Industry Shorts: ECB, Lta, UK Coaching, Goodwood Festival
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has opened the ‘Leyton Cricket Hub’, a new urban cricket centre which follows on from the launch of its South Asian Action Plan last year.
The hub has been created in conjunction with Waltham Forest Council and Essex County Cricket Club. The ECB said it marks the first urban cricket centre of its kind.
The hub is designed to increase participation and encourage positive social cohesion and provide accessible and affordable cricket for locals. The hub will host programmes such as Women’s Soft Ball Cricket, All Stars Cricket and tape ball cricket.
The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) has revealed plans to develop hundreds of new indoor courts across Great Britain over the next 10 years.
The LTA claims three million people will be given the chance to play tennis all year round as part of the initiative. The investment will be based on detailed analysis of potential demand through the country, with the LTA having identified 96 priority targets across England, Scotland and Wales.
The analysis assesses population data and the locations of existing indoor tennis facilities. It forms part of a new strategic approach to investment driven by LTA Chief Executive Scott Lloyd, with a similar exercise being undertaken for park tennis facilities.
Atholl Duncan has been appointed as the new Chair of UK Coaching and will take up the role on 1st July.
Duncan will replace Gillian Wilmot, who will step down from the position at the end of June. Duncan’s most recent non-executive role saw him serve as chairman of the British Horseracing Authority.
He has also served as Executive Director of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Scotland and formerly worked as Head of News and Current Affairs at BBC Scotland.
Qatar, represented by the Qatar Racing & Equestrian Club (QREC), has renewed its title sponsorship of the Goodwood Festival horse-racing event.
QREC will continue to sponsor the Festival until 2024. Its previous sponsorship agreement was due to expire in early August following this year’s event.
Research from ticketing company StubHub UK has found that 28% of British men are now more likely to watch women’s sport than they were five years ago.
Sales data from StubHub UK shows that demand for tickets to ladies’ semi-finals and finals at Wimbledon has been 23% higher than for men’s matches since 2016. This year’s Netball World Cup and FIFA Women’s World Cup have also been cited as tournaments that are helping to change attitudes towards women’s sport.
StubHub UK also polled Brits on the most inspirational sportswomen of all time, with Jessica Ennis-Hill, Serena Williams and Martina Navratilova making up the top three.
Meanwhile, MediaCom and talkSPORT have surveyed 2,000 consumers across the UK to explore how women’s football is consumed in the country.
The two companies found that while the public believe women’s football viewership is dominated by women (76%), it is in fact driven by male viewers, who make up 64% of viewers.
The study also found that women’s football fans are perceived to be young, with most supporters thought to be aged 25-34 and 18-24. There is actually a more diverse split across age groups, with 25 to 34-year-olds accounting for 21%, 35 to 44-year-olds accounting for 20% and 45 to 54-year-olds accounting for 18%.
