Tennis Players' Attitudes Revealed

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Amanda Becker
PO Box 7845
Hilton Head Island,
843-686-3036 x 226
Amanda@TennisIndustry.org

07/07/08 - The 2008 US Tennis Player Study part of the annual US Participation Study was just released by the Tennis Industry Association (TIA) and United States Tennis Association (USTA). The study focused on attitudes towards tennis, why people take up the game, tennis as a part of physical education, trends in amount of tennis played, organized tennis, access to tennis, and tennis motivations.
The study reflected the trend in increased participation with positive statements towards tennis and the reason it is growing as a sport. Nearly 90% of players view tennis as a “great workout” with exercise as the main reason to get started in the first place. Organized and team play are crucial to keeping people in the game with almost half playing on some type of league.
Below are some of the findings:
Attitudes towards tennis:
• An increased percentage of players are saying “tennis is my favorite sport”
• 87% of players agree that tennis is a great way to get a workout.
• 64% say that they get a better workout from tennis than from other sports.
Taking up the game:
• The evidence that organized tennis creates frequent tennis players is overwhelming.
• There is some evidence that the number of “late starters” is increasing, indicating the success of adult beginner programs.
• Wanting to exercise is the most important motivation for taking up the game as well as having access to a court and friends or family who play the game,
Organized tennis
• Approximately half of tennis players have played on an organized team at some point in their tennis career and approximately half of those players have played on a high school team.
• A quarter of all players currently play on an organized team
• Players at private facilities are twice as likely to be current team players.
Access to tennis:
• The majority of players (85%) find it very easy or somewhat easy to find an open tennis court to play on
• A large percentage (33%) of players find it very difficult or somewhat difficult to find people to play tennis with
Tennis motivations:
• Over 90% of players say that fun or exercise are important motivators
• 50% of players say competition is important
• The top suggestions that would increase play frequency were:
• If could play on a team with friends
• If there was a park nearby with an active program
• Could participate in Cardio Tennis program
• Had a teaching pro to improve skills
The study, conducted by Sports Marketing Surveys, was a sample of 525 tennis players that were selected from 2,858 tennis players on the Sports Participation Partnership panel. The quota was set by age and gender to ensure the sample was representative of tennis players nationally.
The Tennis Industry Association, the not-for-profit trade association for tennis, is THE unifying force in the tennis industry whose mission is to promote the growth and economic vitality of tennis by working closely with the USTA and industry partners to develop and implement initiatives to increase tennis participation. Core TIA activities include TIA/USTA Tennis Health Index, Consumer and Trade Research, Growing Tennis System including Tennis Welcome Centers, Cardio Tennis, 50-50 Co-op Program, Quickstart Tennis and TennisConnect.org. The TIA provides more than 70 research and market intelligence reports annually in conjunction with Sports Marketing Surveys and Taylor Research and Consulting Group. For more information, please visit TennisIndustry.org or GrowingTennis.com or call the TIA at 843-686-3036.
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