Sport Industry Group

SIBC: Draper defends LTA progression- 9 Jun 2010 00:00:00

Speaking at the second Sport Industry Breakfast Club event, LTA chief executive Roger Draper has defended the progression made by British tennis by stating that it was one of only four sports to have increased its participation levels significantly in the last year.
 
‘We have around 520,000 adults playing tennis and in the next three years the target for Sport England is to get around 625,000 adults picking up a racquet,’ he commented.
 
Addressing an audience of leading industry executives, the LTA chief executive also gave reason on the dearth of talent coming through the ranks by saying that tennis requires a large commitment from players at a young age.
 
Added Draper: ‘We have a lot of 10-12 year olds who are very talented but they are having to go full-time and the huge commitment needed from parents can prove to be too much.’
 
In response to a question from the audience on funding levels, Draper also emphasised that the LTA now relies less and less on revenue derived from the Wimbledon Championships.

‘Previously, 83% of our funding was coming through our major events, mainly Wimbledon, now only 60% comes from that mainly due to the increase in our commercial programme.’

View the highlights of the event on Sport Industry TV here.