Is tennis viewed as a rich people sport in the U.S?

38 comments

1. It’s viewed as a rich people sport by me

2. I don’t think so. There are a lot of public courts where anyone can play for free. You just need racquets and balls.

   But there’s definitely an elitist tennis culture of people who play in leagues and take lessons at private clubs and have fancy tennis outfits and the latest gear and everything.

3. Yep.

4. Kind of. It’s seen as snobby, but it isn’t inaccessible to average people.

5. Ehhh I grew up in a poor rural area and our tennis team had a mix of rich kids and poor kids. It’s accessible to anyone really.

6. Not as much as, say, golf, polo or yachting, but I suppose there’s a bit of a class-marker to it. Even though a LOT of public parks have tennis courts in them.

7. It used to be, but I think the Williams sisters did a lot to open a broader interest.

8. It’s kind of a middle class sport for recreational players.
   Many urban, suburban, and even rural parks do have courts available though.

   If one is pursuing a competitive career? It’s absolutely a rich person sport.

9. In terms of pursuing a serious career in it, 100%. It’s cheap to buy rackets/balls and find a public court, but training, travel necessary, and culture around young players is definitely seen as something for wealthier people.

10. Not exclusively, but definitely more so than football, basketball, baseball, hockey, or soccer.

11. Not nearly as much as it is elsewhere. My brother and father played a lot when I was a kid and we were lower middle to middle. We were living in California, which helped since there were courts all over the place.

    Fast forward to the early eighties and we are living in Germany. My brother studies for a year in Kiel and he parlays his California tennis playing youth into a gig as a tennis instructor at a posh club. He made a ton of money there teaching the rich Northern Germans.

12. Idk if it is necessarily a rich person’s sport per se (it’s technically pretty accessible for a lot of people to play it recreationally at many public parks), but at the same time whenever I picture someone playing tennis as a legit hobby, it always produces a picture of a rich or upper middle class person. Probably just a cultural difference between the classes if I had to guess

13. Not really. Most parks in my area have tennis courts whether it was in a low or high income neighborhood. Those who feel like it’s a rich people sport make sure they tell you they play tennis regularly as they drive off in their ’96 Mercedes-Benz.

14. Eh it’s one of those things where you have to have money if you want to take any sport seriously.

15. Sort of. Definitely rich people activity, but also just yuppy. So not weird for a middle class person to be into tennis, there’s public courts all over the place. It’s just a preppy/yuppy kinda thing.

    My wife was from the hood, but her dad took her out of basketball and put her into tennis because he thought it’d get her in with the good kids.

16. Kind of. There are a lot of public courts in my area. The cost of lessons for kids is on par with most other recreational sports like baseball or soccer. Once you get good and move past rec level, it gets pricey, though. It’s probably similar to ice hockey in my mind, which would be middle class at minimum but more likely upper middle class or rich.

17. On a sliding scale it would be higher than baseball, soccer, football, etc.

    Why? I don’t think its for any other reason than older, retired people can play it easier.

    Tons of high schools have tennis teams and I used to play it a bit as a kid. Parents weren’t rich.

18. Yes.

19. In the suburbs yes but in NYC most parks have tennis courts and you’ll see all types of people playing there

20. Tennis is very accessible to play, but it takes money to actually “play” just because it is a hard sport to learn that requires lots of practice and lessons to be good at.

21. Nah just a white people sport

22. I kind of see it as such.

23. Yes. The smaller the sports ball, the richer the person in general.

24. Considering there’s many public courts, and it is a feature not always, but often seen alongside pools in some apartment complexes, I think it is the current day, middle class. It isn’t on the same level as say, golf. That’s rich.

25. Pretty much, yeah.

26. Like upper middle class/ lower upper class sport. It’s getting kinda taken out by pickle ball though

27. You don’t have to be rich to play it but it’s often played by rich people more often than not. There’s a sport where people hit a ball together in a glass room with a tennis racket called, “Squash”. Now that is definitely a rich people’s sport

28. In terms of participation it’s middle class and up.

29. Yes sort of but it really shouldn’t be. It’s such a great sport and public parks tend to have courts available for free. A good used racket can be bought very inexpensively.

30. It’s definitely more accessible in the sense that most municipalities have public tennis courts and it’s not that difficult to acquire a cheap racket and some balls, but as others have said, it’s definitely a pretty tough sport to break into if you’re not at least middle class with regards to trying to do it competitively at a serious level.

    That being said, I think tennis is much more of an egalitarian sport w regards to the metrics of accessibility and culture compared to sports such as lacrosse, hockey, skiing, and water sports such as sailing/crew.

31. Yes because for the most part it is.

32. Yes. You need expensive equipment and pay dues at a club for court access.

33. It absolutely is

    I had a Sports Marketing class in college and we were to watch one match (which was wayyy longer than I thought) and analyze the ads

    All of them were luxury brands, travel ads, and medications

34. Reddit is always super weird about this stuff.

    Off this site the answer is no. It’s a very inexpensive sport to get into and there are public courts basically everywhere. You can drive through just about any suburban town in the summer and you’re likely to find people playing in a park or whatever.

    On Reddit the answer for whatever reason is yes.

35. Maybe more upper middle class than rich proper. I feel like its more of a WASPy sport. I think of it as being played by white middle aged people who are trying to stay in shape who live in big, suburban houses with pools in the back yard.

36. Yes. Not as bad as Golf, but .. yes.

37. You need a special racket and a whole court to play it so, middle class to upper class yeah

38. I honestly can’t say I’ve known anyone who played tennis *and* had a family that made less than $100,000 a year combined. They often had tennis courts nearby their homes, too. Almost no one in my area, which was usually a $30,000-$40,000 a year per household area, played.