fargo Arena because Wells Fargo was fined for practicing discrimination against African-American and Hispanic borrowers?
I’m pretty sure the answers are “No,” in every example.
Should Tennis Australia remove Court’s name from the court? That’s a different discussion, and it should be enjoined. At the moment, though, players and others are conflating simply competing on a tennis court with the act of honoring who or whatever the court might be named after. They’re not the same thing.
