steven said:

Funny you should say that. I've often wondered if something collective might be possible too but never really thought it could get off the ground. However, maybe the fact that someone else (i.e. gazzpash) has actually put it into words on here means it's not quite as mad as it sounded in my head ...

There are obvious questions, such as would enough people be interested in it and able to contribute enough to make a worthwhile difference to even one player? ... even if it were possible to raise a worthwhile amount, how would decisions be made on how the money was used? ... and would we inadvertently create bad feeling by making such decisions? (much as we have a go at the LTA over some of their funding decisions, any collection of people deciding to support one player and not another are always going to be on a hiding to nothing)

Also, although many people here have a particular favourite player (and most if not all of us will have some players we prefer over others, especially those who are good enough to interact with us), as a forum we are relatively neutral in that we don't overtly favour some players over others - we want all of the Brits to fulfill their potential if they can.

So perhaps it is better to try and help in other ways - obvious examples would be forum members putting players in touch with potential sponsors if they know of any, or perhaps offering a spare room near a tournament to a player for a week to save them some money (as I believe happens at a number of the US Pro Tour events) - I've got no idea whether any players would be interested in that, but if we are looking for small ways to make a difference, that might be one.

Equally, if we keep on highlighting players' successes on here and on Twitter and and the odd journo picks up on that and writes about it often enough, there is a remote possibility that it might end up being one of the things that gives a player a slightly bigger chance of getting proper sponsorship at some point.

For example, only last week, Alex Ward got a mention on both the BBC site and in the Times as part of a successful week for the Brits, and, while I may be completely wrong, I reckon it's pretty unlikely that the media would have picked up on a Swedish 10K Futures title had we not indirectly drawn their attention to it. We shouldn't delude ourselves that anything like that is going to make a difference on its own, but any media coverage may be the random trigger that gets someone to notice a local player ... and one day that might just be someone who is in a position to influence a company's sponsorship decisions and the like, you just never know.

Equally, the easier we can make it to follow the lower-ranked players by helping to give people easier access to info, the more likely it is that this may turn up people who can help in whatever way.

Having said all that and probably appeared to rubbish gazzpash's idea (which, as the start of this post hopefully implied, isn't what I meant to do at all), maybe it is worth exploring the kind of thing gazzpash is talking about, just in case there is enough enthusiasm for the idea to make a go of it.

Fitzy said:

hi,

Well i think gazz has raised a great idea but also the points against are valid.
Im writing from a neutral point as i dont think i would be the one to benefit from the funds if they were raised as im sure people had someone else in mind.
For instance the LTA fund aegon players 20,000 pounds i think a year for travel.

There are alot of pretentious people in british tennis playing, and offering them free accomodation with people they dont know seems strange to them. For me its ideal and a must so i think that side of things if and when its applicable would be great.

A regular amount donated by anyone that could put together to make a pool wether you think it or not would be making a difference, but not to someone that already has Aegon funding. It would pay for a trip away, or over time a few or more trips to play tournaments. I know when ive helped players out younger than me for what ever reason, you do feel good and take a little pride in what they achieve there after.

I feel this website is great, and great that you all have such interest in tennis and i have absolutely no problem in letting you know the ins and outs on what goes on. I would be very surprised if collectively someone didnt know a friend of a friend who had some clout in publicity or had a company. (in terms of the publicising part above).

Maybe start a thread so that everyone see's this discussion as people might miss it being in cordoba futures. Start the post with my thread or the above and see what everyone else things. I feel the responses will be the same and u can gather a general idea of how people would want to attack it, if at all.

Apologies if I come across a naysayer, but after being a part of the Myfootballclub project (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyFootballClub), I believe that these ideas--whilst have noble sentiment--tend to be unworkable over a period of time. The biggest reason being, as Steven has already illuminated, decision making. The allocation of resources, even when democratically decided upon, ended up causing ill feeling or had other insidious affects with said experiment. But we have more camaraderie here than at the football club, so this may not be as much of a problem. Nonetheless, it can become quite convoluted and cumbersome (decision making).

Also, there is the more pragmatic issue of how much can actually be raised to make it worthwhile. If we manage to raise £100 a month, how far will that actually go?

Another problem we encountered was that of interest waning over time. The membership was £35 a year, but the next year only 30% or so renewed.

I'll finish this later, need to leave work.