Hello dear readers, friends, and racket sports enthusiasts.

The racket sports world is growing fast, in fact it’s without doubt the most fascinating and opportunistic time to be part of this industry. That’s why, at Racket Business, we’ll use this platform to share our opinion and advice with the sole intention of helping you, the key movers and shakers, to harness the power of such an exciting movement.

From now on, in every issue of Racket Business, we’ll include an exclusive opinion piece called ‘From inside the lines’ which won’t be published elsewhere, so to read it you’ll have to be a subscriber (for free of course). If you’re reading this and haven’t subscribed yet then do so here.

For all the other content in this issue, simply click or tap the articles below to read them in full on RacketBusiness.com

Rich & Tim

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From inside the lines…

To grow our chosen sports we need to harness the power of collaboration. Just because rackets sports are often played competitively it shouldn’t translate to the business side of those sports where fostering an attitude towards working together will be the only way to truly harness the power of the wonderful opportunity we all have right now.

In particular we’re referring to sports clubs which are the lifeblood of our industry. It’s in these clubs that our customers play their sport and spend their disposable income on the sport they love and so what better environment can our industry have to engage with those players and fans.

What do we mean by collaboration and how can we put it into practise?

The best way to explain is probably to give real life examples of what we suggest shouldn’t be happening.

If your tennis club members want to try padel but you don’t have the facilities then instead of sticking your head in the sand, reach out to the nearest padel courts and form a working relationship with the goal of fostering a mutually beneficial partnership.

What’s the worst that can happen? You might lose a few members who decide padel is now going to become their sport instead of tennis (who you might well have lost anyway). But, by being part of the process, you can learn so much that will benefit your club in the long run.

• You’ll get insight from your members on whether they want padel as part of your offering

• You’ll be able to lean on the experience of the partner padel club in terms of adding padel courts to your own club and the key differences between padel and tennis players

• You’ll understand the commercial aspects of another sport much quicker and you’ll be taking the first steps to growing your potential customer market

• Your existing members will appreciate that you’ve listened and understood them and will be more accepting and supportive when you want to make changes in the future

We are at the epicentre right now of a ‘perfect rainbow’ of opportunity for the racket sports industry with a pot of gold waiting at the end that could never have been imagined just a few years ago. Cast your eyes back to the dark days of Covid then compare that situation to what we have now and you’ll quickly understand what we mean.

The rise of padel and pickleball in particular are a trojan horse that other industries can only dream about and to take advantage we need to stand together.