18(a) Describe the mission/purpose of your proposed gTLD

Prototypical answer:

The sport of tennis boasts a passionate worldwide community deeply immersed in the game from the grassroots to the professional level. Everything from racquets and coaching tips to stringing and local leagues are closely followed by fans and players from America to Zimbabwe.

Yet, tennis has been lacking a unique online identity to separate and distinguish itself from other sports. In building the .tennis gTLD, Washington Team Tennis intends to provide the sport with a powerful namespace that its many stakeholders can call their own.

Tennis has a global presence, touching the lives of tens of millions of people worldwide. In the U.S. alone, a recent annual study by the Tennis Industry Association (TIA) showed that more than 30 million Americans played tennis on one of more than 120,000 courts. The United States Tennis Association (USTA) boasts more than 750,000 members nationwide, while coachesʹ organizations United States Professional Tennis Association (USPTA), Professional Tennis Registry (PTR) and the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) have a combined membership greater than 30,000. Factor in the governing bodies of tennis -- the ITF, WTA and ATP World Tour -- as well as more than 200 national tennis organizations around the world, and there is a virtually limitless market of tennis players, coaches, academies, and clothing and racquet companies that would be attracted to a personalized .tennis web address.

We see the .tennis registry serving as the centerpiece for a worldwide tennis network, providing a cohesive and more secure namespace for participants, fans, coaches, clubs, recreational teams, equipment and accessories manufacturers, marketers, vendors and others to sell and buy services and products, while professional players and tournaments market themselves to audiences from all regions. In this manner, members of the tennis community would have an Internet home all their own, distinguishing themselves from competitors in other sports and entertainment genres.

A .tennis domain name would provide a more intuitive and memorable way for individuals and organizations involved in the sport to clarify their affiliation without a lengthy or complicated URL structure. In this ever-changing online world in which social networks have expanded the reach of individuals and organizations far beyond traditional websites ever had, a new concept such as .tennis has great potential to attract both new online participants and existing ones. The .tennis gTLD would shrink the enormity of the world wide web to a more focused set of tennis-related entities, creating an exclusive club for all things tennis that even social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have been unable to do.

With its proven track record in developing and successfully growing, in a very short period of time, one of the hottest current tennis properties, Washington Team Tennis is very well positioned to start, grow and operate the .tennis gTLD.

Washington Team Tennis’ principal owner Mark Ein is a highly-successful entrepreneur and investor who created the Washington Kastles professional tennis team from scratch in 2008. Through a heavy investment in creative marketing and a broad set of strategic partnerships, the team has shattered the revenue marks of comparable and much more well-established tennis properties, and has become well known for its success on and off the court.

On the tennis court, the Kastlesʹ lineup features world-renowned players like Venus and Serena Williams and, in 2011, the Kastles became the first team in the 36-year history of World TeamTennis to complete a perfect season. But more importantly, off the court the Kastles have catalyzed the local community, attracting thousands of new people to the game of tennis and drawing sell-out crowds to a majority of their matches since their founding. This success has come with a heavy investment of time and capital, but the result has been the establishment of an organization, a global set of partnerships and a brand that is now being leveraged as the company expands into new related areas.

Outside of his tennis activities, Mark Einʹs background has been that of a company builder and growth-oriented investor for over 20 years. He is currently the CEO of Venturehouse Group, a leading strategic growth capital investment firm that he founded in 1999. Under Markʹs leadership, Venturehouse has founded, funded and helped build a number of prominent and industry-leading Internet, technology and telecommunications companies, including XM Satellite Radio, Cibernet and Matrics. Earlier in his career, Mark worked for leading investment firms The Carlyle Group (founded 1987) and Brentwood Associates (founded 1972), where he was an early investor in a number of companies that became part of multi-billion dollar businesses, including Nextel and American Tower.

The explosive growth of Washington Team Tennis in just four years has largely been a product of the partnership model of business, in which we have worked openly and transparently with all segments of the tennis community to gain their trust, build a brand, and attract a broad and diverse set of new and existing tennis enthusiasts. We would use the same business philosophy to build the .tennis gTLD. With the capital, experience, reputation and track record of owner Mark Ein and his team at Washington Team Tennis, this .tennis gTLD has the potential to grow into one of the most important and central resources for the global tennis community.

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