Club Champions – Ilkley Lawn Tennis and Squash Club, with Chris Harrison

We spoke to Chris Harrison, General Manager of Ilkley Lawn Tennis and Squash Club, about the benefits sports clubs bring to the wider community.

Chris discusses with us the measures he’s taken to safeguard the club, his long term vision for local tennis growth, and how the election result could affect business. Chris also details Ilkley Lawn Tennis and Squash Club’s relationship with Club Insure and why it pays to use a specialist insurance broker.

Chris Harrison is one of our Club Champions, and he highlights some other club champions who make up Ilkley Lawn Tennis and Squash Club. Read on to learn more about the Yorkshire-based club, or click to see our Club Champions campaign here.

Has Ilkley seen success this year?

Ilkley has had a great year and a fantastic past few months, particularly because of the Lexus Tournament and the influence of Ilkley Lawn Tennis and Squash Club.

We recently hosted our annual Lexus Ilkley Trophy Tennis Tournament. We had over 100% growth on ticket revenue from the previous year, indicating the event was a real success. The big increase in footfall caused us to have to introduce a new 1-in-1 out policy – people were quite literally queuing-out-the-door to get in!

The Euros football tournament was on at the same time, so we showed the England game on a big screen at the event. This made people more inclined to stay for longer, therefore purchase more drinks and food. Ultimately, the on site revenue spend was massive, and many local businesses benefited. We had local vendors source food at the event, including Friends of Ham, Peacocks, and Sugar Bowl.

The tournament brings so much to the wider community. I had a discussion with the owner of Pranzo, a nearby restaurant. They commented on how they weren’t expecting so many players, coaches and fans to dine at their restaurant all week, it provided a huge boost and now they want to arrange pop-ups with us. For hotels, the week of the tournament alone brings 1,950 nights worth of accommodation, that’s over £100,000 of local hotel revenue. 

We can also see success through our successful outreach programme during the tournament. 2,000 children from different schools and communities attended Ilkley and had a session with our coaches. 40% were from IMD 1-3 postcodes which is really important to us and for the sport of tennis as a whole. This initiative was led by Gavin Sutcliffe, our Head of Rackets and Development.

See Club Insure’s chat with Gavin Sutcliffe here

How do you hope to develop Ilkley Lawn Tennis and Squash Club in the near future?

We’ve got some long term plans which make up our club master plan. This include a relocation of our centre court, but this first needs to be weighed up against the potential estimated revenue. Adding only another couple of meters to the stand can equate to a 200 seat increase. Reviewing the premises, we’re borderline capacity, but the demand is there.

The club’s only going to get better. We’ll attract higher seeded players and higher ranked players.

What health and safety measures have you installed at Ilkley Lawn Tennis and Squash Club?

We’ve recently installed fire suppression systems in both our kitchen and in the sauna. This is something we didn’t forecast but has been necessary because the rebuild value of our club now exceeds £10,000,000. We were made aware for the legislation by Club Insure.

Because of the way the members’ club structure works, we determine the membership fees depending on forecasted running costs and maintenance. At the club we take preventative measures, and we do like to renew things ahead of end of life. We go beyond the expectations of our service contracts, for example cleaning the roof and the gutters. This, therefore, decreases the likelihood of there being an incident.

How is Ilkley Lawn Tennis and Squash Club’s relationship with Club Insure?

About 2 years ago, we switched to Club Insure, and the savings we’ve made have been astronomical. We saved over £10,000 in our first renewal.

This saving had a massive impact for myself and the tennis club. When I told the board that I’ve just saved them £10,000 they were happy but also sceptical – we have lawyers on the board. So, I went through the whole policy with them and I explained to the board that Club Insure are specialists in club insurance.

Club Insure are extremely aware of how sports clubs operate – including the intricacies of a voluntary board and the types of not-for-profit organisations. They also understand the consequences of our assets, including the value of a tennis court, the details of a flood plain, the risks to our contents indoors. We’re quite a complex business, and Club Insure proved to us they knew our business inside out. Club Insure provided us with a great policy that, touchwood, we won’t ever need to claim on, but, you never know.

