Michael Downey - The four year plan for British Tennis

EddietheEagle · County player

RE: Michael Downey - The four year plan for British Tennis

paulisi · Tennis legend

Another factor in the marketing of the sport is that it is going to struggle to attract new TV and live audiences in the UK as most of the UK matches are played during working hours.

Thus the general attendees are either the retired or free bees during the week. This is very noticeable at the WTA event at Edgbaston where crowd are minimal until Friday and Saturday.

-- Edited by paulisi on Wednesday 1st of April 2015 09:52:16 AM

EddietheEagle · County player

Are there lessons to be learned from golf and the way that sport is marketed? There always seems to be some tournament going on with golf, whether professional or amateur. No one can deny, golf is a lively sport and they certainly know how to market it having long killed off the old adage about most of us not being old enough to play.

Should the LTA focus more on the development and promotion of tennis competition? After all, what do we play the game for? Background marketing (we have a marketing man as chief exec so we might as well use his skills while we're stuck with him) would then target participants to improve ability to competition level, of whatever standard; good amateur, semi-pro (British Tour/Futures). I can't see much point myself in worrying about players who simply want to play social tennis. I wouldn't even worry particularly about tennis clubs content to stay with crappy macadam courts and a garden shed. That's rather like the PGA worrying about Crazy Golf on the seafront. One of my own pet bugs is court surfaces. We need vastly more court surfaces that match those found in the real world - grass, clay and DecoTurf (i.e its equivalent cheap knock-off).

BeefyDeedz · Pro player

I always figured that the social sphere would widen as the levels above it similarly improve. I'm not sure of the numbers, but anecdotally, the golf clubs near me have echoed the progression of the game and its marketing: the more golf was rebranded as 'not just for old people', those lads who buy a bag and some clubs for Monday and Wednesday free days flooded in for 18 holes and a sandwich in the clubhouse with no real intention of doing anything but slowly improve and have a laugh.

EddietheEagle · County player

paulisi wrote:
Another factor in the marketing of the sport is that it is going to struggle to attract new TV and live audiences in the UK as most of the UK matches are played during working hours.

Thus the general attendees are either the retired or free bees during the week. This is very noticeable at the WTA event at Edgbaston where crowd are minimal until Friday and Saturday.

How about a European base for The Tennis Channel? IMG must surely be monitoring the possibility and Agassi is a shareholder.

The LTA could conceivably start its own satellite channel. Sack the chief exec and use his ridiculous remuneration as a budget. You'd need £400,000-£500,000 annually for a Tennis GB channel. Have a two man crew go round the futures and challengers and anything else half-decent and uplink it live onto the satellite. Use replays to fill the channel. It would be great. We'd all have fun that way and wave at each other on TV.

It can be done.

Ratty · County player

Actually golf has exactly the same problems as tennis, in terms of falling player numbers and a stuffy club culture.

And say what you like about crappy macadam courts, they have the significant virtues that they are cheap, need no maintenance, and you can play when it's raining. Clay courts need costly hours of maintenance and take forever to dry. The acrylic surface of hard courts needs regular replacement, and they are lethal when wet and take forever to dry. Grass courts are playable for about 3 months per year, rain makes them unplayable for hours, and there's even more maintenance than clay courts.

If you want affordable and accessible tennis in the UK, macadam is your only option.

-- Edited by Ratty on Thursday 2nd of April 2015 11:36:46 AM

paulisi · Tennis legend

Golf is a good analogy, it's expensive and does have similar problems, but what it does do well is have adequate competitions and coaching in each club.

Again both are hit by the problem that there is very little coverage anymore on free TV.

I've mentioned this before, but if the LTA produced a weekly/fortnightly 30 minute show featuring British tennis players(junior/seniors/officials) how they are doing on and off the court, this would increase the profile of the sport and generate interest. (other than features around Wimbledon)

EddietheEagle · County player

Ratty wrote:
And say what you like about crappy macadam courts, they have the significant virtues that they are cheap, need no maintenance, and you can play when it's raining.

Good for council estates, vandal-rife inner city areas, practice walls, netball and the lazy. Not much else.

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

I'm with Ratty on good old Tarmac tennis courts. Yes, acrylic, clay and grass are nicer to play on but in this country really are very weather dependent and, in the case of the latter two, do require a lot of maintenance. IMO the standard of majority of tennis players in this country, junior and adult, is such that court surface (astro excepted) does not make a great deal of difference. Drilling, practicing their serve, playing points on Tarmac will improve them just as quickly as doing it on one of the others surfaces.

