investment
The Lawn Tennis Association plans to develop hundreds of new indoor tennis courts in communities across Great Britain over the next 10 years.
Growing the game
THE governing body for tennis is taking a new evidence-based approach to facility investment, resulting in the development of hundreds of indoor tennis courts over the next decade giving three million people the opportunity to play tennis all year round. The move is part of a new strategic approach
to investment driven by Scott Lloyd, who joined the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) as chief executive last year. Lloyd founded the health, fitness and racquets club group, Next Generation Clubs, in 1997 and served as CEO of David Lloyd Leisure from 2007 until 2015. A similar exercise is also being undertaken for investment in park tennis facilities. “More indoor facilities across England, Scotland and Wales are absolutely crucial to our ambition to open up tennis to many more
people. When I joined the LTA last year, I was determined to make facility investment a priority and use my experience in this area to implement this more targeted approach,” he says. The new analysis-driven approach aims to proactively deliver investment where it is most needed and marks a move away from the previous bid-led process. “In the past the LTA relied heavily on projects
being driven and identified at local level by external groups, which weren’t always the right projects to support. We are now looking to make sure that we get a return on investment on our projects working with the right operators/ partners. The proposed new venues will be away from any DLL clubs, existing Community Indoor Tennis Centres or any indoor centre with three or more indoor courts,” says Gary Stewart, the LTA’s head of operations. The new analysis overlays population data
against the locations of existing indoor tennis facilities. By adding in a catchment area for
each current indoor venue covering a 20 minute drive time, the analysis reveals areas where there are opportunities to build new facilities that meet a demand threshold of potential adult players. The 96 identified areas are spread across Britain, with 72 in England, 12 in Scotland and 12 in Wales. Going forward, the LTA will work with local authorities and is seeking operational partners to help deliver large scale, participation changing, sustainable, community-focused indoor tennis venues. In another change of approach, the LTA will now operate centralised planning to provide a national planning framework to bring consistency, coordination and efficiency to planning applications. “We are now looking to engage with partners
pactfacilities.co.uk 19
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43