What are the challenges as the General Manager of a tennis club?

The challenges of my role include balancing the committees within the club. Historically, we’re a member’s club; we are committee led, and I’ve got to weigh up what’s good for member’s today versus what’s good for the club in the long run. Members are conscious about court usage and other issues, and I find myself often trying to convince people of our long-term vision for the club.

Recently we’ve benefited from the closure of another site, but that’s because our offer is good and competitive. We are a 140-year-old club and people trust us as a business. It’s about building trust with the members and in return you gain their commitment. 

My role is about growing the club and growing the sport. Tennis has got it struggles – for example it’s difficult to play and requires a few lessons to even perform a short rally. It’s a game that isn’t accessible if you’re not at an adequate level. But I actually think its growth can come from the support of the other racket sports.

I believe in a pathway of racket sports; utilising paddle, then through to tennis. Players can even start out with pickleball, in order to begin learning racket skills. I want to develop each of these key sports – we’re already planning on growing paddle and I want to introduce pickleball to the club.

And I suppose people who are already good at tennis can go back the other way; as they get older and less mobile, paddle and pickle are more suited.

What are your thoughts on tennis and elitism?

Tennis will always have such an elite stature. Supported through the likes of Wimbledon, tennis has an attraction and desirability factor.

There’s a big stigma that tennis is for the white middle class. We want to remove that kind of elite stigmatism around it, but we don’t want to remove the attraction of becoming a professional. Tell me: Why do children want to be footballers? Because they get to play on the main stage. There’s the love of the game, but also what being a footballer means. I think having that elitist end goal keeps people engaged. Although most people are never going to get near pro level, tennis still needs to be accessible. This is how we grow the sport. Football is a far cheaper sport to play than tennis, and there are lots of programmes out there to support players. Tennis, and the community champions who want to put on tennis programmes, need that financial support.

How do you expect the recent election result to affect your tennis club?

The recent election result could mean some big changes for businesses like ours. I think there’s definitely potential for changes around employment and on worker status – I believe this will affect our self-employed coaches. It’s still early, and we will be reviewing things in-depth as they come out, but we will need to understand what implications that has for us.

Truth be told, this should kick us into gear because we were looking at reviewing the coaching structure anyway. The coaches are currently independent subcontractors, which works well for us as a club.

If The Labour Party have a positive effect on the economy, then I’d like to think that we can confidently look and seek growth. If not, and people start to feel a pinch, then that’s going to risk membership. As much as we all want to be healthy and have a social life, one of the first things to go when you can’t afford it will be your gym membership or your tennis membership. It is a luxury; we need the public to be confident in how their money is being handled by the government as to not risk membership cancellations.

Who are the club champions at Ilkley Lawn Tennis and Squash Club?

In each area of our business, we have a champion. Gavin is a champion, heading up all of rackets and development. Kyle Brasington is a champion – he was former 800th in the world as a tennis pro, and is now our head coach.

I could include a 9-year-old player, Isabelle; she’s a very promising young player who is currently the best in her age group.

Marcus Whitehead is a champion of the club; he leads the gym side of our business offering. He organises contractors for the Pilates and other independent instructors. Marcus leads our team of Personal Trainers, servicing our 1,900 gym members.

Two more club champions include Zoe Judkowski who does our marketing, and Nicola Bayne who looks after the admin and back-of-house management.

To run a successful sports club business, you need a champion in each area, and if ever anyone stepped away, it would certainly be felt by myself and the club.

What makes Ilkley Lawn Tennis Club stand out?

We strive for people to feel part of the culture at Ilkley Tennis Club. We want to create an environment that’s welcoming, full of like-minded people, and ensure it’s a special part of a member’s day to come here. The club is benefited by the beautiful surroundings; it’s a unique landscape that the club is fortunate to exist within.

The financial benefits of hosting the Lexus Ilkley Trophy have helped us develop our club at a faster rate. We place our members at the forefront of everything, aspiring to provide them with the best possible experience.

Thank you to Chris for taking the time to talk to us. We look forward to continuing our relationship and wish him and his champions at Ilkley Lawn Tennis And Squash Club every success.