Could is Nationwide Tennis Month! And whereas many would argue that each month needs to be tennis month, for the previous couple of years, NTM in Could has been an more and more lively platform to assist develop the sport.
Annually, NTM has been gaining floor, with extra of a attain into the grassroots, offering a pure promotion to assist get extra individuals enjoying the game for a lifetime. The general concept is for NTM to offer each tennis supplier—together with educating execs/coaches, services, park & recs, CTAs, NJTLs, retailers and extra—an annual platform to deliver new gamers into native applications, encourage lapsed gamers to re-engage with the game, and energize present gamers to play extra and purchase extra. An essential focus is on the “native” facet of those promotions. Programming and occasions are left as much as no matter native tennis suppliers resolve could be finest for their very own communities.
“Nationwide Tennis Month is a good time to rejoice our sport,” says USTA Chairman of the Board and President Brian Hainline. “We wish to proceed the exceptional momentum we’ve seen in tennis participation whereas selling tennis because the healthiest sport on this planet—a social and enjoyable sport for all ages and in any respect ranges of the sport.”
Nationwide Tennis Month shouldn’t be new to this sport or business; there was an effort a decade in the past to assist promote the game by declaring Could NTM. For numerous causes, that push fell by the wayside.
In recent times, nonetheless, the decision to make use of Nationwide Tennis Month as a platform to develop the game got here instantly from the grassroots itself—key USTA volunteer committees rallied to kick-start this promotional platform so ALL tennis suppliers can use it to assist not solely develop tennis, however to develop their companies, too.
“Three years in the past, the USTA’s volunteer Advocacy Committee resurrected Nationwide Tennis Month and all the USTA Nationwide Supply Council (comprised of the Advocacy, Adaptive, CTA and Public Park committees) joined collectively to unfold the keenness,” says business veteran Greg Lappin, who’s the chair of the USTA’s Supply Council. “Then, USTA employees on the nationwide and part ranges mobilized to create many instruments, sources and finest practices. It’s been an unimaginable, profitable joint effort by volunteers and employees—really the USTA at its finest!”
(For instruments and sources you should use to assist promote NTM, and tennis normally, go to USTA.com/NTM.)
Part and native employees and volunteers even have been shopping for into NTM. Many are working occasions, exhibitions or promotions in Could tied on to NTM. In actual fact, quite a lot of sections, comparable to Southern and Texas, provide grants for suppliers that run applications for NTM through the month of Could. Within the Midwest, for example, the part has aligned key programming with NTM, and plenty of sections are placing promoting and advertising {dollars} towards selling the sport throughout Could.
Suppliers of all sorts—public parks, industrial and personal services and golf equipment, colleges, schools, CTAs and NJTLs—are tying their common applications into Nationwide Tennis Month, too, benefitting domestically from this nationwide promotion.
“I encourage everybody to make use of the hashtag #NationalTennisMonth in your programming and promotions all through Could, and to utilize the digital Nationwide Tennis Month e mail signature (downloadable on the web site) as a method of producing consciousness,” says Hainline.
Final 12 months, tennis fanatics in additional than three dozen states and cities utilized for “proclamations” to be issued declaring Could as Nationwide Tennis Month. That effort is predicted to develop this 12 months, as tennis organizations notice the publicity worth in a declared “month” for tennis. In some circumstances, comparable to in Wyoming final 12 months, the governor hosted an official signing ceremony. Having your state or metropolis situation a Nationwide Tennis Month proclamation typically is a reasonably fast on-line software. (There are additionally easy-to-use proclamation templates and samples at USTA.com/NTM.)
You can too win tickets to the 2023 US Open or a USTA Prize Pack on your Nationwide Tennis Month efforts. To win Open tickets, simply share an NTM success story; to win a tennis Prize Pack, get your metropolis or state to proclaim Could as Nationwide Tennis Month. Deadline to take part in each sweepstakes is June 16. (For extra info, go to USTA.com/NTM.)
Many sections are additionally connecting with retailers to assist promote Nationwide Tennis Month, and on a nationwide degree, attire model Athleta is supporting in-store messaging for NTM and is offering a coupon that can be utilized in June for tennis attire. Different tennis and sports activities retail chains have expressed an occupied with tying in to NTM promotions, too, however weren’t able to announce at press time.
“Plan for Nationwide Tennis Month now and encourage these in your group to do the identical,” says Hainline. “Let’s hold the good momentum of development in tennis participation going whereas socializing the well being advantages of tennis—THE mannequin sport.”
