Editors note : During the 02 arena event better known as the Barclays Year end Championships we meandered over to Harrods. Somehow we just did. Anyway our main goal was to see our buddy Charlie in the tennis dept. guess what folks. No more tennis department. Andy Murray wins Wimbledon in June and Harrods the world largest and best department store no longer has a tennis dept ? We thought wow that crazy. So we went to the general sporting goods area. Guess what. Still no tennis anything! Andy winning Wimbledon was the first British man in 77 years and no tennis store in London in Harrods ? Wow. We’ve seen it moved around for 40 years and some years bigger and more prominent. But gone …? Only thing that hit us weirder was no banners of Andy anywhere around the 02 arena. It’s not like he didn’t qualify. It could have had a speedy recovery wish on it. But how nice for the British population to have seen his presence wrapped around a pillar or two ….
Britain may have its’ first male Wimbledon champion in 77 years but the Andy Murray effect is apparently not winning the battle to lure people back onto tennis courts…or those south of Hadrian’s Wall at least.
Regardless of the July triumph of Murray (of course a Scot) at the All England Club, and his Olympic gold medal winning effort on the same in the colors of Great Britain, Sport England’s Active People Survey, released this morning, shows approximately 39,000 fewer people played tennis this year than in the previous 12 month period.
The figures were released just a day after the Lawn Tennis Association’s annual general meeting at the Roehampton headquarters of British tennis where outgoing president Peter Bretherton, in his farewell address, insisted British tennis was enjoying exciting times and said: “This year we introduced a new mission to get more people playing tennis more often and developed a new participation strategy.”
Nick Humby, chief operating officer , added: “It has been a good year. We have controlled out costs and set ourselves up well for the future.”
Sport England says they are 95% certain there has been real drop in participation with figures suggesting only 406 000 played weekly tennis in the 12 months to October. And this is alarming compared to the all-time high of 487,500 in 2008.
A year ago Sport England was so alarmed both by these sort of statistics and the lack of precision in the LTA’s participation plan, that a large percentage of government funding was withheld until these shortcomings had been addressed.
Now new chief executive Michael Downey, who moves from Tennis Canada at the beginning of the New Year, has a major job on his hands and he must work quickly. Sport England’s next board meeting is scheduled to take place on January 21 to find out whether the LTA qualifies for the remaining £10.3 million and the latest figures suggest the contrary.
The LTA had already braced itself for a cut of £2.6 million from the surplus of profits from the Wimbledon Championships. Although the fortnight made £35.1 million, a sharp rise in prize money meant less of a dividend being pumped back into British tennis.
Figures revealed at the LTA AGM also showed the controversial salary of recently departed Chief Executive Roger Draper in his last year of office was £497,000, down from £640,000 the year before. On top of a basic £387,000 Draper was awarded a £65,000 bonus and £45,000 into his pension pot. The incoming Downey will be paid £300,000, with the possibility of bonuses on top.
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