Fri, Mar 20, 2015 page18

• Tennis in the US struggling to attract new players

  • Reuters, RANCHO MIRAGE, California
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  An aging core of recreational players and plunging sales of entry-level tennis rackets are the biggest concerns facing tennis in the US, experts say.

  Though the US tennis economy grew by 3 percent last year compared to 2013, based on data compiled by the Tennis Industry Association (TIA), much still needs to be done to lure the 18-to-35 age group to the sport.

  “One-and-a-half million fewer people bought entry-level rackets in 2014 than they did in 2008, and that’s staggering,” TIA president Greg Mason said in his state-of-the-industry update at the annual Tennis Summit. “Are they buying them used? Maybe. But to me, 1.5 million fewer rackets is a very concerning stat.”

  Mason said the slowdown in entry-level racket sales was one of three major concerns he had for the health of the sport.

  “If entry-level racket sales are down, it means fewer people are coming into the game, and that’s a big concern,” Mason said. “Secondly, as we look at the average player, they’re getting older, so we need to make sure that we do more to attract younger people.”

  “And third, we also want to bring people into the business of the game at a younger age, so that we have fresh ideas, fresh approaches. Those are three biggest things we need to address,” he said.

  Mason said he felt that the US Tennis Association (USTA) was already doing a good job at trying to lure younger people into tennis with the organization of pilot programs across the country targeting the 18-to-35 age group.

  USTA chairman, chief executive and president Katrina Adams, who won 20 doubles titles on the WTA Tour, agreed that millennials were a big concern for the growth of the game, but took great comfort from the number of under-10 players taking to the sport.

  “We do have pretty good growth in our 10-and-under population,” Adams said. “It’s really the teenagers that we are trying to keep in the sport, because they have interests in other sports or they are just couch potatoes.”

  “That’s why we are trying to make the sport as exciting as possible, with shorter courts and red, orange and green balls for the kids,” she said. “So then if they are introduced to tennis, they’re going to have a lot more enjoyment playing it and hopefully they can really elevate and stay with it.”

  Adam, who also works as an analyst for Tennis Channel, has pinpointed the Hispanic community in the US as a potential game-changer in the sport’s future growth.

  “It’s the fastest growing population in America and if we don’t really latch on to that culture, bring them into the game, our numbers will decline in 20-30 years,” Adams said.

  Adams said is greatly encouraged, though, by what she sees at the highest level in US tennis, especially on the WTA Tour.

  “There’s a lot of electricity about our young players coming up... Madison Keys is emerging, Sloane Stephens seems to be back on track, and there’s also Taylor Townsend and Christina McHale,” Adams said. “Obviously at the top you’ve got Serena and Venus [Williams], so that shows that the diversity in the sport is really high here in America with these kids emerging and having a great stride. I think the sport is growing.”

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