New Florida Tennis Management Division to Help Struggling Public Facilities

By Robert Hollis, USTA Florida volunteer president

The USTA Florida Board of Directors in June unanimously approved the creation of a new Tennis Management Division, aimed at helping improve public tennis facilities across the state. The division will be led by a new director of tennis management and will focus on working with municipalities that are struggling to maintain quality public tennis facilities and programs.

The new division will operate out of the USTA Florida’s new headquarters adjacent to the USTA National Campus at Lake Nona in Orlando. Additionally, the board of directors approved funding for the director position and negotiations to manage one public facility by the end of the year, with the expectations that several more facilities will come under the USTA Florida umbrella in 2018.

Over the past few years we have received calls from several cities across the state that have asked our section if we could assist with the management of their public tennis centers. After seeing many of those public facilities struggle and face possible closure, we felt it crucial to our mission that we put the pieces in place to help improve these facilities. We made this our number one strategic priority when we started this year’s agenda. We assigned a project team and they have worked diligently to create the USTA Florida Tennis Management Division, and now we are ready to move forward.

USTA Florida Executive Director Doug Booth said, “We want to work with communities who are as committed to the success of the tennis center as we are. Each partnership will be unique. We are not in this to make money; we are in this to deliver high-quality tennis programs and to ensure tennis grows in local communities for future generations.”

USPTA National President Chuck Gill added, “Having USTA Florida take on this role will benefit our entire industry. It will create more opportunities for good, quality certified teaching professionals to run these public facilities. The partnership between USPTA and USTA Florida is uniquely positioned to realize these goals.” Gill is also a member of the USTA Florida Board of Directors and also served on this project team.

Speaking of partnerships, the USTA Florida Section and USPTA Florida Division recently signed a partnership agreement at a joint meeting to enhance both groups commitment to growing the game together. For many years both organizations have been working closely together, and with this new partnership agreement we have streamlined our focus to insure that we will continue working together toward promoting key initiatives and programs that will grow the game. I would like to thank

USPTA Florida Division President Trish Faulkner and her board, and the USTA Florida Section board and staff who worked on this new agreement. Together we will promote and develop the growth of tennis in Florida!