BEVERLY, Mass. — The owner of the Boston Lobsters professional tennis team said Wednesday he plans to move his team to the North Shore by the time the season starts in July, bringing with him some of the world’s most famous tennis players.

Lobsters’ owner Bahar Uttam said he is considering several locations on the North Shore for the team’s new home, including Ferncroft Country Club in Danvers and Bass River Tennis Club in Beverly. He is also looking at colleges and other tennis clubs on the North Shore but declined to name them.

“It is coming to the area, that’s a given,” Uttam said. “We’re just making a decision on the facility.”

Among the stars who could play for the Lobsters this summer, Uttam said, are Venus and Serena Williams, the sisters who have both been ranked as the No. 1 women’s player in the world, as well as Martina Navratilova and Monica Seles. Venus Williams and Navratilova played for the team last summer.

The Lobsters have played their home matches at Harvard University’s Beren Tennis Center since Uttam bought the team three years ago. But Uttam said he has left Harvard and is anxious to tap into the “large tennis contingency” on the North Shore.

“We looked at the demographics of the people and heard what fans had to say,” he said. “There are a lot of tennis clubs on the North Shore. Those people probably found it a little overwhelming to come into Boston.”

The Lobsters are part of World Team Tennis, the coed professional tennis league founded by Billie Jean King in 1974. The 10 teams play all of their matches during a three-week stretch in July. The Lobsters would play seven matches on the North Shore.

Uttam said he is looking for a location with an outdoor tennis court that can accommodate fans. He said Bass River Tennis Club in Beverly, which has indoor courts, will likely serve as the Lobsters’ home court this summer in the event of rain.

Attendance at Harvard University last year ranged from a low of 700 to a high of 2,700, Uttam said. The more famous the names of the players, the more fans show up, he said.

“We’re certainly planning some star power,” he said. “That’s what certainly draws fans.”

Stadium in Beverly?

Manny Barros, owner of Bass River Tennis Club, said he would like to build an outdoor tennis stadium at his club on Tozer Road and become the full-time home of the Lobsters.

The stadium would need stands for 1,500 fans, parking for 800 cars and lights for the television cameras, he said.

“We’re trying to work it out with the city of Beverly to see if this can get done,” Barros said. “We’re near Route 128, and we’re less than a mile from the train station. It’s kind of exciting for Beverly.”

Barros said he would like to build the outdoor stadium in time for this season, but at the least Bass River would be ready to host the Lobsters’ indoor matches this July.

Ferncroft Country Club would also welcome the Lobsters, said Damon DeVito, managing director of Virginia-based Affinity Golf Management, which bought Ferncroft two years ago.

“I hope it works out,” DeVito said. “Bahar contacted us a few weeks ago and educated us about the Lobsters. I confess I didn’t know a lot about them, but it sounds like a great organization, it sounds like a great league.”

DeVito said his company rehabilitated Ferncroft’s eight outdoor tennis courts over the last two years and installed new lights. He said the Lobsters would put up bleachers to accommodate fans.

DeVito said Ferncroft is in a good location on Route 1 and also has plenty of parking. He pointed to the fact that Ferncroft hosted the Boston Five professional women’s golf tournament in the 1980s and ‘90s that drew 15,000 people per day.

“A lot of clubs just aren’t designed that way,” he said. “They’re usually located in some nook and cranny, not near a highway.”

DeVito said hosting the Lobsters would not be a big moneymaker for Ferncroft, but it would help promote the country club.

“We’ve invested a lot of money in Ferncroft to get it back to be a first-class place,” he said. “We renovated the pool, built a fitness facility. It’s not just golf, golf, golf. We want to let families with kids know they’re welcome here.”

Uttam, who lives in Cambridge, was co-founder of Synetics Corp., a Wakefield technology company with revenues of $50 million when he sold it in 2002. He re-established the Lobsters in 2004 after the team had been dormant since 1978. The Lobsters were owned by Robert Kraft, the current owner of the New England Patriots, in 1977 and ‘78.

Uttam said he had been promoting and marketing the team himself but has hired StarGames, a sports marketing company headed by Jerry Solomon, the husband of figure skater Nancy Kerrigan.

“We’ve got a nice following,” Uttam said. “Four years ago when I mentioned the words ‘Boston Lobster,’ people thought I was in the seafood business. Today they know it’s a tennis team.”





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E-mail him at pleighton@ecnnews.com.



Boston Lobsters

r One of 10 teams in the World Team Tennis league.

r Teams are also in New York (two), Delaware, Sacramento, Springfield (Mo.), Newport Beach, St. Louis, Kansas City and Philadelphia.

r Each team has two men, two women and one coach.

r Martina Navratilova and Venus Williams played for the Lobsters last year.

r Other players in the league included John McEnroe, Anna Kournikova and Pete Sampras.

r Ticket prices range from $20 to $40 on “non-marquee” nights and $25 to $50 on “marquee” nights when a top-named player is scheduled to play.