LTA Strategy

PaulM · Tennis legend

RE: LTA Strategy

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Stuart Fraser

Verified account

@stu_fraser

Tennis Scotland at Stirling and Loughborough University announced as the LTA's new two national academies.

Mike DicksonVerified account @Mike_Dickson_DM 4h4 hours ago

LTA announce new national academies at Stirling and Loughborough. No parent will have to fork out more than £5k per annum if child is one of the chosen elite. Less good detail: neither venue has clay courts.

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Tuesday 12th of June 2018 05:12:34 PM

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Article from the BBC

www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/44457201

......... in a bid to produce the number of players in the Top100.

Have they finally got the message ? #20JamesWards

Strongbow · All-time great

Strange to see "LTA" and "Strategy" so closely combined wink

Fix British Tennis · Improver

Has anyone else heard rumour that the LTA and Participation Director (Alastair Marks) have parted company?

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Fix British Tennis wrote:
Has anyone else heard rumour that the LTA and Participation Director (Alastair Marks) have parted company?

Not me, but it is unlikely that any such rumour would have reached Spain already.

Welcome to the board. Love the name FBT.

Fix British Tennis · Improver

Bob in Spain wrote:
Fix British Tennis wrote:
Has anyone else heard rumour that the LTA and Participation Director (Alastair Marks) have parted company?
Not me, but it is unlikely that any such rumour would have reached Spain already.
Welcome to the board. Love the name FBT.

Thanks - seems there could be something in it. According to the LTA website Ollie Scadgell (who previously had a role supporting David Lloyd...) is now Participation Director -

https://www.lta.org.uk/about-the-lta/structure-vision/executive-team/

Also seems that Alex Mawer (Marketing & Communications Director) has vanished along with Commercial Director James Mercer !

So looks like Scott Lloyd is quietly having a major clear out without making any announcements !

Elegant Point · Satellite level

LTA strategy an oxymoron The best thing the LTA could do for British tennis is sack themselves and read this site!
Changes could include:
Increase diversity at the top, no old boy network, link salaries to results (and let members of this site decide if they've been met!) take a serious look at the countries where there is a system that works better than ours; need more juniors going into (and staying) in tennis, affordability (money and connections are everything in the LTA system), independent assessment for which juniors get funding and means test it, more County/local training sessions funded by LTA, develope a new rating/ranking system, more ITF tournaments in UK so those who can't afford to travel get a chance to play them.
I could go on but many of the points have been covered very eloquently above.....

Kolohead · Junior player

Elegant point. Well said I couldnt agree more. Parents are keeping kids in tennis at huge cost. We have no real belief that any will make it due to the costs. LTA should look at providing more at reduced prices. Its just an old boys club and the all England dont help either. With the amount of money these executives get paid and bonuses it would prob fund 5 centres a year. Its also shameful that the government provide funding too. Perhaps a break away organisation is what is needed like what happened in darts. Worked for them.

Elegant Point · Satellite level

A break away organisation would be an interesting concept - nothing like a bit of healthy competition to improve (the LTA's) performance smile

Fix British Tennis · Improver

Elegant Point wrote:
A break away organisation would be an interesting concept - nothing like a bit of healthy competition to improve (the LTA's) performance

It certainly would shake things up if organised properly. The LTA's shareholders are mainly the county associations, each represented by its elected LTA councillor, which, in turn, are controlled by the affiliated clubs in each county. So getting together sufficient clubs with a common cause all pushing in the same direction would make things interesting. Should be possible in today's internet and social media age. A discussion forum for club officers would be a start...

Born2WinTennis · Club Coach

There's no way this would happen, the clubs main reason for affiliating is for access to 1000s of Wimbledon tickets. So without the same offer of tickets a rival organisation couldn't possibly compete. A rival competition structure could compete however, with the rise of UTR tournaments etc, as we see happening just now.

Kolohead · Junior player

If there was an org committed to helping kids, helping young adults at uni and helping clubs I am sure if they got big enough clubs and individuals would like to be part of it. If it were large enough tickets for events would soon be presented to it. If clubs see the only reason to link to the lta is for tickets then already you can see they dont actually really associate themselves with the LTA values or policies. And just want tickets

I once ran a community group raising funds mainly through a fundraising lotto that was run externally. We raised a lot of money for a local community that provided free tennis on indoor courts for any kid who signed up, rackets to clubs for kids, ball machines to help older kids train etc. The aim was to generate a grant fund.

It was a success fora short while but hard work and as the kids fell away for reasons such as football so did the adult support.

Just imagine a group with 50,000 who agree with the philosophy and vision. Using the same lotto scheme we used if all 50000 joined it that would be 25000 per week income .

A means tested child support grant scheme could be created and bingo you have another org .

I know Im in dream world but wouldnt that be nice.

Fix British Tennis · Improver

Born2WinTennis wrote:
There's no way this would happen, the clubs main reason for affiliating is for access to 1000s of Wimbledon tickets. So without the same offer of tickets a rival organisation couldn't possibly compete. A rival competition structure could compete however, with the rise of UTR tournaments etc, as we see happening just now.

My thinking was more that the LTA's shareholders / members (the county associations which are in turn controlled by clubs) could join force to shake up the LTA and make it more transparent, inclusive and accountable. The main reason that the LTA gets away with running as a conflicted cosy network is that its governance structure makes it very hard for it to be held accountable. It would not be easy and would require the games more progressive thinking volunteers to become involved in their county associations but I have certainly achieved harder things through pulling stakeholders together through using internet and social media.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Then you've got my vote, M. Fix British Tennis !

(But it's true that when I was chatting to a president of a reasonably big tennis club in outer London, he said that wimbledon free tickets were the only thing people cared about and what made the club toe the line, in any shape at all - which seems a bit tragic to me)