August 2025
2024 IC Business Report
About the 2024 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.
36 out of 41 ICs responded to the 2024 survey, which was distributed via Survey Monkey. The missing ICs were Austria, Bulgaria, Hong Kong, Pakistan and Romania – of which only Pakistan completed the 2023 survey. We have added prior data from 2023 for Pakistan for the purposes of comparison with previous years (data is not available for the remaining four).
This means we included data for a total of 37 ICs (out of 41 which excludes Russia), with missing data for Austria, Bulgaria, Hong Kong and Romania. In the 2023 analysis, we recorded data for 36 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 2023 (i.e. constant mix).
The response rate has improved slightly compared to 2023, 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 Tash Richards and Laura Bunster Galeno at the IC Council:
ts@ictennis.net
laura@ictennis.net
Contents
Executive Summary. 3
Member Demographics. 4
Younger Members. 6
Ex-Professional Members. 6
Activity Overview.. 7
Board Members. 8
IC Philanthropy Foundation. 8
Communications. 9
Finances. 9
Sources of Support 10
Areas of Concern. 10
Executive Summary
The 2024 Business Returns account for a total of 4,367 members, a slight increase compared to the 4,256 members identified in 2023; but when considering only the 33 ICs that completed both the 2023 and 2024 surveys, there has only been a 0.2% net increase in membership (accounting for deceased members).
Gender distribution has seen a slow increase in female proportion over the last nine years, with 68% male and 32% female members. And encouragingly, the gender distribution of our youngest (i.e. under 28) age category is much more even, with 47% female and 53% male (although admittedly less so than in 2023 when this was 49% and 51% respectively).
We are still seeing an aging effect within our membership, however, with approximately 68% of the total being ‘senior’ (i.e. over 55 for males and over 50 for females), and only 17% in the ‘younger’ category (i.e. under 45 for males and under 40 for females). This demonstrates a slight improvement since 2023 in terms of balancing our age groups (69% and 16% respectively), although there is much work still to be done in this area. Although it is positive to see a strong positive shift in the representation of ‘younger’ members within IC boards (58% up from 49% in 2023), 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, 21 out of 36 ICs (58%) have taken some form of action in response to this – which is encouraging, particularly compared to last year (50%), however 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.
Encouragingly, IC activity levels increased in 2024 – with 19 ICs reporting participating in fewer than 5 events (down from 21 in 2023) and 17 ICs reporting more than 5 events (up from 13 in 2023).
There are some general areas of concern and request for help cited (which are consistent with previous years), with the top three being:
- Demographics of members
- Low number of active members
- Ability to attract/retain 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 enters its next century, the community continues to broaden and deepen its impact around the world.
Member Demographics
- The 2024 Business Returns account for a total of 4,367 members, a slight increase when compared to the 4,256 members identified in 2023.
- Considering only the 33 ICs that completed both the 2023 and 2024 surveys, the number has stayed relatively flat – with only a 0.2% increase in the total number of members: from 4,003 in 2023 to 4,098 in 2024.
- Of the total members, 32% are female and 68% are male (compared to 31% and 69% respectively in 2023). 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 4,165 members (2,849 male + 1,316 female). Please endeavour to complete the age breakdown, as this is critical demographic information.
- We are still seeing an aging effect within our membership as approximately 68% of the total are ‘senior’ (i.e. over 55 for males and over 50 for females), with only 17% in the ‘younger’ category (i.e. under 45 for males and under 40 for females). This demonstrates a slight improvement since 2023 in terms of balancing our age groups (69% and 16% respectively), although these figures have not changed significantly since 2021, 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 205 members in this category (up from 170 in 2023), 47% are female and 53% are male. This represents a slight drop since 2023 (with 49% and 51% respectively), however it remains the most balanced age category in terms of gender. Across the other age categories, the split is 31% female and 69% male.
- In 2023, 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, 21 out of 36 ICs (58%) have taken some form of action in response to this – which is encouraging, particularly compared to last year (50%), however there is more work to be done in this area.
Total members 2018 - 2024
|
End of year for which the template was requested
|
2024
|
2023
|
2022
|
2021
|
2020
|
2019
|
2018
|
|
# Clubs included
|
37
|
36
|
38
|
39
|
No data due to Covid-19
|
40
|
40
|
|
Number of members
|
4,367
|
4,256
|
4,250
|
4,169
|
4,548
|
4,488
|
|
% of females members
|
32%
|
31%
|
30%
|
29%
|
29%
|
28%
|
|
% of members <45 male and <40 female
|
17%
|
16%
|
15%
|
14%
|
16%
|
17%
|
|
% of members >55 male and >50 female
|
68%
|
69%
|
69%
|
69%
|
65%
|
65%
|
Younger Members
- 30 out of 36 ICs (83%) actively pursue recruiting younger members – this was flat on 2023 in terms of number of ICs (30 out of 34) but a drop in percentage from 88% due to the higher survey response rate this year.
- Of the 283 new members whose age category was identified by respective ICs, 112 (40%) belonged to the younger categories, marking a strong improvement from 2023 (35%) and demonstrating the impact of a concerted effort from ICs to recruit more younger members.
- Of these 112 new younger members, 38% were female and 62% were male – marking a drop in gender balance from previous years (40% and 60% respectively in 2023 and 47% and 53% in 2022). While this represents a more even gender distribution than across the IC membership as a whole, it nevertheless demonstrates a need to continue efforts to recruit new members evenly across both genders.
- A variety of challenges were cited by ICs in pursuing the recruitment of younger members – including a lack of player availability, the loss of younger players who go overseas to college and don’t return and the need to focus on higher level players due to the high standard of IC matches. Encouragingly, however, several ICs have recruited players who have participated in the IC Rod Laver Junior Challenge.
- 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 in 2023 was a great success and Germany has committed to hosting it every two years – with the next event taking place in August 2025. There is an 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
- 34 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 546 (13% of our total membership). This represented a slight increase on 2023 (472 or 11% of our total membership).
- 33 ICs were able to report at least approximately how many of their members had held any ATP/WTA ranking – with the number of those members totalling 882 (20% of our total membership). Since this was a new question for 2024, we cannot compare this figure to previous years.
- 32 ICs were able to report at least approximately how many of their members had been top-10 ranked in their country – with the number of those members totalling 1,075 (25% of our total membership). Since this was a new question for 2024, we cannot compare this figure to previous years.
Activity Overview
- Encouragingly, IC activity levels increased in 2024 – with 19 out of 36 ICs (53%) reporting participating in fewer than 5 events (down from 21 or 62% in 2023) and 17 ICs (47%) reporting more than 5 events (up from 13 or 38% in 2023).
- Similarly, 15 out of 36 ICs (42%) reported an increase in the number of activities they participated in (up from 13 or 38% in 2023), 18 ICs (50%) reported no change (relatively flat on 2023 at 17 or 50%) and 3 ICs (8%) reported a decrease (down from 4 or 12% in 2023).