Intennse, a startup, co-ed, team tennis league, begins its 2026 season on Friday, with 10 Atlanta-based teams competing at a 500-spectator capacity movie studio in Doraville, Georgia from June to August. It is the league’s second season after debuting with three teams in the summer of 2025, which CEO Charles Allen refers as “season zero.”
Allen, Tom Bata — CEO of TripleB Investments, Intennse’s lead backer — and Yannick Yoshizawa, the league’s VP/Industry Relations, founded Intennse two years ago with the goal of bringing a traditional sports viewing experience to tennis. Indeed, the format would be unrecognizable to purists of the sport. Matches feature a running clock and cumulative scoring system. Fans are encouraged to make noise during play, with loud music, T-shirt tosses and other programming akin to a basketball or hockey arena commonplace. And the 80 competing athletes this year, who Allen said on the high end can earn up to $70K between prize money and contract guarantees, are not meant to be recognizable stars — yet — as Intennse focuses on building team affiliation and, in Allen’s words, “creating local heroes.”
“When you look at how [Intennse matches] manifest in our stage where we build our arena, it is a festival experience,” Allen said. “We want people to feel like they belong and are part of the action. We have a very intimate space. Everyone feels like they are an active participant, as opposed to traditional tennis.”
CCOMMERCIALLY MINDED: Early on, Intennse’s primary areas of focus are on sponsorship and ticket sales, according to CCO Nancy MacDonald. The league’s sponsor roster numbers more than a dozen, including brands like Cellairis, Wilson, Vita Coco and iHeart, while ticket packages range from $30 general admission arena passes to $175 on-court seats; bullpen suite ($125) and baseline lounge ($80) access price in between.
Intennse’s media deals, meanwhile, are revenue-share-based, with matches slated to air across an array of local broadcasters (e.g., WANF Atlanta, Peachtree Sports Network), out-of-market RSNs (e.g., Altitude Sports, with talks to add more ongoing) and FAST channels (e.g., Scripps Sports Network, NESN Nation, among others) in addition to Intennse’s YouTube channel. The league manages its broadcast production with an in-house team and partnership with Van Wagner.
SOON TO SCALE: This year, Intennse will stage its schedule of more than 40 matches at the 30,000-square-foot Assembly Studios — an upgrade from the 20,000-square-foot, 230-spectactor capacity studio it worked out of in 2025, but ultimately a short-term home; Allen said Intennse plans to expand to 12 teams in 2027 and play its matches across two “hubs,” then grow further to 18 teams across three hubs in 2028 before transitioning to a fully city based model.
“We’re giving ourselves the runway to create both the relationships and the investment models for the arenas where [city-based teams] will be housed,” Allen said. “Some of those will be places that we will use on a seasonal basis. Some of those will be places that we’re part investors in. There’s a couple of models depending on the different cities.”
Intennse is backed by more than $10M in funding to date and, according to its CFO Oliver Bell, in the process of raising more from a collection of individual investors, which it intends to follow with a Series A. The league, in the $2-3M revenue range this year and hoping to grow to eight figures in 2027, is targeting profitability by 2028, when it will also begin selling management contracts for its teams. Those are currently operated at the league level, but Intennse has amassed a starry roster of minority team investors including NFL HOFer Terrell Owens, WTA star Sloane Stephens, International Tennis HOFers Bob and Mike Bryan, ex-NHLer and Hockey HOFer Martin Brodeur and retired ATP player Diego Schwartzman.
