Title: Unreal? Insights from newly constructed 'real' tennis courts and lessons for future growth

Authors: Malek Al-Chalabi

Addresses: Linacre College, University of Oxford, St. Cross Road, Oxford, OX1 3JA, UK

Abstract: Tennis is a global sport that captures the fascination of many. Although its popularity is much smaller, 'real' tennis (the sport which tennis originates from) is still played today. The literature has examined the history of real tennis in great depth, but presently there is limited research that has focused on the recent growth of the sport. Four newly constructed real tennis courts have been built in the last 20 years. The objective of this paper is to understand how these courts came to be and to assess what lessons can be learned to grow the sport in a new country. Since this is an unexplored subject, the research provides innovative findings on fundraising and sports management for real tennis and the implications for niche sports are also presented.

Keywords: real tennis; sports management; growth; fundraising; niche sports.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSMM.2023.131951

International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 2023 Vol.23 No.4, pp.327 - 345

Received: 21 Oct 2021
Received in revised form: 28 Jun 2022
Accepted: 22 Jul 2022
Published online: 05 Jul 2023 *

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