TENNISCLUB

OF THE
FUTURE
FUTURE
CONCEPT
CLUB
TENNIS-
POINT
Indoor tennis center

Padelcourt

Multicourt
modern clubhouse
Hardcourt

Tenniscourts Gastronomy

Playground

Bike station
+E-bike charging station
The story of Tennis-Point began in 1999, when Christian
Miele opened the first tennis store of 30 square meters. This
was the beginning of a rapid rise to what is now the world‘s
largest tennis retailer.

The success story was not only characterized by the ever-

lasting pursuit of business goals, but especially the people
behind Tennis-Point were always the source of inspiration,
innovation, visions and supposedly crazy ideas.

Whereas in the beginning it was student friends and even

trainees who rose to become directors in no time at all, the-
re are now over 400 employees* who, under the leadership
of founder Christian Miele and his fellow managing direc-
tor Sascha Beyer, are constantly setting out for new shores.
Most recently, the company ventured across the ocean to
the USA, sealing its global market leadership.

But Tennis-Point would not be Tennis-Point if it were just a

matter of doing business. „More than just a store“ is writ-
ten on a sign that can be seen in the virtual background of
Christian Miele in every video call. His mantra is to expand
tennis by 20% - this manifests rather nearly in every call.

THE FUTURE
OF TENNIS
OR HOW A TENNIS
RETAILER SET
OUT TO REVIVE
HIS SPORT.
HOW CAN THIS GOAL
BE ACHIEVED?
This question permanently occupies our ters in Herzebrock-Clarholz - the (new)
team. One thing is certain: Something hub of the tennis world.
has to change in the partly outdated club
and association structures. These struc- Together with the club‘s board, emp-
tures are definitely not helping to revitali- loyees, tennis experts, suppliers of ten-
ze tennis and attract new players. Since nis-related products and also friends and
tennis in Germany is organized almost acquaintances, hot discussions, ideas
exclusively in clubs, Christian Miele qui- and rejections take place until finally the
ckly realized: „We have to take matters concept is launched:
into our own hands and build the club of
the future.
CLUB TENNIS-POINT,
The visionary didn‘t hesitate and set out ENJOY YOUR LIFE
on his search. With the tennis depart-
ment of the Gütersloh gymnastics club We will take a closer look at what this
GTV, he found a solid, but currently low- tennis club of the future will look like in
membership tennis club in the immedia- the following.
te vicinity of the Tennis-Point headquar-

FOUNDER
FUND
Without the support of a motivated team,
even Tennis-Point‘s latest vision cannot
be brought to life. In addition, investors
and sponsors are needed who believe in
the idea and support it. For this purpose,
there is a „Founders Club“, which already
includes well-known players in the tennis
industry.
The present concept of the tennis club of had only one main hobby in addition to
the future is being implemented in its pi- school, which was pursued intensively,
lot phase in Germany. Therefore, the ana- today‘s kids and teens hop from one acti-
lysis and further phases also refer to the vity to the next. And often these are digi-
German tennis landscape. tal activities. Which brings us to the next
factor, the age of the digital revolution of
If one follows the figures of the DTB, the- the mobile Internet.
re were 8,852 clubs with 45,936 tennis
courts in Germany in 2020. In the 80s, While we were able to play simple games
there was a tennis boom here, often re- and do rudimentary programming with
ferred to as the „Becker boom“. Steffi Graf datasettes and Commodore C64s, today
and Michael Stich certainly contributed every smartphone has many times the
to this, but the victory of the 17-year-old computing capacity of entire computer
from Leimen in Wimbledon in 1985 can systems of the 1980s. Of course, this is
definitely be described as trend-setting. nothing surprisingly new, but it does play
But what has happened in German tennis a serious role in analyzing the decline of
over the last 36 years? After the golden tennis in Germany. However, we should
years, the sport has been losing mem- not demonize the digital world, but on the
bers year after year; courts and in some contrary ask why the structure in tennis
cases entire clubs have been closed. In does not adapt to this development. We
2006, the trend is starting to become can‘t stop digitization, and it‘s difficult to
particularly clear; for the first time, there regulate (as some politicians are trying to
are fewer than 10,000 clubs in Germa- do). Instead, we should take advantage
ny again. The only things that may be of the benefits in order to better organize
remembered are the stickers „Tennis is positive forms of coexistence and revive
great“ and „Germany plays tennis“. Did the positive insights of the past.
we really not have more to offer in tennis
Germany? After all, what advantages did one have
as a child or teenager of the 80s in a ten-
Let‘s briefly try to find explanations toge- nis club? Playing, learning and romping
ther. Of course, the visibility of a sport by with a group of like-minded people in a
top athletes is mainly influenced by televi- safe environment! Sociologists, sports
sion. People cheer live when the athletes, scientists, pedagogues and, last but not
some of whom have already been eleva- least, experts in the health industry would
ted to the status of national heroes, reach be delighted if our upcoming generation
for major titles for their home country. could only come close to imitating our
These protagonists with the collar width leisure time behavior of yesteryear.
of a Becker and Co. have been missing
for quite some time. My thesis, however,
is based on a different phenomenon:

