LTA Announces Strategy To Grow Tennis
The governing body for tennis in Great Britain has announced a new four-year strategy that aims to deliver on getting more people to play tennis, more often.
Michael Downey, chief executive of the Lawn Tennis Association, underlined the new plans in a bid to halt the slide in the numbers of people playing tennis in Britain.
As a result, the budget for participation has been increased by more than 50%, adding an additional £9m by 2018, taking the total to £26m.
According to figures produced by Sport England’s Active People Survey, in 2008/9 there were one million people who played tennis monthly and 530,000 who played weekly. Last year the numbers had dropped to 694,000 and 384,000 respectively.
Downey commented: “The fundamental problem that we face is that our sport is declining. That is a fact that a lot of people have trouble accepting.”
Downey added that participation is down by 9% in the 16-25 age group, compared with a 5% decline across all ages.
One reason for the drop in numbers, Downey claimed, is “doorstep” sports, such as swimming, running, cycling and going to the gym, which are more accessible.
The strategy, which has been five months in documentation, has three main points of participation focus. At the heart of a community focus is getting more tennis to be played in parks.
“There is an enormous opportunity because that is fundamentally where most tennis players are, but they play in the summer and they peak in July,” Downey said. “We think there is not enough of a provision there.”
He added: “Parks are important because we talk about a sport that is fully inclusive. Parks are a front door to inclusion, because just about every neighbourhood in this country has a park in their backyard and it’s generally accessible and affordable. Parks are critical in first of all slowing the decline and then growing it.”
Downey explained that there are four possible models aimed at growing participation in parks: working with a local authority; with a club that has an outreach programme; with a private operator; or with a large operator.
The £9m increase will come from a combination of new revenue growth, driven by making the pre Wimbledon grasscourt tournaments and making playing initiatives like Tennis Tuesdays and Mini tennis, more attractive to potential sponsors – budgeted to deliver £5m.
An additional £2m will come from spending savings on high-performance programmes and another £2m by making the LTA a “more efficient organisation”.
The LTA is currently working with an agency, BBH Sport, to help them understand how best to position tennis to the consumer.
Downey’s sights are currently on “owning June”, to capitalise on the three weeks before Wimbledon. Given that tennis participation peaks in July, he sees an opportunity to flatten that spike by trying to get more people interested in May and June as well.
