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COMMENT
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Counting the cost For decades Club Affiliation has been a thorny subject and it looks set to take centre stage once again. For many years clubs have questioned the cost of affiliation against the returns or benefits which to a large number of them, seem poor if not actually zero. Certainly for the past decade or so, the only real benefit remains the insurance cover which the LTA have provided, namely civil liability protection as well as cover for directors and officers. In addition the LTA list access to their Baseline hotline as a benefit. This in turn provides business advice which, if you are a business, then becomes very useful though how to run a club in a businesslike manner is probably what would be more suitable. What clubs do need is advice on how to apply for planning permission, or deal with problems of that ilk. That is not readily available. Affiliation also means that clubs become eligible to compete in LTA Inter Club competitions and would be listed on the LTA’s website as part of their Club Search directory. Frankly, I would have thought that both those ‘benefits’ would ordinarily be considered a primary role of a governing body! It is actually very difficult to say what real benefit is being provided. Wimbledon tickets are supposedly another but even those are now being reduced for clubs only receive tickets in direct relation to the number of their members who have joined up to the LTA’s British Tennis Membership (BTM) scheme. In addition, the tickets can only then be balloted amongst those same members, not the whole club so that ‘club benefit’ has effectively been erased. A review of Club Affiliation is certainly required and, by all accounts, that is currently under way. Acceptance of proposals currently circulating would make Club’s better off financially for, at present, each club pays a sort of poll tax on its members, £11.50 per adult and £4 per junior. The proposal is that this be changed to a form of ‘Council’ tax on the club’s courts, such as £250 for clubs up to 4 courts being band C, £500 if you have 5-8 courts as Band B and the highest at A, £1000 for establishments with 9 or more. |
The savings this change would generate would indeed help clubs improve their sinking funds and in some cases, help finance much sought after projects like improving clubhouses. In addition as a benefit, the LTA promise that they would still continue to hand out grants and make loans to clubs whose projects meet their own goals. The downside of this change is that it will hit the finances of County Associations who are funded, in the main, by the revenues generated by Club Affiliation. One county I am aware of would lose out to the tune of £42,750, for them a dramatic drop in income. Again the LTA have informed Counties that they will be provided with enough funds to deliver the ‘Working Priorities for British Tennis at local level’ which they define as junior competition, developing coaches and their effectiveness, improving services and places to play. How that will operate and what hoops will have to be jumped through are of course, as yet unknown. But there is more to Counties than just fulfilling the needs of the LTA. They still need funds for maintaining County Teams at senior and junior levels (travel, subsistence, etc), maintaining communications with their clubs, paying for staff whether full time or part time, running events and helping volunteers with expenses. Roger Draper did promise in his 2006 Blueprint that the LTA would ‘consider turning affiliation on its head, allowing some of our affiliated clubs to retain the benefits of affiliation and keep their fees. This would be on condition that the club gets more juniors competing and that it provides details of its members so that every player, if they so wish, can receive a ranking/rating without having to pay a further fee to become an LTA Advantage Club Member.’ Whether intended or not, Club Affiliation and the BTM are now synonymous and the objective would seem to be to redirect the majority of the finances direct to Roehampton via the BTM. To recap on the BTM, it was introduced to replace the LTA Advantage Club Member project where again, benefits were stripped and then reoffered at a price, like the subscription to Ace magazine. |
Initially there was no fee attached to the BTM but that was to change within the year following a swell of reaction against it forcing the LTA to agree to keep it free, at least until 2012. Currently the membership of the BTM is allegedly over 300,000 and if that is converted to an income source, it would generate £2,250,000 if all paid say the original £7.50 fee when the free period came to an end. As an annual source of income, it is considerable but it is unlikely that the total, whatever it might be in a couple of years, would convert to paying just to be able to be charged ‘extra’ for benefits and, while Wimbledon tickets are attractive, they are not as attractive as some would suggest considering the improving and comprehensive TV coverage available these days. One of the objections to the BTM was that club members could see they were paying the governing authorities twice when they also had to contribute -- via their club membership -- to the Club’s Affiliation. As can be seen the LTA are attempting to deal direct with each individual member of all the clubs in the country but until they have something concrete to offer either to the individual or the club itself, their efforts can only be construed as ‘stealth’ money raising schemes. I would like to see the Club Affiliation scheme scrapped but not at the expense of County Associations. In fact I would go a stage further and declare that the BTM itself is the fly in the ointment and it would be best if both projects were returned to the drawing board and rethought properly. Early last year Roger Draper told me: “Membership is complex and confusing because the first job is unravelling everything to be able to start from scratch, consequently it is on hold and under review.” Having said that, within a few months the LTA launched the BTM in what was then described as unseemly haste and a year later, the Club Affiliation is scrutinised. As I say, they both should have been considered in tandem before being released onto an unsuspecting tennis public. So we have to live in hope that reason will eventually prevail. Henry Wancke August 26, 2009 |