Wimbledon surplus

OldEchoMan · Social player

Wimbledon surplus

Salmon · Tennis legend

1) Most important thing, and it will cost only a tiniest fraction of the £25 million - get a decent website and Livescoring for all Challengers and if possible, some Futures.

2) More funding for players above 19 who are getting good results.

3) Please stop sending all the top Juniors to the same tournament. It happens very often these days, although I don't know if it's a cost cutting move or just unimpressive planning.

4) This may sound slightly outrageous, but it would be good to have a base in the US, just like Tennis Australia have one in Sutton. It will help our Challenger players who play in North America very often, and it will also enable/encourage our 18 and under players to do tournaments there.

5) It would be great to see bigger Challengers and more Futures in GB. Scotland should be getting a Challenger.

-- Edited by Arka at 12:24, 2007-11-21

gazzpash · Club Coach

I think better website facilities would be better as might encourage more people to follow tennis all year round.

Speaking on a personal level, I would put some of the money into trying to encourage young people to take up coaching than paying big bucks to bring in top cpaches already.

I also think having a base abroad would help as it might encourage players to play more competitive matches abroad and have a dedicated base.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

first i'd go on a bang up holiday to the caribeenan

secnond give myself a pay rise for doing such good work.

then hire a really expensive deisign team to make the website look really fancy (but not actaully do anyhting)

give Boggo 3 of the worlds most expensive coachs.

sit back, in my new hi tech office in my new high performance centre in a big comfy leather chair and puff away on a big cigar and watch the results roll in.

mjd · Challenger qualifying

The most naturally talented players may not have been born with 'a silver spoon.....' so local courts, facilities and training should be free to youngsters.

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

I'd provide livescores and regularly (ie more than once a day) updated scores.

I'd put a lot of money into the local courts, making them free (or at least much cheaper) to use.

A base abroad sounds like a good idea as well.

I think I would spend some of the money on top coaches though, to teach other coaches as well as for the current crop of tennis players. But I'd have a structure in place to judge whether they are cost effective, and I'd continually review whether it is worth it or not.

But mainly I'd spend money, time and effort on finding out why so many youngsters are leaving the system and improving/fixing the tennis acadamies I already have.

jezzauk · Lower Club Player

what a great question,

I thing i'd like to see in addition to eveything else is a weekly tv program dedicated to British Tennis. It would educated the public that the tennis season lasts outside the summer and would demonstrate that the dearth of talent isn't as bad as is too often reported and may even encourage more of a following for certain players that in turn encourages more to take up the game seriously.

RedCabbage · Club Coach

I like Jezza's idea. Better still, a cheesy tennis channel with lots of adverts and coverage of whatever tournaments are on at the time. Most people don't even know what futures events are. Publicise the smaller tournaments. Get people knowing names like Slabinsky and Cox and Khan and Moore. Tennis is a tremendously good spectator sport, there's internationally competitive tennis on every day of the year, the ranking system is enthralling. There's already hundreds of tennis courts around the country that sit dormant for ten months a year so we need to do something to extend interest beyond Wimbledon to get more people playing.

I'm a recent convert to the beautiful game and before I discovered this site it was a real struggle to find any info beyond Murray/Henman. Surely the LTA wants interest from more than just the sad old men like me who are too elderly to offer anything to the sport? It has to go out there and get them.