Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Daily Tennis News - BUSINESS

Copyright © 2015. No duplication is permitted without permission from Bob Larson Tennis

New Head Of British Tennis Sees The Sport Declining

Great Britain can boast the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world, a proven Grand Slam champion who is back in the world's top four on the men's ranking and a Davis Cup team in with an excellent chance of reaching the Davis Cup semi-finals for the first time in nearly a quarter of a century. However after 14 months in his charge of Britain's Lawn Tennis Association, Michael Downey has admitted: 'Our sport is declining.'

Downey does not base his assumption on the top level of tennis where Wimbledon's profits rise annually as the demand for tickets shows no sign of slacking. Instead he is looking at the amount of people actually picking up a racquet to play and the numbers are alarmingly on the slide.

Britain is of course not alone. The same can be said about tennis participation in the United States but Downey was expensively imported from Tennis Canada where, under his watch, tennis participation grew 18.5% in a three-year period between 2007 to 2010. And 80% of that participation took place at public facilities rather than private clubs.

However in Britain the amount of people getting on court, once a week or even once a month is dropping by an average of 5% a year and Downey's mission is to halt that decline.

With the annual windfall from Wimbledon's profits, money has never been an apparent problem at the LTA and throughout the strategized period of the next four years, he vowed there will be 50% more spent on actually marketing the sport.

Therefore by 2018 approximately £26 million (US$ 38 million) will be spent on promoting tennis in the UK but Downey has another phrase he uses with regularity: "Spend the LTA money as if it is your own."

Clearly this is reference to the previous regime of former CEO Roger Draper when the LTA's lavish spending, on facilities, overseas coaches, and salaries and bonuses for executive staff members, earned repetitive rebuke.

"The decline will not be arrested over night and the turnaround will take time but our collective focus on tennis provision within clubs, the community led by public parks, and education settings will make out sport more accessible and more inclusive," said Downey.

"This plan is not intended to be a grand statement, highlighted by eye catching investment figures or lofty participation numbers. Instead we have to clearly map out how to build the foundation for sustainable growth with the help of our partners that will focus first on slowing, then stemming the decline in participation."

StarWing Sports Tennis Agents Working With Football

StarWing Sports Management, the boutique tennis agency that manages the likes of the 18-time Grand Slam event champion Chris Evert, the former Australian Open and the doubles Olympic Gold Stan Wawrinka and Borna Coric the up and coming18-year old from Croatia.

StarWing Sports Management has joined forces with Absolute Sports Management to establish a football division.

"We feel that tennis and football very much complement each other," says Lawrence Frankopan, founder and CEO of StarWing. "Over the last 3 years we have grown significantly and feel this is the right time to venture into the world of football. StarWing has the proven track record in client management and plan to use their strong and diverse relationships with many global brands in the footballing arena. This is a great opportunity for all clients to benefit from this merger. I have known the team at StarWing Sports for many years since my days at IMG and I am very much looking forward to joining forces with them again."

Will Shearling is the Global Head and Managing Director of StarWing Football.

Absolute Sports Management (ASM), founded in 2012 and representing a number of Premier League, Football League and International players, will become StarWing Football. ASM represents clients such as Bosnia 2014 World Cup stars Samir Begonia (Stoke City) and Haris Medunjanin (Deportivo La Coruna) as well as David Jones (Burnley) and Rudy Gestede (Blackburn). In addition, ASM has brokered numerous domestic and international transfers with many Premier League and Football League clubs.

We Hear---

---that the new owners of Lifetime Fitness are expected to accelerate the expansion program of the current management team.

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