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TENNIS


TENNIS FACILITY INVESTMENT TO GROW THE SPORT


I


n the last issue of Sports Man- agement, I referred to the need for a clear understanding of the role of tennis facilities in order


to justify investment and underpin the sport’s future development. A focused capital investment programme from the governing body and its partners aligned with ‘do-able’ supporting sports development strategies over an appropriate period will help achieve more capacity and playing time. It will deliver more locally-accessible venues for competition and training and, most importantly, provide a better quality of ‘tennis experience’ for existing players and attract and retain new ones. To further support this position,


according to Sport England’s Sport Satisfaction Survey 2010 undertaken by Ipsos MORI, the area of ‘facilities and the playing environment’, scores the second highest in terms of having the most impact on overall satisfac- tion with tennis. This is based on input from a rep-


resentative section of tennis players – general participants, club members and from the tennis talent pool. The highest impact area is judged to be, perhaps surprisingly, ‘officials’ with ‘facilities’ higher than ‘people and staff’ and ‘performance’. ‘Release and diversion’, ‘social aspects’ and ‘value for money’ are judged as medium impact . While ‘exertion and fitness’, ‘ease of participating’ and even more surprisingly, ‘coaching’ being the low- est impact areas. ‘Facilities’ was also the second highest impact in 2009.


Improved facilities Drilling down into the facilities as- sessment, the three aspects judged to


Issue 4 2010 © cybertrek 2010


have the highest satisfaction impact are: ‘the quality of the environment’, the ‘quality of surfaces’, ‘safety’, ‘cleanliness’ and the ‘quality of the non-sporting facilities’ (changing rooms, catering and car parking etc). This illustrates the point that while


the quality of tennis court surfaces is very important because correct surface-player-ball performance in- teraction is critical for the sport, the other qualitative factors that are part of the built environment are as impor- tant to participants. The scope and quality of the clubhouse, in particular, should not be underestimated, as tennis remains a strong social activity and requires reasonable comfortable environments to foster that sense of club loyalty and ownership. In considering the relationship


between facility types and tennis activity, the role of improved facilities in sport development outcomes is depicted in the table below:


Facility development type


Court


upgrading Additional


tennis courts Floodlighting


Performance


surfaces Mini tennis


markings Practice walls


Covered courts Pavilions / modernisation ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●


Increasing participation


Developing stronger and more sustainable clubs and venues


● ● ●


Providing more coaching opportunities


● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●


Improving performance


Supporting talent ID


In the second of a two- part series on tennis facilities, Phil Sandilands from TrioPlus Tennis throws further light on the on-going need for greater investment in GB tennis infrastructure


Read Sports Management online sportsmanagement.co.uk/digital


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