PRESIDENT OF Tennis Jamaica John Azar revealed that the national association is currently in advanced talks to secure a location for its new headquarters. Azar made the announcement at the launch of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) World Tennis Tour M15000 tournament to be hosted in Jamaica

While speaking at the tournament’s launch yesterday at the Liguanea Club, Azar said Tennis Jamaica has made plans to build new headquarters to improve Jamaica’s chances of hosting more international tennis tournaments.

According to Azar, should the association continue their mission of ensuring tennis becomes a viable sport in the island, they will need a new headquarters to ensure that Jamaica is able to facilitate such growth.

As such, Azar revealed that the association was in advanced stages in securing a location for its new headquarters. He expects that Tennis Jamaica will be able to broker a deal with a timeframe of the next few months.

“I would say that they are in an advanced stage,” he explained.

“Hopefully, within the next couple weeks, at longest couple months, we’ll be able to make a firm announcement on that along with the timeline for start and a timeline for completion.”

The new headquarters will also provide a world-class environment for Jamaican players and a boost to the sport’s standing globally.

He said the plans for a new headquarters will include larger facilities for the national association, but also more facilities to host international matches on a regularly basis.

“If we’re really looking to host events like this, men’s and women’s simultaneously, week in and week out, then we need a larger facility with more courts and stadium courts. We need to build a state-of-the-art facility, which will, hopefully, become the centrepiece in not only Jamaica, but also the region.”

While he remains silent on the desired location for the facility, Azar revealed that Tennis Jamaica had already secured the funding needed for the project.

He said whereas others have sought to secure a location before seeking funding, Tennis Jamaica felt it was a more efficient route to ensure that the funds would be available before moving to the next stage of their plans.

“We have definitely identified a location, but I’m not going to jinx it,” he said. “Many times people make plans and then seek funding, but we have kind of done the reverse. For better or worse, we have taken that route for our approach. So we’ve secured the lion’s share of the funding. We’re just now tying down the agreement.”