Title: The Inner Workings of Minor League Professional Tennis

Transcription

1 Date: October 3, 2015 Title: The Inner Workings of Minor League Professional Tennis This project provides a resource for the devout fan to follow to lower levels of professional tennis. It will aggregate media reports, provide result updates, and links to player websites to provide a one stop shop for the avid tennis fan, other players, and industry participants to get up to date results and original content. Submitted by: DJ McCall

2 Contents: 1. The website is intended to become a resource for tennis players and fans alike to keep up with the fast paced world of pro tennis. It will spread awareness of the talented players who are seeking to become household names before they break onto the main tour and galvanize support for the players who are not covered by the mainstream media at major events during the year. 2. A) Users will be able to identify the the development pathway beginning professionals must follow to play in Grand Slam tournaments. B) Participants will be able to expand upon the distinctions between the futures, challengers, and club tennis circuits that comprise the competitive structure of the development pathway. C) The audience will be able to easily access information about and results from the futures and challenger circuits of the ATP World Tour. D) Users will be able to identify and more easily support/follow young players while they are working their way up to the main tour. E) The increased visibility of these younger players will enable them to create larger fan bases at an earlier stage enhancing their marketability and earnings potential. 3. The target audience for Minor League Pro Tennis will be tennis enthusiasts, professional, junior, and collegiate players, as well as sponsors and other interested industry representatives. Initially, the goal is to attract those who have a keen interest in our niche. However, the ultimate goal is to attract casual fans and players to cultivate interest in the circuit s players, events, and the sport as a whole. 4. The topic of the project is the minor league professional tennis tours, specifically the futures and challenger circuits. The site will provide a comprehensive introduction into the circuits, outline the development pathway to the ATP World, profile a few emerging players, and provide result updates. The introduction will cover the competitive structures of the tours and clearly explain how success propels a player into successively higher levels ultimately culminating into participation at the Grand Slam Events. The profiles will provide insight into the rigors of playing professionally and their daily commitment to improving their craft. Finally, the site will aggregate the results from the tours onto a single platform so that users no longer have to switch back and forth between the tours respective websites to follow their favorite players. 5. I intend to create a site will create a minimalist layout with black and charcoal colors against which white text will be juxtaposed for all links and designed graphics. Content will use a more traditional news article structure of white background with black text surrounded by a black border. The website will be accented by colorful action shots of the players and tournaments profiled. The intention behind this color scheme and design is to draw attention to the content provided on the site and physically represent the ascent from darkness that mirrors the trajectory of the players careers. The juxtaposition between the dark minimalist design and the videos of competition are

3 meant to emphasize the intensity of the play and the urgency of these players to continually progress towards the higher levels of the game. The home page will begin with a video introducing the visitor to the futures circuit in the US the USTA ProCircuit and will again emphasize the theme of intense competition. To the left of the video will be an easy to navigate vertical menu bar containing portals to the other pages on the cite, while a live results section will be on the right- hand side of the video. Below, there will be an Introduction introducing viewers to the cite and the tour, which will hopefully entice the viewer to explore site further following the captivating introductory video. (See Below for Information Architecture) 6. Given our small primary target audience, we will first measure success by penetration into this initial market. Given the close nature of the tennis community I feel this may be best measured by direct personal feedback and the number of visitors to the page following an initial launch to a closed audience. If only released to a number of individuals, I would be able to request critical feedback and consider how I may improve the website to address the needs of the initial users. After the public launch, I could then use a web- analytics platform to see the behavior patterns of users and tweak the cite to best serve the needs of any particular group of users.

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5 Element List Introductory Video from USTA Procircuit Vertical Menu Bar Latest Results Schedule Text Introduction to Circuit/Site Picture of Player 1 Competition Video of Player 1 Interview Video of Player 1 Complementary Biographical Article Picture of Player 2 Competition Video of Player 2 Interview Video of Player 2 Complementary Biographical Article Links to Result Pages Live Score Applet Weekly Result Write- up Links to other Result Write- ups Links to Tour Websites Tournament Live- Streaming Links Resource List Intro Video: Tennis/Pro- Circuit/ Results Links/Tour Websites: Tennis/Pro- Circuit/2015_mens_pro_circuit_tournaments results/world- group.aspx challenger- tour All Player Pictures/Videos from: Other write- ups: sets- content- is- on- the- move/?_r=0 Live Score Applet: en&ref=http%3a// LiveStreaming: live- streaming

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