Exploring and visiting tennis centres and clubs !

[Crocodile]

Have your say - have any of you played or worked at lots of different centres, clubs or a private court adapted as a residential mini local street tennis club and found some that you thought were inspirational or special in some way that it became your second home from your own home? Maybe it was located in a beautiful
area and surrounding or the place had a nice friendly vibe to it or even a great cook that provided meals for their customers,
One of the challenges here in Australia for example is that some of the larger capital cities have very expensive land prices and the idea of an individual buying some nice land and building like a small but intimate complex of say 4 courts and a club house is out of reach. Added to this is the amount of red tape involved in doing anything is enough for you to want to give up trying.
A lot of the Council and local government recreational precincts are not really cared for that much so the effort is not there to do something special. You maybe a coach who has a 5 year lease and then lose it when the lease expires so many end up just turning up with their bucket of balls and coach while they can make some coin. Or you may be at a club run by a committee or board where they are constantly interfering in everything and telling you what you can or cannot do.
I really think that having a centre built in the back drop of a beautiful environment be it a lake, beach or mountain view, evergreen country surrounds or even a view of a cityscape with a nice clubhouse where everyone is encouraged and welcomed to come and play. A lot of smaller regions have clubs like this and there is less pressure for the operator because the costs are low.
I also think that tennis needs some creative ideas to attract people to come and play. Maybe someone has a way of implementing hawk eye into private tennis courts so competitive juniors and their parents can stop fighting over line calls.
Anyone want to have a go and share some ideas, is this of interest to you or does it belong in a different tennis platform. Tell me what you think?

 

[Crocodile]

I will add this by saying that sometimes what can work now in modern times is a group of like minded people with a passion for tennis, community, entertainment, culture and enterprise can collaborate and put together ideas that can drive tennis to the next stage. Are any of you interested in this type of structure ?

 

[Bartelby]

If we change most 18-hole golf courses to 9 holes and devote the space freed up to half parkland/half tennis courts that would be a solution.

 

[travlerajm]

If we change most 18-hole golf courses to 9 holes and devote the space freed up to half parkland/half tennis courts that would be a solution.

I rarely agree with your ideas. But this one seems brilliant to me.

 

[sureshs]

If we change most 18-hole golf courses to 9 holes and devote the space freed up to half parkland/half tennis courts that would be a solution.

Why not pickleball courts?

 

[onehandbh]

Change the golf greens to be flat and the same size as a tennis court a

At night the greens could be used as a grass tennis court.

 

[Crocodile]

I believe that in view of the competitive environment in capturing people’s hearts and minds towards the love of tennis you want to construct a facility and club that is a nice place to be, a friendly atmosphere and a place that offers something special or magical.
Like any sport tennis needs to be mindful that it can’t rest on its laurels and needs to constantly be ahead of the game if it wants to flourish and keep existing customers and off course attract new ones both from the adult and junior population as well as provide a distinct competitive advantage compared to rival sports and activities that people like to do.
The tennis industry needs to be on their toes and each country, state and city and regional area needs to work out how best to manage and nurture the sport.
One of the difficulties that coaches face is that many of them are not flush with funds, spend many hours out in the sun coaching and managing daily operations and they really need to think of their future, well being both personally and financially.

 

[Crocodile]

If we are looking at a technological aspect of tennis I think we need to find a way to make electronic line calling systems affordable for local clubs and centres because one thing that puts young competitive people off the game is cheating in junior tournaments and then once parents get involved in this, it’s not pretty.
I don’t know what’s happened to tennis but thinking back to junior days there was more honour and tradition in adhering to good behaviour then what I’m seeing now. Young people need to enjoy the experience of the tennis pathway so that they will keep
going. There also needs to be opportunities for different sustainable pathways which I will talk later about,
I also think that tennis needs to couple tennis lessons with playing the game. For example when you take up soccer or netball you join a club where you have training during the week and you get to play in a team game on the weekend or Friday night. In the 1980’s local
Junior and Adult team Comp play was huge and then fell away quite significantly and then tennis tried to be all things to everyone by making the activity more casual rather than a formal commitment:
I know juniors and adult who have tennis lessons but never get to play matches either internally within the club or inter -club.
Even with the 10 and under tennis right down to red ball you need to organise opportunities for play, group participation and culture building and belongingness.
Teenagers would benefit from structures that would see tennis attendance as a cool thing to do and develop connections with their peers.
With the pickleball sport and other derivatives I think tennis needs to manage the situation better. I can’t comment about the US situation because here in Australia it’s only now being even mentioned about and the plan is to incorporate rather than compete against. It must be noted that up until now pickleball has been targeted at the adult and older adult market and not juniors. If pickleball goes after recruiting that market in a competitive way then that could be a problem for tennis if it doesn’t plan ahead and manages the sport. One thing here that makes pickleball harder in Australia is that we have a lot of synthetic grass courts as opposed to hard courts that many US courts have. Does anyone have any thoughts about this ?

 

[Crocodile]

My other question for you forum people in the US and elsewhere ( and I probably should do my own research ) is where is pickleball up to in terms of a professional tour within the US and internationally, is there a pathway, how difficult is it and can players earn a living and is their good sponsorship and financial backing by venture capitalists and corporate partnership?

 

[Crocodile]

What if the tennis industry did some work on their pathway measures and found ways to broaden the financial and vocational experiences of those involved in tennis?

 

[travlerajm]

What if the tennis industry did some work on their pathway measures and found ways to broaden the financial and vocational experiences of those involved in tennis?

I think the tennis teaching pro industry has already done pretty well for itself.

 

[Crocodile]

I think the tennis teaching pro industry has already done pretty well for itself.

I was thinking of all stakeholders in tennis. I have some ideas that I would like to share in the near future that could benefit those in tennis.
At present I think the pathway especially for players for instance is quite limited. I am working on a few models and hopefully will present something soon.