2023 IC Business Report

About the 2023 IC Business Report

The IC Business Report is designed to provide the IC Council and all ICs of the world with a yearly update of the club’s members, events and general activities. It allows ICs to share best practices, to learn from each other, and to give feedback to the IC Council. Furthermore, the Council is then able to address ‘issues of major concerns and general improvements’ and to ascertain how it can help to improve these.

34 out of 41 ICs responded to the 2023 survey, which was distributed via Survey Monkey. The missing ICs were Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hong Kong, Hungary, Romania and Sweden – none of which completed the 2022 survey either. We have added prior data from 2021 for Hungary and Sweden for the purposes of comparison with previous years (data is not available for the remaining five).

This means we included data for a total of 36 ICs (out of 41 which excludes Russia), with missing data for Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hong Kong and Romania. In the 2022 analysis, we recorded data for 38 ICs (out of 41).  For the sake of homogeneity in the analysis of the evolution of our membership, we note both the absolute numbers of the total membership and the growth observed when comparing current figures for the same ICs that were accounted for in 2022 (i.e. constant mix).

The response rate has remained consistent with 2022, with a number of ICs having not responded to the survey for several years. The insights provided by the survey are essential to the Council, Regional Representatives and each individual IC to inform key decision-making regarding our strategy – so we ask that all ICs make every effort to respond to future requests.

Each IC’s President and Honorary Secretary has already received a copy of their responses and an individual report.

For any questions or feedback, please email Gustavo Herrero, Tash Starling and Laura Bunster Galeno at the IC Council:

gustavo@herrero.la

ts@ictennis.net

laura@ictennis.net

Contents

Executive Summary. 3

Member Demographics. 4

Younger Members. 6

Ex-Professional Members. 6

IC Rod Laver Junior Challenge. 6

Activity Overview.. 7

Board Members. 8

Communications. 8

Finances. 9

Sources of Support 9

Areas of Concern and Other Comments. 9

Executive Summary

The 2023 Business Returns account for a total of 4,256 members, a relatively flat figure when compared to the 4,250 members identified in 2022; but when considering only the 34 ICs that completed both the 2022 and 2023 surveys, there has been a 0.8% net increase in membership (accounting for deceased members).

Gender distribution has seen a slow increase in female proportion over the last nine years, with 69% male and 31% female members. And encouragingly, the gender distribution of our youngest (i.e. under 28) age category is now virtually even, with 49% female and 51% male.

We are still seeing an aging effect within our membership, however, with approximately 69% of the total being ‘senior’ (i.e. over 55 for males and over 50 for females), and only 16% in the ‘younger’ category (i.e. under 45 for males and under 40 for females). Although the ‘younger’ category has grown slightly since 2022 (up from 15%), the proportion of ‘senior’ members has not changed and the trend as a whole has become more pronounced over the last nine years. Although it is positive to see a stronger representation of ‘younger’ members within IC boards (staying constant at 49% since 2022), this will be crucial in our efforts to address the wider issue of younger IC participation.

In 2022, the Executive Committee shared membership targets with ICs, to drive the action required to respond to our major membership challenges of attracting more top players, female and younger members. So far, 17 out of 34 ICs (50%) have taken some form of action in response to this – which is encouraging, although lower than last year (56%), demonstrating that there is more work to be done in this area. The Council is hopeful that this may be a subject of discussion by Regional Representatives with their respective ICs and looks forward to monitoring its progress at the next AGM.

Despite the world having largely emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic, activity levels remained largely flat in comparison with 2022 – with most ICs once again reporting participating in 0-5 IC events and the same number reporting more than 5 events (13 ICs in total).

There are some general consistent areas of concern and request for help cited, with the top three being:

• Demographics of members
• Ability to attract/retain members
• Low number of active members.

The development of philanthropic activities that enhance the lives of disadvantaged young people and expand the practice of tennis amongst junior players, is really positive to see. As the IC approaches its centenary (in 2024), the community continues to broaden and deepen its impact around the world.

Member Demographics

• The 2023 Business Returns account for a total of 4,256 members, a relatively flat figure when compared to the 4,250 members identified in 2022.
• Considering only the 34 ICs that completed both the 2022 and 2023 surveys, there has been a small increase (0.8%) in the total number of members: from 4,015 in 2022 to 4,046 in 2023.
• Of the total members, 31% are female and 69% are male (compared to 30% and 70% respectively in 2022). The proportion of females has been slowly improving over the last nine years, although is still significantly lower than that of males. 

• Not all ICs provided the age breakdown requested, but those that did account for 4,177 members (2,882 male + 1,295 female).
• We are still seeing an aging effect within our membership as approximately 69% of the total are ‘senior’ (i.e. over 55 for males and over 50 for females), with only 16% in the ‘younger’ category (i.e. under 45 for males and under 40 for females) – although this is a slight improvement on 2022 at 15%. These figures have not changed significantly since 2021, however, demonstrating that efforts to attract ‘younger’ new members have not so far driven much in the way of incremental improvements.
• Encouragingly, the gender distribution of our youngest (i.e. under 28) age category is much more even – of the 170 members in this category (up on 162 in 2022), 49% are female and 51% are male. In all the other age categories, approximately 30% are female and 70% are male.
• In 2022, the Executive Committee shared membership targets with ICs, to help drive the action required to respond to our major membership challenges of attracting more top players, female and younger members. So far, 17 out of 34 ICs (50%) have taken some form of action in response to this – which is encouraging, although lower than last year (56%), demonstrating that there is more work to be done in this area.