Digitization

As a child of the 70s/80s, when you grew

up as a tennis player in the club, you can
easily see the difference to today - espe-
cially if you have children of a similar age.
The first thing to notice is the number of
offers. Whereas in the past we usually
Time factor all-day school ness exists to engage itself honorary in
the association.
In addition to the digitalization overlo-
ad, the issue of all-day schools is also a Overageing
weighty factor in the death of clubs. After-
noon training sessions fall victim to the 4 Last but not least, let‘s talk about structu-
p.m. school closing time. And contrary to res. Unfortunately, starting with the asso-
the widespread opinion that homework ciations and ending with the club board,
is done by then, a few vocabulary words an overaging can often be observed; for
still need to be learned and one or two reasons already mentioned, but also be-
papers written. Unlike in the U.S., sports cause some officials cannot let go. Inno-
unfortunately play only a subordinate role vations and new ideas are often rejected
during the long school days. Sure, there according to the motto „we have always
are so-called AG offers, but these usually done it this way for the last 30 years“. In
have nothing to do with the performance- our eyes, this is a dangerous fallacy. The
oriented practice of a sport. Is it really ne- short analysis is to point out once more
cessary to put children and young people that the sinking numbers of members are
under pressure to perform even in their really worrying. Only together can all pro-
free time? Well, in order to judge this not tagonists turned to tennis try to stop this
even the extent of a further article would downward trend and even reverse it.
be sufficient. I can only state one thing.
My friends and sports colleagues have in
most cases had a positive career and are
happy with their families. Many of them
therefore also bring their children back to
a tennis club, but cannot compete with
the existing oversupply.

The dear honorary office

In addition to global socio-cultural condi-

tions, there are also far simpler reasons
that explain the decline of tennis in Ger-
many: The club system is built on volun-
teerism. We at Tennis-Point firmly believe that this
is possible. In the next chapters we will
Who doesn‘t know the annual general show you the way how we will revive ten-
meeting nowadays, where volunteers are nis with our future model Club Tennis-
desperately sought to fill vacant positi- Point, Enjoy your Life.
ons. Where does this development come
from? I believe it has to do with the sense
of entitlement. A volunteer in this day and
age has to have management qualities in
order to meet the demands of many club
members.

The thanks for the partly sacrificing work

in he own spare time are insults. No mi-
racle that therefore less and less readi-
 Our vision and the basic idea of our futu- supposed to do with our normal tennis
re concept is to combine the good cha- club“.
racteristics of a tennis club from the 80s
with the requirements and the current Model club - our pilot club
situation of the 2020s. We would like to
create or revive a place of encounter - for It was clear to us early on that a model
young and old, men and women, compe- club had to be found. A club with a nor-
titive and amateur athletes, inactive and mal size, a normal environment, but ap-
parently with the problems that many or

GOAL/
even most German tennis clubs have to
struggle with.

