LTA Official’s Salary Is Becoming A Big Deal

Written by: Staff on 20th December 2012

LTA Official’s Salary Is Becoming A Big Deal |

Roger Draper, the Lawn Tennis Association’s chief executive, has been a more contentious character than even Andy Murray in the British tennis scene since his appointment in April 2006. However the revelation that Draper’s bonus linked salary for 2012 is a massive £640,000 (more than $1 million) has prompted an outcry.

Criticisms like “obscene” and “worse than the most excessive payments to bankers” have been widespread in Britain. Now in the light of Sport England’s announcement that three years of funding from the LTA for grassroots tennis will be withheld until participation figures improve, the chairman of the British government’s All Party Tennis Group, has joined the debate calling Draper’s pay “unthinkable.”

Baroness Angela Billingham, a long-standing Labour peer in the the House of Lords and committed tennis fan is a frequent critic of Draper and the LTA’s excessive spending. After hearing the LTA will only receive £7.1 million over the next year from Sport England, with £10.3 million being put on hold to see whether they can come up with a viable plan to grow the game at grass-roots, she became apoplectic.

Earlier this week the LTA released their accounts which showed one salary, obviously Draper’s, to a basic £394,000, plus a bonus of £201,000 and a pension contribution of £45,000. This showed a £42,000 increase on Draper’s 2011 package of £598,000.

By way of contrast British Prime Minister David Cameron earns £142,500 a year and Baroness Billingham said: “It’s unthinkable that someone earning four times more than the Prime Minister has not got ideas for the shake-up of the sport. You don’t give bonuses for failure, surely, and a priority has to be placed on grassroots sport.”

Baroness Billingham’s anger was fuelled by the Sport England report that showed the number of people playing tennis once a week for half an hour has fallen from 487,500 in 2008 to 445,100 in 2012.

She said: “This report from Sport England means what the LTA is doing, or failing to do, is absolutely unacceptable. The people who can hire and fire are the board of the LTA, but I see no sign whatsoever that they are moving to even chastise Roger Draper.”

This week Baroness Billingham, who was asked to produce a report on the LTA’s role in British tennis in the summer of 2010 by then Minister of Sport, Gerry Sutcliffe, made a speech in Parliament and said: “The LTA are a total shambles, tottering from one broken pledge to another, the British press and the world’s press aghast at the huge cost and pathetic results of six years of mismanagement. It is pitiful.

“I call on Hugh Robertson, the Minister for Sport, to set up an urgent review and inquiry into British tennis. He must insist on transparency of all expenditure and salaries, especially given the LTA receives public money – taxpayers’ money.”

LTA president Peter Bretherton responded: “We have a rigorous process in place around determining the remuneration of all employees. All pay and reward decisions are taken by the remuneration committee that engages independent consultants to benchmark payments.”

Meanwhile, the LTA have appointed a new independent chairman, businessman David Gregson. He was a member London Legacy Development Corporation overseeing the Olympic Stadium’s future.

©Daily tennis news wire

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