Varsity Tennis Center
CAPACITY: Indoor 632; Outdoor 600
CONSTRUCTED: 1997
FACILTY NAMES:
Indoor: Preston Robert Tisch Building
Outdoor: William Clay Ford Outdoor Courts
FIRST EVENTS (Indoor):
Men: March 29, 1997 (U-M 7, Ohio State 0)
Women: February 15, 1997 (U-M 9, Western Michigan 0)
The University of Michigan Varsity Tennis Center is located on a 22-acre parcel of land on South State Street just south of the University of Michigan Golf Course. Completed in 1997, the $6 million indoor and outdoor complex provides the Wolverine tennis programs with a state-of-the-art on-campus training and competition site that is an excellent recruiting tool, and a premier and nationally competitive facility to nurture Michigan tennis players for many more decades to come.
The indoor facility -- named the Preston Robert Tisch Building after the late New York Giants owner and a prime contributor to the facility -- accommodates eight indoor courts. Each court is located 20 feet apart with 24 feet from baseline to curtain. The clean lines of the reflective ceiling and the uniformity of the lighting are textbook examples of indoor court lighting. Using 16 lights per court, the facility lighting produces an average of 165 foot-candles, more than average to host television coverage. These characteristics were key in earning the indoor courts the prestigious "Court of the Year Award" in 2000 presented by Tennis Industry magazine. The indoor building also contains coaches' offices, meeting rooms, training and locker facilities for the teams and the public, and a museum portraying the storied history of Michigan tennis.
The outdoor facility is named after William Clay Ford, a Michigan alumnus and owner/president of the NFL's Detroit Lions, who helped begin the fundraising campaign for the facility with a $1 million donation. The outdoor facility consists of 12 championship caliber courts with seating for 600 spectators.
The Varsity Tennis Center has undergone a number of extensive upgrades over the past five years, including the addition of indoor and outdoor electronic scoreboards, individual video cameras on each indoor court, and new indoor and outdoor audio systems.
The facility has served as the host site for some of the most prestigious intercollegiate events, including the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships (2003-04), the Wilson/ITA Midwest Regional men's (2004-05) and women's (2000) championships, and the Big Ten Conference men's (1999, 2009) and women's (2000) tournaments. In addition to offering excellent facilities for national, regional and conference tournaments, this complex is used to host Michigan tennis camps and the state high school boys and girls championships.