We actually found what we were looking

VISION
for in the immediate vicinity of the Ten-
nis-Point headquarters. Our pilot club will
be the tennis department of the Güters-
loh Turnverein GTV. A typical sports club
like there are thousands of them in Ger-
many. The tennis facility has six outdoor
active members, beginners and advan- courts, a three-field hall and a clubhouse;
ced players. The list could be continued the only special feature is the beach vol-
or simply summarized: The Club of the leyball courts. The GTV reflects the situ-
Future is a place for everyone who wants ation described in the analysis. Whereas
to enjoy life in their free time. years ago one could look at several hund-
red members, today there are only 84, 40
That‘s why we chose ENJOY YOUR LIFE of them inactive and 1 (!) youth.
as the claim for our concept. In view of
the international rollout of our „baby“, this Which association can find itself here?
is in English. Unfortunately, probably all too many. But
of course there are clubs that have de-
So what should this place of encounter veloped good concepts for the future on
look like? We believe that different to- their own. We would therefore like to call
pics are important for each individual, on everyone who wants to contribute to
depending on their preferences or focus the positive development of tennis. Share
in their own leisure behavior. Our founder your ideas with us. Only with a joint effort
and managing director Christian Miele can we revive our favorite sport.
has therefore put together a focus group
that is working on the overall concept, Innovations for your club
bringing all the ideas to the table, sorting
them and, if possible, reconciling them. In this context, we would like to point out
This was supplemented by discussions again that we offer a bouquet of possi-
with a number of experts and players in bilities with the Club Tennis-Point con-
the tennis market, such as representa- cept. Not every club can and must select
tives from the association, industry and all service packages from it. Even small
sports facility construction, former pro- things can have a big impact. If a semi-
fessional players and amateurs, officials, professional video camera cost 3,500 DM
investors and many others. in the 90s, nowadays a camera for a few
hundred euros can deliver razor-sharp
An important goal was that the whole 4K videos from the tennis court. If you‘re
topic should not be aloof. No one should looking for even more affordable options,
think something like: „you with your net- let‘s talk about a mini table tennis table
work and financial possibilities can im- for 99 EUR. The fun effect is enormous!
plement the future club, but what are we Does your clubhouse have a free Power-
Wifi? If not, this circumstance has to be once: Every question has already been
carefully described as negligent. When it answered once, every application has
comes to innovations, let‘s not just talk already been submitted once and the di-
about investments and expenditures. gital club portal with online booking sys-
How do things look on the revenue side? tem has already been programmed once.
How many of you ever had the embar- We go into more detail in the Strategy
rassment of playing tennis with a friend and Implementation chapters.
or acquaintance in the summer at a place
away from home?
A place for the post-pandemic
We couldn‘t do that because two non-
members are not allowed to buy a guest Let‘s return to the topic of vision. What do
pass. There was no one in the clubhouse we want to achieve with our future model
who could have sold guest tickets at all. Club Tennis-Point, Enjoy your Life?
One did not know at which club one could
even have asked, let alone where a free We believe that our leisure behavior will
court would have been available. This cir- change drastically in the „post-pandemic“
cumstance can be solved with a nation- era. Issues such as hygiene, caution, be-
wide digital online booking system. And havior in groups, traveling, partying and
you may already have guessed, Tennis- playing sports will be viewed differently
Point has programmed such a system than before. Although we cannot predict
and will make it available to all tennis every detail, we are very sure that we will
clubs in Germany. It is, of course, part of increasingly need places for local recrea-
the Club Tennis-Point concept and ge- tion. Places where we are kept with a cer-
nerates revenue without effort, because tain safety using standards in a reasona-
the entire booking process is mapped di- bly controllable group of people. Sound
gitally. One only has to look at the club terrible?
account from time to time and book the
revenue from innovations. The introduc- Maybe, but we think it‘s becoming part of
tion of such a national booking offer for the so-called new normal and we should
tennis clubs was long overdue and every make the most of it. So we want to create
club can start with it immediately without a place where we can enjoy our lives with
any fuss. Are you with us? our loved ones, friends and acquaintan-
ces. How we can achieve this and what
Strong partner with experience we need to tackle in detail will be descri-
bed in the next chapter.
Our goal is to develop a scalable con-
cept. The start-up financing and the enor-
mous organizational effort behind it will
be taken over by Tennis-Point. Our sup-
porting partners and sponsors will be or-
ganized in the founder fund „Tennis-Point
& Friends“.

