ADVANCING TENNIS – The Need for Guidance from a Competitiveness Council

The purpose of this article is to describe how the U.S. tennis industry could more effectively ADVANCE TENNIS if a Competitiveness Council provided guidance.

The tennis industry is fragmented. At times it is dysfunctional. 

The USTA is to be commended for turning the U.S. Open into a money-making machine. That is a mixed blessing. The USTA’s oversight of the sport as national governing body is much less praiseworthy.

The USTA claims its mission is to promote tennis. Too often it only promotes USTA tennis programs and individual agendas. There is a difference between tennis and USTA tennis.

On its website, the USTA currently claims to have 700,000+ individuals and 7,000 organizational members. In other words, LESS THAN THREE PERCENT OF U.S. TENNIS PARTICIPANTS play in USTA programs.

For years, the USTA has acted with monopolistic intent when overseeing the industry. Most recently, USTA started USTA Coaching. This appears to be an attempt to eliminate the RSPA, PTR, and other teaching organizations. This implies that USTA wants to control who provides instruction and what they teach.

The industry would have been much stronger over the last four decades if the USTA had shown greater respect and support for the teaching organizations and chosen to collaborate with them to ADVANCE TENNIS, not just USTA tennis.

The point is that a Competitiveness Council would view the previous differences as a platform to build on. In addition, it would bring together the tennis-specific expertise and financial resources of all industry partners to more creatively ADVANCE TENNIS.

What is a Competitiveness Council?

A Competitiveness Council is a tool for economic development. A Council may be reactive and address deficiencies. In forward-looking situations, it would be proactive to take advantage of projected trends. Three examples follow.

1). Earlier this month, Colorado’s governor established a Competitiveness Council to address challenges caused by concerns with the state budget, major companies leaving the state, a weak labor market, slowing population growth, an unfavorable business climate, and much more. The Colorado Competitive Council will be reactive in addressing the current challenges. Its actions will be proactive in building on the state’s many assets.

2). At the national level, the Council on Competitiveness (click here) was formed in 1986 by President Reagan. It is working to stimulate innovation, improve productivity, and the competitiveness of American products. The Council is reactive by revitalizing manufacturing. It is being proactive by focusing on high-performance computing and attracting high-value economic activity to the United States. A review of the reports on its website shows that it has taken actions that have strengthened the U.S. economy.

3). In Europe, the Competitiveness Council (Compet) was formed in June 2002. It enlists the support of leaders responsible for the economy, trade, innovation, and the best interests of industry (click here). Its primary emphasis is on local or regional markets, industrial well-being, innovation, and space. Like the U.S. group, they are reacting to existing challenges and striving to create competitive advantages in the future 

The Mindset of Competitive Councils – Proactive vs. Reactive

A common thread among most Competitiveness Councils is that they are not government agencies, trade associations, or governing bodies. Some may be non-profit organizations. They are responsible for representing all stakeholders when they are solving problems or creating an advantage for the group.

Councils prefer operating when the industry is on solid footing. It is easier to make investments that bring about meaningful change. Their planning and decisions can be proactive, and industry partners will have more favorable budgets.

A Competitive Council for the U.S. tennis industry would work to meet its goal to ADVANCE TENNIS by taking both proactive and reactive actions.

What About TIA, RIRG, and TIU?

What about the Tennis Industry Association (TIA) and the Racquet Industry Research Group (RIRG)? Both groups have been put in place with good intentions to provide support for the industry. They have added little value.

Tennis Industry United was established by USTA CEO Michael Dowse at the start of the COVID-19 recession (March 2020). It was a collaborative initiative to help the tennis community navigate the challenges of the pandemic.

The tennis industry was lucky! Participation increased dramatically because of COVID-19-related social distancing policies that favored tennis. At the same time, Dowse staged the 2020 U.S. Open without a crowd. While the tennis industry did not create the boom, Dowse supported the teaching professional organizations and kept tennis front and center for people wanting to remain active. His collaborative actions helped the industry retain participants.

In March 2022, Dowse’s tenure with the USTA came to an end. Since then, Tennis Industry United has morphed into another page of rhetoric on the USTA website.

The takeaway: The industry showed it could work together in 2020. Could a Competitive Council bring about an encore performance in 2026 and beyond?

The Goal of the Competitiveness Council - ADVANCE TENNIS!

For over four decades, the tennis industry has been fixated on having more than 30 million participants. The most recent Sports Marketing Surveys (SMS) participation survey reports there are 27.3 million participants who play at least once a year. Only 14.5 million participants play 10+ times annually. Those numbers tell two very different stories.

