Downward Spiral of Prizes in Road Tennis Tournaments: Insights from Professional Road Tennis Association CEO Dale Clarke

Road tennis tournaments with lucrative prizes for the winners are on a downward spiral, according to Dale Clarke, the chief executive officer and founder of the Professional Road Tennis Association (PRTA).

Clarke transformed Barbados’ only indigenous sport with tournaments such as the Monarchs of the Courts, and the RT13 Challenge.

Before Clarke got involved in promoting road tennis tournaments, the winners of the competitions received around $300 and a trophy.

Clarke sought sponsorship to increase the prize money and set up seating around the courts at tournament venues to give them a more professional look.

The winner of the inaugural Monarchs of the Courts tournament in 2014, Antoine Lil Man Daniel, won $10 000. Two years later, Mark Venom Griffith drove away with a car valued at $65 000 after winning the third edition of the tournament.

In 2017, Julian Michael Jackson White and Sheldene Walrond, the winners of the men’s and women’s titles respectively, won cars that were worth a combined value of $140 000.

“I believe that road tennis is taking a nosedive backwards,” Clarke told Barbados TODAY. “Before COVID-19, there were about four major tournaments offering prize money of over $150 000; now, there is only one such tournament. I cautioned the Ministry of Sports and the National Sports Council that their method of involvement in road tennis should be one of facilitating and not the staging of tournaments.”

Clarke stressed that the pool of sponsors is extremely small and it is difficult for organizations like the PRTA to compete with the government for sponsorship to promote tournaments. He however made it clear that the government was not completely to blame for the decrease in the tournaments.

“The government is not solely to blame for the decline of the tournaments, there are other stakeholders and tournament organizers that helped with the demise of the progress,” he said. “I was privileged to study marketing, so I am aware of the return on investment a sponsor receives when they are associated with events, especially successful ones.

‘The PRTA built the sport to a level where we could negotiate Barbados to get some serious sponsorship to elevate the sport. Other organisations and promoters approached the same sponsors with proposals that were less than the PRTA were asking for without understanding the ROI the sponsor would receive.

“I cannot blame the sponsors for accepting the cheaper offers, but on the flip side, this means that the lucrative prizes will be a thing of the past.”