The subsequent local implementation

of Club Tennis-Point will be carried out
by the respective local club on its own.
However, with the great advantage that
all experiences have already been made
So how do we build the tennis club of For us it is clear that the sport should be
the future? The ideal prerequisite is an further developed in Germany. We there-
existing tennis club with space for pos- fore recommend to include padel courts
sible expansion as well as a clubhouse to as a fixed part of the tennis club of the
also organize the very important social future.
component of club life.
For a club with 6-8 courts, like our sample
One fundamental question has preoccu- club GTV, we recommend the construc-
pied us throughout the creation of the tion of 2 padel courts. We are working
strategy: Will we play tennis exclusively with two different suppliers here. There
at the tennis club of the future? are not yet any overarching state regulati-
ons for the construction of padel courts,
Even if we say today that every tennis so each municipality may handle such a
club can decide this for itself and call up construction request differently. With our
individual modules from our Club Tennis- Club Tennis Point concept, however, hard-
Point concept, our unanimous opinion is ly any question remains unanswered, and
that it is good for tennis in the club to in- our experience helps in coordinating with
clude other disciplines. municipal employees. In this way, all par-
ties involved can be sufficiently informed
Padel and ultimately the right decisions can be
made.
On the one hand, there is the sport of
padel, which we believe has already pas- By the way: There are funding pots in Ger-
sed through the status of a trend sport many that support a padel court cons-
- at least internationally. In countries like truction up to 87%! For this, the sport
Spain, padel has already overtaken ten- must be firmly integrated into the club
nis. New padel courts are also springing offer and may not be used commercially.
up everywhere in Sweden, Italy, France But also for a commercial use of the
and the Benelux countries. Why is this sport offer there are meaningful example
young sport so on the road to success? calculations with the result that the pa-
del court construction is worthwhile and
brings new momentum into the racket
sport.

Padel can serve as an introduction to the

sport of tennis, but it is also an activity
in itself that brings a lot of fun and com-
munal experiences. You can find all the
information you need about padel sports
at padel-point.de or in even greater detail
if you join Club Tennis-Point.
It‘s relatively easy to explain: The smaller
bat with a short handle makes eye-hand
coordination much easier to manage.
The glass walls at the back of the players
allow for longer rallies by bouncing the
ball back. In competition mode, only dou-
bles are played, which is less strenuous
and promotes social interaction.
Multifunctional court - for example with a shoot-out at the bas-
ketball hoop including a cold drink with
Let‘s move on to another factor that will their teammates.
extremely increase the attractiveness
of the tennis club of the future: our mul- We are so convinced of the Multicourt
tifunctional court. This combines six that we also see it in use outside of ten-
sports on one playing surface: in addition nis clubs. Of course, the mini tennis court
to a mini tennis court, you can also play can also be used to start playing tennis
soccer, field hockey, basketball, beach outside of a club or association. The USA
tennis and volleyball. is showing us how it‘s done, with so-cal-
led neighborhood courts in residential
Prof. Dr. Klaus Roth, the inventor of the complexes becoming part of the normal
Heidelberg Ball School, is not the only cityscape.
one to have discovered that universal
training with a wide variety of ball sports The same applies to multifunctional
leads our children to rediscover romping. courts: almost all questions about sta-
Recently, Michael Rummenigge confir- tics, costs, construction and operation
med in a conversation that talent scou- have already been answered at Club Ten-
ting is becoming increasingly difficult in nis-Point. However, should there be a
his soccer schools, as children often lack special case, our experts are on hand to
the „basic training“ and stamina of typical provide help and advice.
street soccer.
To summarize this paragraph in the Stra-
„Romping makes you smart“ is also well tegy chapter: Yes, we believe that the
known from exercise neuroscience. We, tennis club of the future will develop into
on the other hand, are unfortunately loo- a racquet sports club - and that other
king at ever-increasing numbers of over- sports will also be offered on a multifunc-
weight and poor posture in children and tional court.
adolescents. The big question remains:
What do we do about it? Our answer: We
build a multifunctional court in the tennis
clubs of the future! On the one hand, we
ensure the basic training of children with
larger balls than the tennis ball and, on
the other hand, we bring the team sport
aspect into the tennis club. Not to forget
that adults also get their money‘s worth
Gastronomy provide a remedy. If local conditions per-
mit, the club room can even serve as a
Let‘s move on to the very important to- canteen. If the issue of integrating sports
pic of gastronomy and thus to the social and homework supervision comes into
component. We believe that a tennis club play, the tennis club with its racquet
has a much higher chance of survival if sports facilities and multifunctional court
there is a year-round gastronomic offer. can even be used as a permanent venue
The big problem of tennis gastronomy of a modern school concept.
is known to be seasonality. Regardless
of the special situation during the pan-
demic with the lockdowns, a reasonable
economy is only possible in a year-round
operation. Otherwise, an interim solution
must be found in the winter when no in-
door tennis facility is available.

