I’ve been holding an unpopular opinion for the last 30 years or so, writes Josh Dickins, head of consulting at creative agency Modern Citizens.

I’m British, I love tennis, and I really can’t stand Wimbledon.

It feels a bit sacrilegious typing it out. Tennis fans view me with withering disdain when I mention it. Everyone else just tends to be nonplussed. For many, after all, Wimbledon is tennis.

But every year, as a private members club in south-west London rolls out its impeccably brand-managed spectacle, a little bit of me collapses inside.

My internal second serve sails limply into the net.

And my issue is simple. In Britain at least, Wimbledon is tennis’ massive, publicly broadcasted, shop window. It has the power to inspire people, give them a passion, be part of a community, to get them playing sport, to make a real difference to people’s lives.

But it’s packaged as a luxury brand.

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It is “aspirational”, in the brand marketer’s vocabulary. Something impossible (and perhaps deeply unappealing) to aspire to for any young person who hasn’t had the luxury of court access, club membership, coaching or even a racket to hand.

And it’s an incredibly effective luxury brand at that. It follows a scarcity-value equation perfectly: rigorous adherence to tradition (white kit only, please), semi-exclusive access (balloted-ticketing; access through clubs; a Royal Box), minimal commercial branding (and when it is, only luxury or heritage brands need apply) and above all, an unshakable insistence that there really is nothing like Wimbledon on the sporting calendar.

Commercially, it’s masterful. Culturally, it’s kind of miserable.

And it’s miserable because tennis in the UK has a long-standing elitism problem. It’s something the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), the UK’s tennis governing body, have been working hard to address for years. Their inclusion strategy says on its very first page that they want tennis to be “Relevant, Accessible, Welcoming and Enjoyable for everyone”.

In the grand battle-royale of one-word brand values, it’s coming up against the All England Club’s “Heritage, Integrity, Respect and Excellence.”

One set feels better for inspiring kids of all backgrounds to pick up a racket and play a truly global sport, perhaps the only global sport with relatively equal billing between male and female players.

The other is undoubtedly better for extending that lucrative Rolex partnership.

So, what, if anything, can be done?

Well, firstly, the answer probably isn’t a radical overhaul of the Wimbledon brand.

I might not like it, but millions in the UK and around the world do. Not to mention TV rights holders, corporate sponsors and strawberries and cream peddlers.

Nor is copying the other Grand Slams.

Each of the four major tennis tournaments has its own distinct identity. The French Open is artsy and cultural, the US Open is brash and loud, the Australian Open is the self-styled “Happy Slam”, laid-back, fun and participatory. These identities are theirs to own, just as Wimbledon’s tradition-on-steroids is currently theirs.

The answer I think lies in shifting the Wimbledon focus. Away from regarding itself as an event, a location and a spectacle, and towards the action itself. Because Wimbledon, in its current form, risks having more in common with Royal Ascot or the Boat Race than with the fourth most popular sport globally being played at the highest level.

An exhibition; an international curiosity; a heap of cultural codes, expectations and quirks that mark it out as unique, but not necessarily magnetic to anyone who isn’t familiar with it.

In other words, my strategy would be to make the world’s most famous tennis tournament a little more about tennis.

The players, whose profiles have been given a timely boost through Netflix’s Break Point; the speed and intensity of the game played on grass; the fan experience, whether on-site or digitally delivered; the sheer entertainment spectacle of epic on-court battles, triumphs and failures.

This doesn’t mean “Heritage, Integrity, Respect and Excellence” go out the window.

But it might mean they take on slightly different meanings.

A proud heritage of incredible action; integrity in acknowledging you are the gateway to a sport for millions; respect for the past, but also for modern, diverse audiences, and excellence in delivering a bloody great entertainment product every year.

It can still be unique, charming, proud of its past. But it needs to be unashamedly modern too.

I will, of course, still be glued to Wimbledon this year. As I am every year. But my plea is for a brand that sees itself as a tennis tournament, not a curated luxury experience.

New balls please: more elite tennis, less elitist tennis.