IRT under new leadership

The big racquetball news of the summer came last month with the announcement that E.J. Promotions purchased the International Racquetball Tour (IRT). The IRT is the longest running men’s professional racquetball tour, and was under the leadership of Jason Mannino, who had been its leader since 2009.

Who is E.J. Promotions?

E.J. Promotions is an investor group led by John Scott, who started the IRT Network in 2010. The Racquetball Blog recently interviewed Scott on this development. Scott said that he and Mannino had talked about the IRT Network taking over the IRT in the past, but Scott felt the timing wasn’t right. But the more Scott thought about it the more it made sense to him to align the broadcasting more closely with the tour. Also, he has put together a group of successful business people to back him. Scott stressed that the investment group are “business people who like racquetball, rather than racquetball people who like business,” which is an important distinction for him.

Scott had “strategic purposes both business wise and geographically” for selecting people to help him, as he wanted to have people in different parts of the United States. This led to him partner with Rick Betts and Cindy Tilbury in California, Sal and Dee Perconti in Florida, Dean Bear in New York and Robert Blumenshine in Missouri. Each member of the group brings different business skills to the table to help make the IRT successful. Mannino is still consulted from time to time - currently about one a week according to Scott - but Mannino has no ownership or management role.

Scott is motivated by a desire to grow racquetball in general, so he is looking for ways to put the tour in front of more people and is developing marketing strategies that will benefit both the tour and its players, as well as racquetball in general. Thus, he’s more focussed on off court developments than on court changes.

For example, Scott plans a junior player incentive program that will bring local kids to IRT events to showcase racquetball to them, so they are introduced to the sport to see how fun and exciting it can be. The idea would be that these kids would be provided with some equipment as well, and trial memberships at the facility hosting the IRT event, so they would have reason and opportunity to start playing racquetball.

Scott wants to put racquetball in front of more people, and to go to where people are. Asked if that means using the portable court more, Scott said he’d like to see the portable court used more, but the cost of using it, which is now only used for the US Open, makes it difficult to do. Nonetheless, he said it was a possibility and even without it, they are working on bringing racquetball to the masses.

What about the WRT?

For many years, the IRT was the only men’s pro tour, but in 2012 the World Racquetball Tour (WRT) began with the idea of creating opportunities for younger players. The Racquetball Blog asked Scott about the WRT. He said the reasoning for creating the WRT was “admirable,” although Scott wishes the same goals could have been achieved in a different way.

Scott feels that while racquetball has a good foundation often racquetball organizations have worked against each other in trying to achieve the same goals. He would like to unite the sport, so Scott feels it would be inconsistent to have that goal, and say “except for the WRT.”

Thus, Scott acknowledges the “WRT is there,” and it’s a competitor to the IRT, which he doesn’t like, because he wants to “work with them.” They have reached out to the WRT through Gearbox and its owner Rafael Filippini and they are to the point of setting up a time for the new IRT ownership group to meet with the WRT and discuss the situation and what can be done to move forward and how they can work together.

Scott is “very interested in working with the WRT. That’s my goal. If we can make that happen, fantastic! But if we can’t, then that’s too bad, and we will continue to work to be the better tour.”

Will there be changes on court?

There are 10 Tier 1 or Grand Slam tournaments on the IRT schedule for the coming 2017-18 season, and Scott feels that’s a good number, although 13 is the goal for the season, so some events could be added. In general, he’d like 13-15 Tier 1 or Grand Slam events over the season. The tournament format with the top 8 seeds put into the Round of 16 and other players qualifying for the 16s that the IRT has used for many years now will continue for this season at least. That may change going forward, but the players will continue to have input when considering such changes.

Asked about how the players have greeted the IRT ownership change, Scott said “it’s been pretty positive. Not one person [has been] worried about it,” and most have been “excited” about the change and opportunities.

Also, Scott is looking to set up a “Futures” draw that would be a second event for players outside the top 8. This Futures draw could be singles or doubles, but would have prize money and the chance to get IRT ranking points. Thus, it would be a way for up and coming players to benefit more from playing in an IRT event than simply the main IRT draw. Scott’s going to have a trial period of five Futures events and then assess how to move forward with it.

Where will the IRT be in 5 years?

Scott has ambitious 5 year goals. Their season targets are 3 Grand Slams with 13 Tier 1 events, so 16 total events per season. Moreover, they want to be a national platform with a broadcasting company.

Moreover, Scott wants racquetball to not be the sport people used to play, and he wants to stop having people’s first reaction be “that thing still exists?” when they hear the of racquetball. Scott’s looking to make racquetball the household word it used to be.

In summary, Scott is very enthusiastic about the future of the IRT and racquetball in general. He's got big goals, but Scott isn't in this alone, and has been on the scene for several years, so he's aware of what's involved. We're very interested to see where Scott and his group are going to take the IRT and how racquetball will develop in the near future.

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