This is the first starting point for Club

Tennis-Point. We work together with a
partner who offers airdomes. Here, too,
we have experience and concepts on
how to make the investment in a mobile
hall construction worthwhile. Certainly a
simple and logical way to utilize the cate-
ring facilities also in winter.

Another possibility is to connect a year-

round self-sufficient catering operation, Events
as we will implement at our model club in
Gütersloh. Of course, this has to do with In addition to the area of child care, the
the respective local conditions, but one topic of events is certainly back on the
thing is clear: the tennis club of the future agenda in the new normal life. But per-
must be a common meeting place for all haps events will have to be held more in
members all year round. local areas and the offer will be directed
more to the local environment. Here, too,
Don‘t worry, we also have a solution for the tennis club can open up to the future
clubs where catering is not an option. A more than in the past. A club night every
tennis club 2.0 can also be managed with second Friday of the month may become
vending machines and purely virtual ser- a permanent fixture. The focus here is
vices. likely to be on outdoor events in the co-
ming months, perhaps years.
But let‘s get back to the full range of ca-
tering services. What concepts can be Hygiene concepts and tracking infection
found to ensure year-round operation? history will also likely continue to play
Here, a disadvantage just mentioned an important role. This can certainly be
can be an advantage for clubs: all-day implemented well in a club with sign-in
schools. School boards are often despe- lists. The exact circumstances will be
rately looking for solutions to provide very much influenced by the behavior
lunch for their students. Often catering regarding widespread vaccination of the
companies are acquired from far away. population.
Here, the kitchen of the tennis club can
Life without dancing, laughter and social difficult to learn! This statement is simply
interaction is certainly unthinkable. Even wrong and has been preventing many in-
though online dating platforms are beco- terested people from getting into tennis
ming more and more popular, many peo- for decades.
ple looking for a partner also prefer to flirt
while dancing or having a cocktail at the Already in 1974 Tim Gallway published
bar - in order to have briefly highlighted the book „The Inner Game of Tennis“. Alt-
this topic as well. But even otherwise, it hough this book already describes how
is important to organize a social get-to- easy it is to learn tennis, generations of
gether after the phase of the various lock- tennis students have been tormented by
down scenarios. forms of practice that are contrary to our
natural learning process. In this context,
There are no limits to the ideas here - we are cooperating with Tennis People,
from game nights to watching soccer who have already proven countless times
together to cooking school or wine tas- with their „Fast Learning“ concept that
tings. Sometimes it can be a simple bar- tennis is really easy and fast to learn.
becue, with sausages and steaks on the
grill. In parallel, we are working on a campaign
to bring athletes from other disciplines to
We‘ll get used to enjoying our free time as racquet sports, especially during the pan-
local recreation at our local club. When I demic phase. As an individual sport, ten-
think back to my own youth in the 80‘s nis has the advantage of opening up the
this was certainly not the worst time in courts and allowing people to play, which
my life. takes precedence over team sports. Cer-
tainly, this area needs to be viewed so-
mewhat sensitively. We don‘t want to give
the impression that the situation is being
used „unfairly,“ but at the end of the day,
it‘s about people simply wanting to play
sports. And the opportunities in the so-
cial sphere, which have already been de-
scribed in this article, do their bit to keep
the target group playing tennis.

