The LTA

the addict · Tennis legend

The LTA

paulisi · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
paulisi wrote:
Heard a rumour that the LTA might be looking at outsourcing the management of these events in future.
Well I guess if your heart's not in promoting and managing tournaments for the non elite ...

Not sure that is the case. It may be a cost saving option.

It costs the LTA $35-40K to put on a 15K I would guess. A lot of the costs are fixed - i.e prize money, expenses for officials. So the remainder would be venue and set up costs. If someone can do this cheaper then it would be prudent.

I think the venue managers might be interested in putting these on, especially those sites that aren't that busy.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

So, if you can't run the professional tournaments efficiently, you don't own the Grand Slam, you can't organise any team tennis, you don't lay on events for normal players, a reasonable chunk of juniors go abroad, and you have no contact with the club structure, what - pray what - is the purpose of the LTA?

christ · Futures level

Coup Droit wrote:
So, if you can't run the professional tournaments efficiently, you don't own the Grand Slam, you can't organise any team tennis, you don't lay on events for normal players, a reasonable chunk of juniors go abroad, and you have no contact with the club structure, what - pray what - is the purpose of the LTA?

Paying the LTA committee members, and providing sound bites to the BBC.

paulisi · Tennis legend

I'm not saying they aren't run efficiently, I think they are becoming more expensive mainly due to the fees charged by the event centres. If the event centres managed the tournaments for a set fee, then cost savings could be made for the LTA and the events could generate the shortfall themselves via sponsorship etc

-- Edited by paulisi on Friday 24th of November 2017 02:45:43 PM

paulisi · Tennis legend

Apparently all the money from the LTA is going into trying to build up the number playing tennis at grassroot level.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Of course it's inefficient. What have event centres got to do with it? An itf 15k should be run at a club, not an 'event centre'. The photos posted with 300 spectators that sparked this off are at a club. And the club should not charge fees because it should be part of the teamwork approach with the federation.

Born2WinTennis · Club Coach

The vast majority of clubs, even large ones, have zero connection to futures players. Even at the National level Aegon players are paid and turn out for whatever club they want, they don't have any loyalty to their club. I guess this stems from all being taken from clubs under 14 and sent to regional "performance" academies. Diluting the player pool at local clubs to lower than county level doubles players. So I doubt any clubs would be helping any of their homegrown players by hosting a futures, it would have to be the academies who host them.

skibbarriz · Strong Club Player

Born2WinTennis wrote:
The vast majority of clubs, even large ones, have zero connection to futures players. Even at the National level Aegon players are paid and turn out for whatever club they want, they don't have any loyalty to their club. I guess this stems from all being taken from clubs under 14 and sent to regional "performance" academies. Diluting the player pool at local clubs to lower than county level doubles players. So I doubt any clubs would be helping any of their homegrown players by hosting a futures, it would have to be the academies who host them.

The tennis landscape and situation with clubs is all a consequence of the LTA's failed and muddled approaches over the years. It's all on them.

And is the LTA seen as some remote separate organisation by the clubs? Because I thought the clubs comprised the LTA in some way? Or might that aspect of the LTA structure might as well be removed for all the difference it makes. It sounds good on paper, a cohesive union. In reality, it doesn't ever sound like there is any relationship at all.

Strongbow · All-time great

Perhaps ?

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjCgo_wo9jXAhWqIMAKHYLeDCkQyCkIKTAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D7Cc62oBsUeE&usg=AOvVaw1yF_f5a1hNRiZ3alctbSah

wimdledont · Challenger level

This is a good move from the LTA, who have only managed to run 4x15k and 3x25k tournaments, outside of June, in 2017.

There are 31 singles matches in a 32 player tounament, 15 doubles = 46. Say they last 90 minutes per match. That's exactly as much sporting action as a League 1 football club conjures over a whole year of league fixtures, typically on a budget of several million pounds. I find it hard to conceive that there aren't sponsors who wouldn't be interested in the sponsorship of webcasting so much sport, at a small percentage of the usual cost.

Born2WinTennis · Club Coach

This is an interesting idea, do any countries webcast futures events? The costs involved webcasting all matches would be roughly 4 x the cost of only webcasting from one court I guess. I'm sure there would be plenty of people interested (over and above members of this forum) to watch say Marcus Willis in action in futures events. Then if enough people started watching, sponsorship/advertising would be of some value to someone! I recently saw the first five-a-side football league broadcast on youtube! It was oddly fascinating, very low standard of football but very watchable and must be amazing for the participants to showcase their goals to all their friends.

paulisi · Tennis legend

Yes - their were cameras at the Wirral futures earlier in the year and I remember some at Bamber Bridge several years ago.

wimdledont · Challenger level

The USTA webcasts around a dozen ITFs each year, and seems to have its own production staff, and commentary. Very high quality, and presumably high cost, and often sponsored, with advertising slots between games at the sit-down.

The FFT has more sporadic coverage, which seems to be produced by an outfit called 'offside tv', who appear to be currently webcasting from a 15k in Turkey...

offsidetv.com/

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Born2WinTennis wrote:
This is an interesting idea, do any countries webcast futures events? The costs involved webcasting all matches would be roughly 4 x the cost of only webcasting from one court I guess. I'm sure there would be plenty of people interested (over and above members of this forum) to watch say Marcus Willis in action in futures events. Then if enough people started watching, sponsorship/advertising would be of some value to someone! I recently saw the first five-a-side football league broadcast on youtube! It was oddly fascinating, very low standard of football but very watchable and must be amazing for the participants to showcase their goals to all their friends.

It's to your credit that you obviously don't go in for dodgy livestreams smile

A lot of countries webcast their futures events (or, at least, it's not done on a country basis but a lot of ITF events in a lot of different countries are indeed livestreamed). I think it's a great idea - if the cost is manageable, what's not to like? Even some of the French club tennis is now being livestreamed.