Intercollegiate Tennis, UNM are taking a fan-friendly approach
Making college tennis great again. It’s a movement. And no, it has nothing to do with presidential politics — although a reality show’s not out of the question.
As far as showing live tennis, that is.
Making college tennis great for spectators is the goal of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, and New Mexico men’s tennis coach Bart Scott and his assistant coaches Ben Dunbar and Johnny Parkes are doing what they can to help the movement.
Especially in Albuquerque.
“It’s all about making everything fan-friendly,” Scott said. “I’m on the ITA committee and the NCAA championship committee, and the whole idea has been to put a product out there that will attract more fans, and maybe even TV and sponsorship down the road.
“We’re trying to shorten matches and make it more of an event the way volleyball has seen success switching the side-out scoring to where every point counts. The matches are intense; they’re crazy. Five sets can be done in two hours, and that’s what we’re doing with tennis. Now, a lot of our matches are less than two hours.”
Scott said all of last year’s Mountain West Conference championship matches — played at UNM’s new McKinnon Family Tennis Center — were streamed live across the world.
“We had color commentator analysts, four cameras and live streamed all over world,” Scott said.
His hope is to stream more Lobo matches down the road.
The school’s McKinnon Family Tennis Center was built with Ian and Sonnet McKinnon’s $7.5 million donation in 2011 — with $1.2 million going to the tennis programs and $300,000 to establish an endowment for scholarships or internships in honor of brothers Alan and Loren Dils.
The McKinnons (Sonnet, maiden name Goodenough) were raised in Albuquerque and were extremely involved in local tennis.
“(It’s) an incredible complex for our tennis teams,” said UNM athletic director Paul Krebs. “We are grateful for the support of Ian and Sonnet, as well as many other donors who made this dream a reality. We believe it is the first UNM athletic facility built entirely with private funds. It ranks among the top tennis facilities in the country and was recently recognized by the USTA.”
Loren Dils is a former men’s assistant coach who retired as director of the Lobo Tennis Club and is battling ALS. His brother, Alan Dils, was the longtime head coach of the men’s team. Alan stepped down after the 2013-14 season, and Scott, a former UNM player and assistant with the program for seven years, took over.
Scott, Dunbar and Parkes — former Lobo players — look to showcase some of the new philosophies this weekend in the team’s key matches against Boise State today and Utah State on Sunday and hope for large turnouts to watch the new age of college tennis.
There are seven points available in a college tennis match, six in singles and one in doubles.
There are three doubles matches, and whichever school wins two of them gets one point. There used to be three points available in doubles.
The six singles matches follow and once a team has totaled four points (winning doubles and three singles, for example), the overall match ends. Even if other individual matches haven’t finished, they are suspended.
Prior to last season, all individual matches would be completed — even if a team had clinched the overall match.
“There are coaches who are going to say differently, but it’s my opinion that once the match is over, once one team has defeated the other, stop the match,” Scott said.
Added Dunbar, “Crowd-wise, it gives the fans a chance to celebrate with the team after a victory. When it’s a 4-0 win and there are still match- es playing, the crowd really doesn’t know what to do. They want to celebrate with the team, but there’s that awkwardness because they still see, maybe, three matches playing, and they don’t really know what to do.”
One of the other huge differences in no-ad scoring.
Once a game goes to deuce (40-40), the next point decides the game. There is no longer the need to win a game by two points.
On top of those rules, Scott and Dunbar are adding plenty of extras to enhance the fan experience at home matches, such as:
Free food and bottled water for spectators.
A public address announcer to broadcast the participants and results of each match, and the team score to keep fans informed.
Music. There is no fee to attend Lobo tennis matches unless there is a baseball and/or softball game at the same time. Admission is then $5 to watch any or all of the events.
“We bank on the carryover,” Scott said. “Maybe people show up for one of the games and gets a taste of another, sort of by accident. Then they may plan to come to a match even if baseball isn’t playing, or vice versa. A true tennis aficionado comes for a match and gets a taste of baseball or softball, and then they get hooked and come for a game even if tennis isn’t playing.”
Scott and Dunbar said the McKinnons’ gift was incredible, and there is plenty of other great community support for tennis in Albuquerque.
Dunbar said that Albuquerqueans Alicia Feil Peterson and Lorri Brunacini are working on an end-of-season public banquet for the team that will help fundraising. “They want to jazz it up and make it more than just our team getting together after the season,” Dunbar said. “They’re helping us get the audience.
“There is some great support out there in the community, and a lot of people are starting to rally around the team.”