When, how and why did you think of starting the company?
We started off as Bulldog Tennis Academy in 2007, with the intention of teaching tennis to children in the neighbourhood.
I was at a tennis court in the locality at 4 pm on a weekday and was surprised — there was no one to play, no child using the facility. From there, the business grew into a sports management and sports infrastructure development company as we started servicing the various sport-related requirements of our clients.
Tell us about the unique features of your company.
We provide turnkey options to non-sport companies with good intent to condition them towards sports with ideas around intelligent sports and fitness infrastructure and health engagement activities in workspaces.
And it really helps that our average team age is twenty-four. So several fresh ideas pour in to energise us.
Our team truly believes in the benefit of sports and does 100 per cent on promoting it in the community tirelessly.
You seem to have several entities within one umbrella — retail, tourism...Tell us about them.
Yes, Bulldog Sportz Management is the parent company of Bulldog Tennis Academy, Bulldog Events, Sports Supply Co, Bulldog Fitness, Sport-trotter, String Mechanic, American College Tennis and Spain Tennis.
Bulldog Tennis Academy is a five-clay court facility in South Bangalore, with satellite centres at several condos and clubs. Our students are aged between 4 and 61 years.
Bulldog Events is the sport events management wing of Bulldog Sportz Management. Some of the events we conduct are Puppy Tennis Competition (Red and Orange) promotes competitive tennis among kids aged under 8 and under 10.
Weekend classic promotes competitive tennis among adults AITA talent series.
Inter-corporate Tennis Championship (ICTC) promotes competitive tennis among corporates and oraganisations Bulldog Ultra BCB- A cycling competition flagging off from Bangalore, to Chamundi and back.
Sports Supply Co: Sports infrastructure construction and sports equipment retail business of Bulldog Sportz.
We are the exclusive distributors for some of the most progressive and intelligent sports and outdoor products in the market.
Sport-Trotter: Tourism wing of Bulldog Sportz that aims to promote sports tourism .
American College Tennis helps student tennis athletes successfully navigate the American College recruitment process by providing them with the correct information and exposure.
Spain Tennis: A product of collaboration with Barcelona Total Tennis, Spain and Bulldog Sportz Management, it provides world-class tennis coaching and player assessment from some of the best coaches in the world.
String Mechanic caters to the stringing requirement of all racquet sports throughout Bangalore
Comment on the sports infrastructure in Bangalore and what more should be done. Is the government proactive?
There is tremendous scope for more infrastructure in the city.
There has to be more development for promoting sports to the youngsters; it not only gives them an opportunity to get good at sports but also keeps their minds occupied, reducing the chances of associating with the negative elements attracted to an idle mind.
Each neighbourhood requires a quality facility where the community can participate. The participation should not be restricted to young kids only but should have provision for men and women of all age groups appropriately thought about and designed at the concept stage.
Sure, the government has made open spaces available to public to utilise, but a good initiative would be to provide more focus driven facilities and staff to bring out the best of the young community .
One of the reasons people in the west and developed South-East Asian countries are so fit is because they spend more time outdoors than we do in India.
The parks and sports facilities in these countries are intelligently constructed to suit the exercise needs of the various age groups.
In the same field/facility you may find kids playing soccer/cricket etc, and in the same vicinity you may find senior citizens doing their stretches/squats and other body conditioning exercises in an outdoor multi gym that's safe and scientifically tested.