How Ilkley LT&SC is using Lexus Ilkley Trophy to grow tennis in Yorkshire

Ilkley Lawn Tennis and Squash Club hosts the Lexus Ilkley Trophy, a Challenger event for the men’s tour and a World Tennis Tour W100 on the women’s side, for a seventh time.

The tournament has become a regular stop-off for players in and around the world’s top 100 honing their games for Wimbledon which gets underway nine days after the men’s and women’s finals next Saturday.

And after returning to the Lawn Tennis Association’s grass court schedule in 2022 following the cancellation of the previous two editions due to the Covid pandemic, the club is hoping to build a lasting legacy.

“Last year was about restarting the competition,” explains club chairman Rik Smith, who took on tournament directing duties last year and has continued the role for the 2023 event. “This year we’re trying to grow it and make it bigger than ever.”

On the playing side there are more players from the women’s top 100 in the tournament than ever before - five - while the men’s event has attracted players of the calibre of former world No 7 David Goffin.

The paying public have responded in kind, with more tickets sold at this stage than the club has managed before previous editions.

And with ticket revenue split equally between Ilkley and the LTA, it is vital income for a club that is investing in not only its own future, but the game of tennis.

“Financially it’s not something that is a blank cheque book,” Smith told The Yorkshire Post. “There is a very tight budgeting process we have to work to, because it is an incredibly expensive event to host.

“As a club we’re really passionate about it, most people at the club get behind it.

“We see the Ilkley Trophy as an opportunity to both help the club by making profit in a way that we run it, generating money through a combination of sponsorship and corporate hospitality packages, and food and beverage sales on site.

“And that money we see going directly back into the club.

“As a result of the profits we made last year we’ve been able to build a padel court this last year, money that wouldn’t have been available were it not for the Ilkley Trophy.”

Visitors to the event this year will be able to note the bigger grandstands around the showcourt, up to between 1,100 and 1,200 seats.

But beyond the tournament itself, there is a drive within the club to spread the game of tennis.

“Going forward the intention is that any money that is made is invested back into the club but we’ve also got a big community strategy that is helping the Bradford region, especially the under-served communities and we’ll be looking to put profits year on year into our community programme to support kids from disadvantaged backgrounds to get into tennis, but then also stay in the sport as well,” said Smith.

“We hope that what we do at the Ilkley Trophy benefit not just Ilkley as a club but also the region as well.”

Ilkley have been working with a charity called Rackets Cubed which works with under-privileged children, creating opportunities for them to play racket sports and giving them a hot meal and an element of education.

“The work that they do has really inspired what we want to do in the community,” added Smith.

“We’ve done a lot in the past supporting the local area and helped clubs in the area develop their own coaching programmes, and that work has been so successful that they can now sustain their own sessions. So what we want to do going forward is really start to open up and interact with other areas of our community that potentially racket sports in the past haven’t been able to get into.

“The Ilkley Trophy is a good anchor for promoting tennis and racket sports, but also our hope is it will allow us to sustainably grow and invest into coaching programmes and into children who otherwise wouldn’t be able to take part.”

This long-term approach to staging the tournament, making it about more than just the event and the players, is something the Ilkley club hope will stand them in good stead when it comes time to convince the LTA to come back year after year.

“At the moment the tournament is confirmed to be coming back in 2024, and we have a long-term vision here,” said Smith.

“There is no grass court tournament of our scale further north than Nottingham, so for tennis throughout the UK it’s an incredibly important tournament for the LTA. Tennis is very southern-centric, so it’s important a tournament of our size and stature does remain.

“They’re keen to make it work going forward and we hope we’re part of that long-term plan for the grass-court season.”