• Stockport set to benefit as Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) launches biggest ever grassroots investment in the sport
• Initiative will focus on making courts easier to book and ensuring rain and darkness no longer stop play
• Communities across Stockport encouraged to come together and register their interest to receive funding to transform their local tennis courts
Stockport’s tennis community is set to benefit from today’s announcement by The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) of the biggest ever grassroots investment in the sport. The Transforming British Tennis Together initiative, which aims to make courts across the country more useable and accessible to everyone over the next ten years was announced in Stockport.
The £250m transformation of Britain’s tennis courts, comes at a time of huge momentum in elite British tennis and unprecedented levels of interest and pride in the sport, which together have inspired many more people to pick up a racket.
The LTA has committed to investing £125 million to improve community tennis facilities across the country, and plans to unlock a further £125 million through match funding from community networks with a shared vision for growing the game.
Tennis clubs, parks, local government, volunteers, coaches and businesses across Stockport being encouraged to come together and register their interest in bidding for the funds to transform their local tennis courts via the LTA’s website www.lta.org.uk/TBTT
The funding will ensure that some of the key barriers to playing tennis are overcome. Currently, over a third of possible playing hours are lost due to rain as only 7% of Britain’s 23,000 courts have covers courts are covered and have floodlights. Furthermore, booking and gaining entry to a court too often relies on old, analogue systems, making it difficult to organise a game.
Transforming British Tennis Together will see the LTA work in partnership with local communities in Stockport to:
• Increase the number of covered and floodlit courts to boost available playing hours when it’s raining and when the sun has gone down;
• Install online booking and entry systems so everyone can book a tennis court easily from their mobile phone, computer or tablet;
• Refurbish courts, clubhouses and other social spaces to ensure players have a great experience every time they visit;
• Support other innovative and creative ideas that meet local demand.
By working with communities across Britain with a real passion for tennis, the LTA aims to deliver 750 newly covered indoor courts, over 4,000 newly floodlit courts and nearly 3,000 court entry systems across the country over the next decade.
Sam Foakes, Regional Tennis Participation Manager for Stockport, said:
“This is an amazing opportunity to effect a transformational change for our local tennis community. More and more people are enjoying tennis and there is a real appetite for the improvement and regeneration of our courts.
There has never been a better time for tennis to increase its number of participants and this investment from the LTA plus further support from partner organisations is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform our tennis facilities and get more people playing."
- ENDS -
NOTES TO EDITORS
ABOUT THE LTA:
The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) is the National Governing Body for tennis in Great Britain, responsible for developing and promoting the sport, with a mission to get more people playing tennis more often. It does this under the consumer brand of British Tennis, by working with a broad range of partners and over 25,000 volunteers, to grow the game in communities, clubs and schools. The LTA represents the interests of over 590,000 British Tennis Members, men and women, girls and boys across the country, playing on more than 23,000 courts. The LTA runs and supports a network of 11,500 approved tournaments for players of all ages, the corner-stones of which are the premier grass court events leading up to Wimbledon, held in Nottingham, Birmingham, Queen’s Club-London and Eastbourne, all title sponsored by Aegon. The LTA works with many delivery partners to grow the sport across the country. One of these is its charitable entity, the Tennis Foundation, to provide a tennis provision for more than 20,000 schools, disadvantaged youth as well as promoting tennis as an inclusive sport for anyone with a disability. For further information about the LTA and British Tennis, and to review the British Tennis strategy for 2015 – 2018 visit www.lta.org.uk or follow us on Twitter @BritishTennis