Is This Guide for You? Before you begin, the reader will benefit by understanding who this Guide has been written for. It is a Guide, not a detailed planning manual. The appendices point to more detailed resources when more technical information is required. It is written for the Canadian context – national, provincial and municipal. The language, references to taxes, descriptions of permitting processes, and many funding options are oriented to Canadian policies and practices. However, there are many concepts that can apply elsewhere. The focus is primarily on community tennis operations, a facility where the average community resident and taxpayer can come and play tennis – without substantial initiation or ongoing fee barriers. To us, “community” means everyone. There is an emphasis on the development of partnerships between a community not-for- profit group and the public sector. The primary targets for partnership are local governments, but it could be a University or College. In Canada, community recreation facilities are the jurisdiction of the local Municipality or Regional District or County – with the possibility of funding support from the Province or through Infra-Structure Grants (which are Provincial-Federal-Municipal partnerships). There is an emphasis on indoor tennis facilities but the guide may be useful if you are planning an outdoor facility. The indoor emphasis is because such facilities are so much more cost effective in our Canadian climate at meeting tennis needs on a year round basis. In summary, this Guide is for tennis players and tennis facility advocates who understand that some of their taxes support community recreation facilities and they want to advocate for a community tennis facility as part of this delivery system. It follows that if you are a facility developer (either private or not-for-profit) with the resources to develop a facility without any public partnership funding, the partnership aspect of the Guide is not directed at your requirements. However, you will find sections useful in the construction aspects of developing a facility and, at a minimum, some additional concepts and resources to which you can direct your consultants. Funding for the development of the Finding the Sweet Spot: A Step by Step Guide to Community Tennis Facility Development came from Tennis BC and Tennis Canada. To obtain either a Digital Version (pdf format – no charge) or a Print Copy of this Guide (for a printing and handling cost), please contact Tennis Canada (www.tenniscanada.ca). All groups are permitted to copy material and use charts, tables and quotes from this Guide in any written proposals or presentations they develop to meet their goal of advocating for tennis facilities. How to Use This Guide We start with a four page Overview of the Guide which will likely be of interest to all readers, and will help you choose where to go from there. You may not be part of the primary focus audience for this Guide, and may be looking for help in a few specific parts of the facility development process. Reading the Overview will give you some indication that the information you are seeking is addressed in this Guide, and direct you to those specific sections. (See the tab indicators in the right margin). It is important to cover all the bases when planning and advocating for a new facility, but it is just as important to do things in the right order. As a result, the 14 steps in the four phases are laid out assuming you have either completed the previous step, or that in the specific case of your development process, a previous step does not relate to your scenario and can be skipped. While your provincial Tennis Association and Tennis Canada can usually provide support and good ideas to your project, and often can advise you through the steps, these organizations are not capital funding bodies. For advice and support, it is always a good idea to contact them in the early stages of your particular project to get them on board at the beginning of your process. We hope that following the step by step approach, and using the templates and worksheets in the Appendix, you can gather support and development partnerships to bring a community tennis facility to reality. Appendix H contains a Finding the Sweet Spot Scorecard tool that you can use to track your progress in this challenging process. Good luck! Kevan Tisshaw, Editor Tip: Here are some terms that are used in this Guide Community Tennis Organization: Your group wants a local tennis facility. It may be a local club, a collaboration of more than one club, or simply a group of tennis players that wants to advocate for a new facility. We have shortened it to Your Group for convenience. Community Tennis Facility: The new facility you want to build. Your group might not eventually own it, but it will be a local facility that is available to local citizens who want to play tennis at all levels. It will benefit those players and others in the community. Not-for-profit organization: Different Provinces have slightly different legal entities to house non-profits (e.g. Society Act in B.C.). This not-for-profit organization reference is to any legal entity with aspects such as a registry of members, an elected Board of Directors, By-Laws and a Constitution, financial reporting rules, etc. Please substitute the legal name for similar organizations in your Province or Territory. Your City: Just substitute the name of your community wherever we use this phrase. Table of Contents Is This Guide for You?............................................................................................................................................................ ii How to Use This Guide......................................................................................................................................................... iv Overview: An Appropriate Approach to Facility Development........................................................................................... 1 Step 1 Developing an Effective Community Tennis Organization ........................................................... 8 Assumptions about Your Group............................................................................................................8 Can you Answer These Questions About Your Group? ........................................................................9 Timeline to Completion: Preparing for a Long Journey..........................................................................9 Step 2 Preparing for the Journey: Researching ............................................................................................... 12 Clarifying Public and Private Sector Tennis Interests.......................................................................... 12 Clarifying Partnerships between the Sectors....................................................................................... 14 Is Your Project a Partnership?............................................................................................................ 15 A Public Sector Arrangement ............................................................................................................. 16 Steering Group Role in a P3............................................................................................................... 16 Introduction to the Concept of “Public Good” ...................................................................................... 17 Researching Existing and Future Community Recreation Facilities..................................................... 17 Inventory of Tennis Courts in Your Catchment Area ........................................................................... 19 The Consultation Continuum: from informal advice gathering to formal presentations ......................... 22 Taking Stock at the Completion of this Research Step........................................................................ 23 Step 3 Develop a Statement of Need................................................................................................................... 25 Making the Case for Tennis Delivering a “Public Good” ...................................................................... 25 The List of Public Benefits.................................................................................................................. 26 Customizing Public Good Service Objectives to your Project. ............................................................. 26 Summary of Public Good Attributes as a Lifetime Sport...................................................................... 28 Preparing your Statement of Need ..................................................................................................... 29 Why Year Round Organized Tennis? Top 10 Reasons from Tennis BC.............................................. 30 Step 4 Characterise the Scope of the Facility................................................................................................... 31 Determining a Written Project Scope (Project Vision) ......................................................................... 32 Step 5 Assessing Your Funding Capacity............................................................................................................ 34 Capital Funding Sources for Your Project........................................................................................... 35 In Summary ......................................................................................................................................