For the tennis club of the future, we have

set ourselves the goal of not only making
it easier to get started in the sport, but
also to take tennis training in general to
the next level. This is definitely not to say
that everything is „bad“ that we currently
find on the topic of training teaching, but
here too, we believe we need to take the
next step, especially in the area of digi-
Education and training talization. Partners like Wingfield support
the tennis player and his coach with data
Let‘s move on from the gastronomic of- and video analyses that are hardly inferior
fer to the topic of education and training. to the possibilities in professional sports.
Here, too, we must urgently clear up a In cooperation with TennisGate, we offer
fundamental misunderstanding: tennis is innovative advanced training by digital
 ENJOY YOUR
LIFE

means for tennis coaches, but also for dard as the electronic control of access
players who are committed to self-coa- to the court, locker rooms or club room
ching. by means of RFID chip. Some people will
certainly think „brave new world“ and per-
The tennis club of the future will also pro- haps doubt whether this is a positive or
vide a platform for other professions in negative development. Let‘s take a look
the leisure industry. We assume that vo- at the result together: If this development
lunteerism will continue to play a signifi- can revitalize the sport of tennis and bu-
cant role in the management of a tennis ild up the sport of paddle tennis to provi-
club/association in the future. However, it de athletes and their families with a gre-
is also becoming apparent that more and at way to spend their free time, then the
more club management tasks will be per- answer should be quite clear.
formed by full-time staff. This topic has
certainly been discussed many times in Finally, let‘s move on to the chapter on
the past, but developments in recent ye- implementation.
ars indicate that the organization of ten-
nis clubs, or rather racket sports clubs in
the future, can only be maintained with
digital support and permanently installed
club managers.

The tennis club of the future will provide

these digital tools in the concept Club
Tennis-Point. The control of the club
with the help of the appropriate app in the
smartphone or tablet will be just as stan-
IMPLEMENTATION
How can a „normal“ tennis club partici-
pate in the future concept Club Tennis-
Point, Enjoy your Life?

The first step is certainly to contact our

Grasroots and Promotion Team.

Register free of charge and without ob-

ligation as an interested party at www.
tennis-club-der-zukunft.de or send your
informal request to

[email protected]
and we will send you further information
material. Many steps will then explain
themselves. Further we go together to
establish a Club Tennis-Point in your ten-
nis club. If you decide to implement the
future concept with us, you will be ac-
companied by a team of dedicated em-
ployees who will be there to help you in
word and deed.

Our concept Club Tennis-Point is part of

a movement we are starting. We want to
revitalize the sport of tennis and make it
fit for the future.

Become part of #team yellow and

discover new impulses for our sport at
www.tennis-is-us.com
EPILOG
Have we aroused your interest? Do you About the author:
also see the future of the tennis club
landscape as we do? Similar or comple- Nelson Artz has been professionally in-
tely different? Do we claim to be comple- volved in tennis for 26 years. He himself
te with this article? Certainly not. For us, has been playing this wonderful sport for
the process of renewing tennis club con- 45 years. For ten years he led the TC Rot-
cepts is also a dynamic and interactive Weiß Bad Honnef on the island of Grafen-
exchange with everyone involved in ten- werth as its 1st chairman. He has been
nis. As already described, we like to listen happily together with his wife Friederike
to feedback, ideas and suggestions. Artz for 31 years and has two daughters
aged 14 and 19.
For example, have we talked in full about
the job description of tennis coaches? Based on his professional experience
We don‘t think so, but we see a central in international marketing, he wrote the
role here in organizing its implementa- book „Heute schon im Morgen ankom-
tion. However, since the umbrella organi- men. How the Mobile Internet Revolution
zations claim teaching sovereignty here, is Lastingly Changing Our Consumption
further discussions must be held at this and Work Behavior.“
level.
Since October 2020, he has jumped on
Are there other ideas „out of the box“? board the Tennis Point Express and is
Most certainly. In today‘s world, both pa- responsible for the Tennis Point brand,
rents are increasingly working. Do you its international expansion and strategic
know of any German tennis clubs that partnerships as Chief Brand Officer.
offer daycare? We don‘t. Can the open
all-day school with its childcare offer take
place in a racquet sports club with an ad-
ditional multifunctional court? We think
so.

The list could go on indefinitely and with

this open end I would like to conclude my
remarks. At the end of the day, we are all
concerned with one thing:

TO REVIVE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL

SPORT IN THE WORLD, SO THAT WE
CAN ENJOY IT TOGETHER FROM
YOUNG TO OLD!
ENJOY
YOUR
LIFE

www.tennis-club-der-zukunft.de

Become the tennis club of the future now!