Focusing on participation has been a self-inflicted distraction that has caused the industry to underperform.

The primary goal of a Competitiveness Council would be to ADVANCE TENNIS. The guiding principles of the Council would be collaboration, transparency, communications, and servant leadership.

Initially, the Council would evaluate the industry’s infrastructure and analyze the market, or the people who make the industry successful. It would identify goals, strategies, and objectives that would ADVANCE TENNIS. In other words, there will be a path to achieve the primary goal.

Evaluation of the Infrastructure by Competitiveness Council

A Council would evaluate the industry’s delivery system, facilities and personnel, and service providers. The overriding goal is to strengthen the infrastructure and identify strategies and objectives for achieving them.

Delivery System - A Council would evaluate the delivery system for the sport and strengthen programs and access to the sport at parks and recreation facilities (managed and unmanaged), education facilities (K-12, higher education and physical education), country clubs, tennis clubs, private clubs, and other facilities.

Facilities/Professionals/Coaches/Staff - The teaching professionals, coaches, and their staff members are the primary contacts for attracting, engaging, and retaining players. The teaching profession must be respected. The teaching associations must provide first-class education, certification, and professional development programs for their members. They must be supported by business and sport-related research to ensure the sport is taught safely with leading-edge expertise. Many job descriptions have been expanded to include greater proficiency in business and sport-specific knowledge in multiple racquet sports.

Service Providers – The success of the industry is the function of its service providers. Their services may be provided internally or externally from within the supply chain. They provide essential support in areas such as construction, building and grounds maintenance, housekeeping, sales and marketing, finance, accounting, transportation, operations management, technology support, health and safety. Their services quietly make significant contributions to the success of the tennis industry.

Evaluation of the Market by the Competitiveness Council

A Council would evaluate the market for the sport, player demographics, playing habits, economic and financial metrics, player attraction and attention, and effectiveness of industry programming. It would use this information to set goals that ADVANCE TENNIS.

Industry Intelligence – A Council would increase the amount of relevant industry data available in the public domain at no charge. The SMS participation survey is a professional product. From a marketing perspective, the report states that 27.3 million players play tennis at least once a year. To ADVANCE TENNIS, it is important to understand the survey results from a business perspective. The survey indicates that 14.5 million participants play tennis at least 10 times annually. About 4.0 million of these participants play twice a month, and 3.8 million play once a week. A Council would develop other metrics such as sales, sentiment, outlook, and employment indices. Other meaningful metrics include the number of new courts, amount of court maintenance, and number of teaching professionals certified at the top levels. Finally, a Council could survey industry members and consumers to identify trends that inform discussions to ADVANCE TENNIS.

Players – Playing Patterns - The SMS participation survey provides a summary of the facilities, locations, and frequency of play for participants. About 65% play at parks, school facilities, or recreation centers; 19% play at clubs, and the remainder play elsewhere. A Council would identify the participants' high-level needs from this information. It would map existing and potential court locations that could be developed to help communities increase the sport’s sphere of influence. Existing data could be supplemented with player surveys or additional primary research.

Other External Data – A Council would review other external economic and data trends that will affect the industry. Some of the more prevalent trends are reduced fertility rates, the aging of baby boomers, and changes in the mix of players by their race, ethnicity, and income levels. Community changes also occur for political, social, business, or personal reasons. People may want to move to a warmer climate or be close to family. These changes will vary greatly within a state or region.

Maintaining a Competitive Advantage – A Council would identify more ways to attract, engage, and retain participants. Many factors can affect this process. For example, there was a short-lived tennis boom caused by the Battle of the Sexes, the death of standard wooden-sized racquets, the adoption of optic yellow tennis balls, the impact of COVID-19-related policy on participation, and numerous recessions and economic downturns. There has been competition from other sports: racquetball, aerobics, fitness, and team sports. Currently, volleyball, flag football, soccer, and lacrosse are extremely popular in youth sports. In some cases, pickleball, padel, or other racquet sports have reduced the number of tennis players. In other situations, alternate racquet sports have reportedly helped retain tennis participation. A Council will understand these challenges from other activities. It would provide information that allows the tennis industry to maintain a competitive advantage.

A Competitiveness Council is Necessary for the Tennis Industry

The industry has a choice. It can continue to have intermittent success as it has for the past four decades, or it can establish a Competitiveness Council to provide intentional leadership driven by collaboration, communications, transparency, and servant leadership. This Council will engage the USTA and the industry and invest their talents, expertise, and financial resources to ADVANCE TENNIS.

In addition, Gary Horvath has conducted extensive business and economic research that has largely supported the state of Colorado's economic development efforts.