Tennis News You Can Use
This week’s episode of the TENNIS.com Podcast carried an interview with WTA player Julia Elbaba. During the opening of the episode, there was discussion between Elbaba and the podcast hosts on coping with the recent permanent closure of the USTA Player Development Center in New York. It was news to me to learn that there even was such a program at that location. In addition to the recently closed USTA Training Center East in Flushing, New York, there are two other locations. One is at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida and the other is in Carson, California.
Elbaba mentioned that she learned of the closure of the USTA Training Center East the night before her birthday on a Zoom meeting that involved all the directors, coaches, and players at that site. This puts the date of the call on June 12, which is about a week later than the initial restructuring of the USTA that I wrote about in “Job Cuts at the USTA.”
The last day of operation for the USTA Training Center East was July 31. According to Elbaba, the reason for the closure provided during the meeting was purely financial. Co-host Irina Falconi also mentioned that her coach and trainer had been laid off by the USTA in this recent wave.
Armed with those details from the podcast, I assumed that it would be easy to find news of the closure. I searched through the official news posts from the USTA, and found nothing on the site relating to any recent changes in the player development program. News of the closure was also not picked up in any of the major media sources or regional media in New York from what I could find.
Eventually I stumbled upon the OpenCourt website which carried an article where author Stephanie Myles had taken a deep look at the USTA cuts as they pertain to the player development program. Also hosted on OpenCourt is the full text version of the press release issued by the USTA when the restructuring was initially announced. In that release “consolidation” of player development programs was announced.
The press release mentioned that the new strategic plan was developed over an 18-month process that culminated against five strategic choices:
- Attract, Engage and Retain a New Generation of Diverse Tennis Participants
- Lead Industry-Wide Improvements to the Tennis Delivery System, Provider Education, and Consumer Experiences
- Build and Optimize Best in Class Digital Infrastructure and Platforms
- Ensure Continued Financial Growth and Performance
- Collaborate Within the USTA & Tennis Ecosystem for the Common Good of Tennis
Having five pillars spelled out is much more enlightening about what the USTA is attempting to accomplish strategically. In fact I had already gravitated to some of the same terminology before seeing these 5 pillars in detail. I am sure that I will examine each of these threads in more detail in the future.
From the USTA National 2018 IRS Form 990, Player Development was the largest grant issued by the USTA coming in at just under $20 million dollars. With a share of the budget that large, it would have been unrealistic to expect that Player Development would go unscathed throughout the restructuring process.
My discovery of the article on OpenCourt has prompted me to make some updates on my Tennis Technology Tuesday post which I had already drafted. Tomorrow we talk about some of the inherent flaws with TennisLink.
- “Julia Elbaba on keeping her pro dreams alive,” TENNIS.com Podcast, July 28, 2020.
- “USTA Player Development National Training Centers,” http://www.playerdevelopment.usta.com/RegionalTrainingCenters/, viewed 8/2/2020
- “USTA transformational plan means major job cuts,” Steph Myles, Open Court Website, viewed 8/2/2020.
- USTA Announces Sweeping Plan to Reorganize and Prioritize Its Structure, Events, and Activities to Grow the Game and Service the Broader Tennis Industry, USTA Official Press Release, hosted on Open Court website, viewed 8/2/2020.
- United States Tennis Association, IRS Form 990, 2018.
