It has been an aspiration of the club for many years to have indoor tennis courts at Winchester. As far back as 1980, the club was working towards the development of indoor facilities. At that time a proposed two court facility was not progressed. The combination of the planning constraints and the fact that it was only a two court facility meant that it was not financially viable.

The current project was initiated following member consultation in 2004 - a member survey indicated support for indoor playing facilities.

A planning application was submitted in April 2006 but the application was turned down by Winchester City Council in July of that year. The club subsequently went to independent appeal and planning permission was finally granted in January 2008.

The introduction of indoor facilities to Winchester is essential for our long term survival and will also be a major contribution to tennis development in the Winchester area.

Why should we have indoor courts?

• Indoor playing facilities expected for a club of our stature
• Meet expectations of potential new members
• Improved facilities and all year round playing environment for existing members
• Better environment for mini tennis development and general coaching programme
• Better environment for performance programme
• Avoid cancellation of events and coaching squads due to bad weather
• Meets requirement for indoor tennis provision in the area
• Increased revenue for the club

Since the latest indoor project was initiated, a new manager has been recruited with significant experience of operating a 5 court indoor facility. A club very similar in size and scale to Winchester.

Information from that facility and other clubs that operate indoor courts has been drawn upon to develop operational and financial projections. A detailed financial plan has been prepared that demonstrates the viability of the project. Sensitivity analyses have also been applied to our high income areas of membership subscriptions and indoor court occupancy to show the impact of us not achieving targeted projections.

All our projections indicate a successful project that can only contribute to the growth of tennis in the Winchester and surrounding areas.

INDOOR COURT UPDATE

The final arrangements for construction of the 4 indoor courts are now in place and work will start on site on Tuesday 6th April.

The contract went out to tender in January and the tender process was coordinated by the project managing company, Lee West Associates. Dove Construction were successful in the tender bid process and we are pleased to say that the tender costs are within the original forecasted costs of £800K.

Dove Construction, based in Cheltenham, have worked closely with Summit Structures (who manufacture and provide the fabric frame structure) on a number of projects and are therefore very familiar with the requirements of our development.

The confirmation of LTA funding has also been finalised and there is some very significant positive news to report in that the ratio of grant to loan funding has been changed.

Our financial projections were based on a grant of £140K and an interest free loan of £260k. The actual funding offer that we have received is for a £300K grant and an interest free loan of £100K. This is a significant improvement and immediately reduces our annual repayments to the LTA over the 10 year payback period by £16K.

The construction period is projected to last 25 weeks and we will have the courts ready at the start of October in time for the 2010-11 winter season. The next consideration is how the club operates over the next 6 months while the construction is going on.  We will be working closely with the contractors to minimise any inconvenience to members and will aim to keep members well informed throughought the construction period.

Please click on the attached file which gives answers to commonly asked questions about the inbdoor court development

Q and A - Indoor Courts sep 09

Some ideas on raising funding for the indoor court project were recently circulated to members. Following further review, the management committee have decided to promote the "member's special loan" arrangement that has been used in the past by the Club.

Members are invited to loan a sum of money to the Club and benefit from a reduction in membership fees. Key points of this arrangement are

• minimum loan period of 3 years
• up to 4.6% reduction in membership fees i.e. up to £46 reduction on fees for every £1K loan placed with the club *
• minimum loan of £1,000
• maximum loan - the loan cannot be so high as to result in a reduction in fees that would exceed the value of the membership/s  - example. A loan of £20K would mean a reduction in fees of up to £920 per annum. This loan could be accepted if there were family memberships totalling at least that value but it could not be accepted if there was only one gold membership at £595

* The club is prepeared to give "up to" 4.6% reduction in fees for each £1K loaned. However if members wish to help support the club by opting for a lower rate then this can be indicated on the special loan agreement form. that is completed when lodging the loan with the club.

If you are interested in a "special loan" then please contact Bily Kerr, General Manager at the Club. 01962 854028