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

However, the LTA has just announced that it has £5.125m of new funding allocated to the development of tennis facilities in this country with the aim of getting more people playing more often, so perhaps we all will get lovely surfaces to play on. The announcement is accompanied by a 28 page booklet showing what they will and will not fund and how the venues can apply for a slice of it.

www.lta.org.uk/venue/facilities-advice/

-- Edited by The Optimist on Thursday 2nd of April 2015 02:53:04 PM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Ratty wrote:
Actually golf has exactly the same problems as tennis, in terms of falling player numbers and a stuffy club culture.
And say what you like about crappy macadam courts, they have the significant virtues that they are cheap, need no maintenance, and you can play when it's raining. Clay courts need costly hours of maintenance and take forever to dry. The acrylic surface of hard courts needs regular replacement, and they are lethal when wet and take forever to dry. Grass courts are playable for about 3 months per year, rain makes them unplayable for hours, and there's even more maintenance than clay courts.
If you want affordable and accessible tennis in the UK, macadam is your only option.

-- Edited by Ratty on Thursday 2nd of April 2015 11:36:46 AM

No. Classic Clay and the other branded equivalents are better and cheaper and perfect for rainy weather outdoors. Not a shareholder but I've played on a lot of them and, from their site:

Classic Clay® offers a cushion comfort tennis surface with all the playing characteristics and benefits of natural clay whilst eliminating the negatives.

Invented and developed in Australia Classic Clay® has revolutionized the industry creating an alternative tennis surface choice "artificial clay". Now officially classified by the International Tennis Federation as an alternative choice to natural grass, natural clay, synthetic grass and hard-courts.

Classic Clay® is patented throughout the world and is sold through exclusive distributors, agents and tennis court builders across the globe and directly in Australia, New Zealand and countries not represented.

Want the benefits of a clay tennis court without the maintenance? The Classic Clay® solution:

Looks like Clay
Plays like Clay
Slides like Clay
Ball response and ball marks like Clay
No watering and no rolling
Very low maintenance
No annual reconstruction
Allows play during light rain and immediately after heavy downpours

I know there's a bit of marketing chutzpah there but it really is far a far better surface - some 'traditionalists' take a while to get used to it (but most of them don't like tarmacadam either). Cheap, no maintenance, you can play properly even in the rain, far better for joints and injuries . . . it beats macadam hands down (unless you're using the macadam court as a 'muliti-court' for handball etc. as well).

EddietheEagle · County player

When I grew up shale courts were the standard everywhere at clubs, apart from grass. A lot of parks had shale too. Some shift in thinking led to their near-total abolishment. My club replaced theirs with artificial grass, a surface I particularly disliked.

So what is it about this country that players can't be bothered to run a carpet over the courts, standard practice everywhere else?

Also, where do we see macadam courts in other countries that have weather broadly similar to ours?

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Shale courts need maintenance and without it over time become unplayable - it's what happened to the old shale courts in a park near me and I suspect is what generally led to their demise.

Regarding Tarmac elsewhere, plenty of hard court junior ITFs are played on it in many countries. In fact, recently in Slovenia there was a tournament on an indoor wooden floor. I think too much is made of playing surface for those who aren't professional. To me, it is more important that the courts are well-maintained, accessible and affordable.

Yes, CD, I have come across this new 'clay' surface over here. Very impressed with it.

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

The LTA has set out it's framework for performance centres. They are reverting to the format of Development Centres for 12&under and a few Performance Centres for older players. This was very unpopular before as coaches of the younger age group lost heart as every player they brought on was taken from them at the start of a really interesting phase.

However, one of the criteria for the centres for older players is that they are within 15 minutes of a school and have links with that school or have proper educational facilities on site. Like this bit.

Otto · Social player

The Optimist wrote:
The LTA has set out it's framework for performance centres. They are reverting to the format of Development Centres for 12&under and a few Performance Centres for older players. This was very unpopular before as coaches of the younger age group lost heart as every player they brought on was taken from them at the start of a really interesting phase.
However, one of the criteria for the centres for older players is that they are within 15 minutes of a school and have links with that school or have proper educational facilities on site. Like this bit.

Where did this info come from?