Prepared for Delta Air Lines · Global Partnership Marketing · September 2026
Atlanta has the world’s busiest airport, the largest city tennis league in the world, and one professional tennis team named for the climb. We’d like to talk about who flies it.
A partnership proposal · Eight sections, about five minutes
“This one you can have fun.” — in the stands, Atlanta
■ Same city, three records
Delta’s hometown is also the world’s biggest city for league tennis. Every week, tens of thousands of Atlantans play team tennis in leagues that have been running since before the jet age.
Hartsfield-Jackson, as designated by Airports Council International.
To 207 destinations from Atlanta, 61 of them international.
The largest city tennis league in the world, founded in 1934.
USTA Atlanta runs the largest USTA League and Junior Team Tennis programs in the country.
■ Great minds
Delta’s Winter Games campaign described what it shares with Team USA as “a commitment to reaching great heights.” When we named Atlanta’s INTENNSE team, we had the same climb in mind — and the company that made Atlanta the place the world flies through.
Altitude trains at Windy Hill Athletic Club in Cobb County. Its head coach, Marcelo Ferreira, directs the club’s high-performance academy after coaching at Pepperdine and Texas Tech, and in 2025 coached Team Atlanta to the INTENNSE title.
Every INTENNSE team fields three men and three women in the same match, for one team score — which makes it the rare professional sport where women and men are on the same roster, in front of the same crowd, every night.
■ The one that’s missing
Delta has been the Braves’ airline since 1966 and is in the Hawks’ arena, the WNBA, the PGA TOUR and Team USA through LA28. Tennis — the sport Atlanta plays in record numbers — is the one Delta hasn’t claimed.
“Atlanta is Delta’s hometown.”
Emmakate Young · Head of Global Partnership Marketing, Delta · March 2026
Atlanta’s ATP event was retired after 2024, so the city’s only professional tennis season is ours. There is no airline in the category, and no one else in the building.
And the format fits what Delta already backs. Three men and three women on one team is women’s sport and men’s sport at once — the same match, the same broadcast, the same score.
■ Route map
For two seasons the whole league has lived in Atlanta. By 2028 every team moves to a home market of its own — and every one of those markets is a direct flight from ATL.
The markets shown are those in development for 2027 and beyond, and will change as charters close. A league with a home in every market is a league that travels: teams, coaches and officials between cities through the season, fans following their team away, sponsors and guests flying in for Championship Weekend. With Atlanta as the league’s home and its hub, almost every one of those journeys routes through ATL.
■ Climb rate
INTENNSE is the same game at every level, so the climb from a Tuesday league to a professional roster is one continuous route — and Atlanta has more people on the runway than anywhere else.
The professional team. A drafted roster, paid a $40,000 base to compete, up to $70,000 total.
College. Altitude’s pipeline sends players like Mason Taube on to Georgia Tech.
The Challenge Series. An open draw whose winners are drafted onto a team coached by a professional.
Sixty thousand league players and the country’s biggest junior team-tennis program.
■ Flight log, Season 2
Ten teams, eight weeks, fifty-one matches. Season 2 closed on 1 August with Freeze beating Outriders 137–130 in front of a full house.
The Rules of INTENNSE, explained · 2:04
Nearly 8,000 fans through a 500-seat arena.
Record live concurrents across the final series.
Two broadcast, two RSNs, seven FAST, three streaming — 60% of watch time on TV.
Twelve of them came through relationships already in Atlanta.
■ Choose your seat
Own Atlanta’s team, or be the airline of the whole league. Either one is a first for Delta and for tennis — and they fit together.
Atlanta → Atlanta · Ten-year charter
Atlanta → every market · League partner
The two options sit on different sides of the league’s structure — the charter is Atlanta’s team and its local business; the airline partnership is league-wide. Together they would make Delta the name on Atlanta’s team and the way every other team gets to play it.
■ Final approach
We’d love an hour with Delta’s partnership team — at the arena, at Windy Hill with the team, or anywhere near a gate.
And one more seat worth filling: the one in the air. Delta has just brought live sport on board. INTENNSE is built for it — every Arc is time-boxed, so a match starts and finishes inside a flight, and it is made to be watched without knowing the rules of tennis first.
“Live sports bring people together across borders and time zones.”
Ranjan Goswami · Chief Marketing and Product Officer, Delta · 31 August 2026
Altitude’s first home match of 2027, with Delta’s name on it.
The league’s biggest weekend, presented by the city’s biggest name.
Every new home market, launched with the airline that flies there.
Every INTENNSE Arc streamed live and on demand through Delta’s in-flight entertainment — a full match that fits between gate and gate, and a reason to follow a team from seat 23C.
Keep climbing.
