By Adeyemi Robinson-Adefioye, Lagos
Tennis is big business the World over , the game itself and the administrative aspect including running the clubs are important commercial entities which must be taken seriously, this according to Barrister Kolade Olutekunbi a member of the Lagos Lawn Tennis club 1895 and a Presidential candidate for the forth-coming elections.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with www.sunrisetimes.com.ng, Barrister Olutekunbi said his mission to run for the presidency of the club is borne out of a desire to move the club to another dimension adding that the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club 1895; the oldest club by no means in this part of the World which has out lived lots of prominent Nigerians including government officials.
Barrister Olutekunbi hinted that Lagos Lawn tennis Club is a place of convergence of people of high integrity who takes the game of Tennis as a major sport . He explained that apart from being a Social club, it is also a centre for recreation and sports development.
The former Secretary of the club emphasizing on the club ‘s infrastructures, said if elected the president of the club, he and his team would put more emphasis on infrastructure development and focus more on the club’s tennis courts .
He described Lagos Tennis club’s courts as the best in Africa citing the Lord Rumens Center Courts as the cynosure of all eyes which if elected President he intends to give a further facelift and an uncommon corporate branding .
His words: “As a candidate like other candidates, the mission is to move this club forward, this is the oldest club by no means in this part of the region, it was founded in 1895 and it has out leaved a lot of prominent and notable government officials and also prominent Nigerians. This is a club where you have the cooperation of the people of high integrity, people who have taken lawn tennis as their main sports, there are other sports activities here .
“This club has been very lucky with our past Presidents and the current president Prince Ademola Akin Taylor is doing well also. No doubt infrastructural development is the key issue in the club and by the grace of God if God give us the opportunity to serve, we will put more emphasis on infrastructures, what I mean by infrastructure is to focus more on our tennis courts.
“The tennis courts we have here are the best in Africa, you will recall that this club use to host the likes of Arthur Ashe in those days, we have hosted Serena and Venus Williams sisters in this arena.
“Our center court is a cynosure of all eyes, we are going to brand it, we are going to look for corporate branding, this is a place where corporate organization should be struggling to brand .
“Our premises is a neighbourhood to the Governor’s official residents, this place is not just an arena, it is an arena with historical situation, we have the past Presidents who have been Governor generals of the then Northern and Southern regions before we have the amalgamation in 1914 of Nigeria states and since then we have been having the Governor Generals of Nigeria as the President of the club.
“ The location of the club depicts that, It is just directly behind the official resident of the Governor General, this club is not a club that nobody can really lay claim to that as to title or ownership, we are fortunate and very lucky that we inherited the good fortunes from the struggles and goodwill of our forefathers .
“What we intends to do is to build on their missions, to make this place a friendly place where sports would be promoted, where fraternities would also be encouraged, where we would assist each other, our mission is going to focus more on that.
“We are going to look into all aspect of the club, both in snooker section, the board section, the squash section, and the gym section. We are going to look into all these and ensure that we have world Class facilities”.
According to Olutekunbi, the Club is hosts to the yearly ATP features Governor’s Tennis Cup now called the Nigerian Open but due to Covid-19 pandemic the club was unable to host last year’s edition but plans are on ground to host this year’s edition of the ATP tournament.
The Presidential hopeful added they cannot afford not to improve the facilities of the club to meet with world standard as this is more of his focus.