Total members 2018 - 2023

Younger Members

• 30 out of 34 ICs (88%) actively pursue recruiting younger members – up from 79% in 2022.
• The issue of attracting younger members, or getting younger members to participate in fixtures is one of the most cited challenges, despite a concerted effort by many ICs.
• Of the 278 new members whose age category was identified by respective ICs, 96 (35%) belonged to the younger categories, marking a slight reduction from 2022 (36%) but still a significant improvement from 2021 (28%).
• Of these 96 new younger members, 40% were female and 60% were male – representing a much more even gender distribution than across the IC membership as a whole (although less so than the 47% and 53% reported in 2022).
• A variety of challenges were cited by ICs in pursuing the recruitment of younger members – including a general lack of interest, IC selection criteria, the increasing level of padel participation, a lack of player availability and the loss of younger players who go overseas to college and don’t return.
• The Executive Committee launched a new event in 2023 exclusively for young categories (28-44 years), set up by the IC of Germany, called the Gottfried Von Cramm Trophy. The inaugural event was a great success and Germany has committed to hosting it every two years. There is opportunity for other ICs to host this event in the other “off years”, and something that should be discussed with Regional Representatives.

Ex-Professional Members

• 32 ICs were able to report at least approximately how many of their members had been top-200 ATP/WTA ranked – with the number of those members totalling 472 (11% of our total membership). Since we have changed this definition since 2022 (from members who were top 10 players in their country), we cannot compare this figure to previous years.

IC Rod Laver Junior Challenge

• The IC Rod Laver Junior Challenge Regional Events will be played in the second half of 2024. All venues and factsheets have been shared and participants are looking forward to taking part.
• 22 out of 34 ICs (64%) are planning to participate in the Challenge in 2024.
• The most commonly cited reasons for not intending to participate included a lack of junior players of a competitor standard, the prioritisation of resources towards other age groups, funding challenges and the timing of the events.
   

Activity Overview

• Despite most countries having emerged from Covid-19-related travel restrictions, there has been slight softening in event[1] participation since last year – with 13 out of 34 ICs (38%) reporting an increase in participation (vs 41% in 2022), 17 ICs (50%) remaining the same (vs 53% in 2022) and 4 ICs (12%) reporting a decrease (vs 6% in 2022).

• The small proportion of active members was the third most mentioned area of concern amongst ICs – and indeed, 29 out of 34 (85%) of ICs reported that less than half of their membership participated in IC events in 2023 (which was the same as in 2022).

• Whilst 16 out of 34 ICs (47%) are involved in the running of IC Philanthropy Foundation programmes, an additional 6 (17%) are interested in setting one up – whilst 11 (32%) engage in other charitable activities. In addition, whilst 9 ICs (26%) report that they are currently engaged in fundraising activities to support ICPF, another 13 (38%) say they would be open to doing this.
• Aside from the positive impact these activities have on their beneficiaries, they are also appealing to younger members – so represent a valuable opportunity for attracting more players from this age group.

Board Members

• 31 out of 34 ICs (91%) have female board members, which was the same as last year, 2021 and 2019. We should aim to have this at 100%.
• 20 out of 34 ICs (59%) have board members <45 years, which is flat on last year but still a marked improvement on the 49% from 2021. Hopefully continued efforts to engage more younger age groups in the ICs will help to grow this further in future.
• 20 out of 34 ICs (59%) have board members who were ex-top 200 ATP/WTA ranked. Since we have changed this definition since 2022 (from members who were top 10 players in their country), we cannot compare this figure to previous years.
• 28 out of 36 ICs (78%) have periodic discussions about succession planning – which is down from 82% in 2022.

Communications

• 27 out of 36 ICs (75%) have someone responsible for marketing/ communications on their Board – down from 81% in 2022.
• The top 3 means of communication used by the most ICs are email (used by 97% of ICs), phone/video calls (71%) and WhatsApp (65%). 22 out of 34 ICs (65%) report being able to reach over 80% of their members via email, whereas the other channels have much lower reach.
• 17 out of 34 ICs (50%) produce a periodic newsletter, which is down from 55% in 2022. But 33 out of 34 ICs (97%) re-distributed the IC e-News (IC Council newsletters) to their membership base, which is a strong increase from 82% in 2022 and 63% in 2021 and is very positive.
• 29 out of 34 ICs (85%) pass on information received from the IC Philanthropy Foundation (an increase from 74% in 2022), which is also really encouraging.

Finances

• 2 out of 34 ICs (6%) did not collect subscription fees in 2023 – neither of which had done this in 2021 either. 5 ICs (15%) increased their fees, 3 (9%) reduced them and the remaining ICs kept the same fees as in 2022.
• Across all ICs, an average of 8% of members were in arrears with their subscriptions, which is a big drop since 2022 (14%). This is really positive, although the proportion of ICs who have a policy in place to deal with members in arrears has dropped again since 2022 (73% vs 78%).
• Subscriptions are the largest source of revenues for ICs, followed by sponsorships and donations from friends or members.

Sources of Support

• 29 out of 34 ICs (74%) have a working relationship with their National Federation.
• 21 out of 34 ICs (62%) meet with the IC Council Regional Representatives at least once a year, however 8 ICs (24%) report that they have never met their Regional Representative. Please reach out to your Regional Representative (and vice versa) to discuss further.
• 23 out of 23 ICs (100%) report that meeting with their Regional Representatives has been at least somewhat useful.

Areas of Concern and Other Comments

• The graph below shows the main areas of concern for all ICs, with the most prevalent areas being the same as in 2022 and 2021: the demographics of members, the ability to attract or retain members and the small number of active members.