A Closer Look at the Tennis Industry Association: An Exclusive Chat With TIA Executive Director Jolyn De Boer
Jolyn DeBoer got her start in tennis through her older cousin. It was getting to be the time of year when tennis is a non-optional part of physical education class in school. Jolyn did not want to be embarrassed as the only person in her class who had never picked up a racquet before, and her cousin saw this fear, so she was invited out for a practice session to get her ready for gym class. One hour later, she was hooked. Any place there was a wall, she would take her racquet and tennis ball and hit it repeatedly until her arm was sore. As a youngster, it was the movement of the game that made her fall in love. The physicality of the sport was like nothing else she had ever done, and sometimes when she was sprinting after a short ball, it felt as if she was taking flight.
Her path to the business end of the sport was much more convoluted. After completing college, having always been a tennis player up until this point, she moved to New York, looking for what everyone comes to New York for, purpose. It was in New York she met her newly unemployed, future husband. The two of them loved two things, tennis and each other. Taking a page from the generation Y guidance counselor manual, they decided to “follow their passion” and ended up in Hilton Head working for the Van Der Meer Tennis University, he as a tennis pro and she in the marketing department.
The Tennis Industry Association (TIA) had its beginnings as a sect of the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA). The first remnants of what we know it as today came together in 1993, when the leadership met at the first TIA forum at the Super Show and began a campaign to unify the industry and build tennis participation together. The following spring and summer, the TIA worked with the USTA introducing programs such as “Play Tennis America” to help attract new players. During this same time, the TIA began polling and tracking attitudes about the sport with children and young adults, immediately recognizing the need to alter the way that youth viewed the sport.
Following the 1994 U.S. Open where the board of the TIA met, representatives from the major tennis organizations came together to launch the “Initiative to Grow the Game.” As time went on, the TIA and USTA worked in unison to raise awareness for the sport and develop the “Try-Learn-Play and Compete” opportunities at local clubs so anyone looking to participate in tennis could get on a court hassle-free.
In 2003, they moved forward with their campaign bringing it online with TennisWelcomeCenter.com and TennisConnect, an online business tool for tennis facilities and retailers. In 2007, the TIA helped bring the “36/60” (named such for the size of the courts to be used) program, which was a precursor to what was known as QuickStart Tennis and now 10 & Under Tennis. The TIA focused on collaborating with facilities directly through programs such as the Tennis Service Representative program helping providers with ideas to boost participation, but also collecting data from around the country. The Better Your Business Workshops (now called TWC Business and Technology workshops) were developed to offer key markets ideas to boost business using technology and other resources.
In 2007, improvements in the way data was collected and presented began taking shape, using indicators such as the Tennis Health Index, compiling data from key surveys to measure the state of tennis and playing trends. This was also the first year that the TIA hosted the TIA Tennis Forum at the USTA Tennis Teachers Conference in New York City during the U.S. Open.
The TIA compiles more than 70 market research reports, producing trends of the industry. Many of these market research reports are presented at the annual TIA Tennis Forum, but all of them are available to members of the TIA. Speaking of its members, the membership of the TIA includes a veritable alphabet soup of organizations representing all facets of the tennis industry, from manufacturers and facilities to players and trainers. Although the different groups may have differing opinions on what is best for the sport of Tennis, all differences are left at the door, and everyone truly collaborates to grow the game as a whole. The TIA has neutrality like Sweden, in that all outside forces are ignored for the greater good of the sport. Once the board members of the TIA come together for a meeting of the minds, they leave all personal and firm-specific thoughts outside and work together to grow the game as a whole. The one line about this phenomenon that stuck with me is that if you grow the whole pie, everyone’s slice gets bigger. This keeps the thought of ‘gaining market share’ out of the room, and ensures that all the manufacturers and facilities and governing bodies have truly aligned goals.
Jolyn De Boer has become the new executive director of the TIA, in great respect due to her love of synergies.
What the TIA does so well is bring together groups from all facets of the industry and putting ideas together focusing solely on driving the participation and economy of the game as a whole. Holding the annual “Tennis Show” as part of the USTA Tennis Teachers Conference which included the TIA Tennis Forum, allowed the TIA to exhibit their relationships with the major players in the industry as well as the ability to get them all in the same room working toward the same goal. Through great events like this, the TIA is providing platforms for growth and opportunities to create synergy where it had been absent in the past. The TIA also offers the tools and resources needed to create infrastructure to grow the game, and analysis of the trends in order to properly situate one’s self to be prepared for what the future holds for Tennis. Bringing together companies outside of tennis (i.e. Nickelodeon) to help us compete with the likes soccer, baseball and basketball. Jolyn and her associates are looking to the future with great things in store to grow the 10 & Under Tennis game. She hopes to have a road show in the works soon with regional events tied into professional tournaments held throughout the United States.
What will continue for certainty, will be the unending amount of research of trends and analysis of the game, initiating workshops for club owners and general managers to improve bottom lines and use tools and resources provided to follow best practices in the industry. Before the TIA, no one was there to define “best practices” in a niche industry like tennis. Now, it is the duty of the TIA and Jolyn DeBoer to spread the word of what has been found, and help bring the game to new levels in the years to come.
