USPTA announces agreement with NFTC
October 19, 2013
HOUSTON — The United States Professional Tennis Association has approved the National Family Tennis Championships as a sanctioned program for USPTA Professionals in an effort to support the growth of grassroots tennis participation.
The NFTC is a new program that focuses on advancing family doubles tournaments for mothers, fathers, daughters and sons. Players advance from local to regional play onto the National Championships, and regional winners will receive an expense-paid trip to the Championship round held in New York in late August.
This mutually beneficial relationship allows NFTC to align with a credible tennis provider to identify and recruit best-in-class local tournament hosts resulting in increased family participation, while the USPTA increases brand awareness and gains access to new audiences for incremental revenue streams for the national organization and its membership.
May is considered the annual start of tennis for recreational players, and the collaboration with NFTC will provide local USPTA Professionals the opportunity to establish family tennis clinics and lesson programs in preparation for the upcoming tournaments in May and June. This promotional window will re-introduce a focal point to drive casual to active tennis players out to the courts.
In exchange for the USPTA sanctioning and establishing a recruitment process to identify a minimum of 250 local tournament hosts, NFTC will provide all marketing materials and tournament operational components such as balls and awards, along with compensation for tournament hosts who meet the minimum requirements.
The deadline for USPTA Professionals to register to host a tournament is Feb. 1, 2014, and all tournaments must be completed between May 1 and July 6, 2014. Participants will register for the tournaments through www.familytennis.com/sanction. Tournaments most host a minimum collective draw size of 36 teams and a minimum of three national advancing divisions, demonstrate proof of liability insurance (available for USPTA members), and utilize NFTC marketing materials and honor national sponsor commitments.
For more information on the National Family Tennis Championships, visit familytennis.com.