Fiend at Court Unplugged
As I wrote about yesterday in “Mowing the Grassroots of the USTA House“, I have been thinking a lot about the relationship between the USTA national office, the individual USTA sections, the local USTA Community Tennis Associations (CTAs), and the local league players. Today I want to focus very specifically on the CTAs. I suspect that a lot of players are only vaguely aware of CTAs and the purpose they serve in the USTA ecosystem.
In “Raising the Game” Warren Kimball provides a footnote that credits the creation of the concept of a CTA to the USTA Education and Resource (E&R) office. A blueprint was laid out by that organization in 1991 titled “A Plan for Community Tennis Development.” I am actively searching for a way to lay my hands on a copy of that document.
The year of the report makes me think that it might be a little bit of a case of the tail wagging the dog. 1991 was long after the membership boom in the 70’s and 80’s driven by USTA Leagues. Many of the tennis associations that are now registered as CTAs existed long before that report was ever issued.
For example, the Wichita Falls Tennis Association sometimes met in my house in the 70s and 80s when I was a kid. This was before the local tennis centers moved from their cinder block huts into their more modern pro-shop digs. The Dallas Tennis Association was founded in the 1930s. Both organizations are currently registered as CTAs with the USTA.
I can only speculate about why all the historic grassroots tennis associations all transitioned to the USTA CTA structure. What can be stated with more certainty is that they pretty much all did. Fast forward to today, and the benefits of forming or transitioning an organization as a CTA are outlined by the USTA.
If you are a community-based organization that provides tennis programming to the community, you may qualify to become a Community Tennis Association (CTA). As part of the CTA network, your organization may be eligible for benefits ranging from insurance programs to organization development programs. In addition, becoming a registered CTA may open up an array of opportunities to apply for different grants, awards, and programs.
USTA CTA Registration Site [2]
The CTA registration page also provide the basic requirements of a CTA:
- Incorporated
- Geographically defined
- Not-for-profit
- Volunteer based
- Support or provide programs which promote and develop the growth of tennis.
The last bullet point on promoting and developing the growth of tennis is foot stomped on the USTA CTA informational page.
First and foremost, CTAs work to coordinate and maintain tennis programs and services, guaranteeing that they are open and accessible to everyone.
USTA CTA “What is a CTA?” [3]
As USTA works through the restructuring effort that re-imagines the structure of the organization to get closer to players at the local level, the CTAs will clearly serve a critical role. The CTAs are quite literally the link between the USTA and the majority of the players that the organization serves.
CTAs are on the “front lines” of contact with players at the local level. They directly influence and inform player experience. This is a critical piece of the puzzle of any efforts to grow participation in the game. To co-opt a phrase that has been in other areas of the news recently, we need to live in a world where CTAs perform their mission with a pure heart and the best of intentions.
- Kimball, Warren F (2017) The United States Tennis Association: Raising the Game, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, Nebraska.
- “Welcome to the 2020 CTA Registration Site,” https://ct.usta.com/cta/, viewed July 3, 2020.
- “Community Tennis Associations: What is a CTA?”, https://www.usta.com/en/home/organize/partner-organizations/national/what-is-a-cta-.html, viewed July 3, 2020.
