Yesterday I described the “additional information” collected from a player when entering a USTA tennis tournament. Despite the fact that the USTA already has both of those pieces of data, players are forced to type it in every time. It simply shouldn’t be required. At that point in the entry process, the USTA membership status of the player has been verified as has eligibility for the events entered. Event eligibility hinges on age or NTRP level. In other words, the tournament entry system has accessed a significant amount of personal data on the player up to that point.
The fact that the email address and phone number has to be supplied by the player is either an indication that the data is walled off from the application or sloppy interface design. Another potential cause might be that the data architecture is so unrefined that the USTA simply cannot effectively query for that information. I am kind of leaning toward that as the root cause at the moment.
When I rejoined the USTA as an adult, I supplied my landline phone number. I have made numerous attempts throughout the intervening years to update it to my mobile number which is much more likely to be answered. I have been unsuccessful getting that number to persist in the bowels of the USTA data management system.
It is a real problem in leagues when I captain a team. My phone number is always wrong on the captain’s contact sheet that the USTA publishes. Every year I send a message to all the other captains letting them know of the error. It is annoying to have to do this. It is another sore point that makes me question the underlying structure of the USTA data architecture.
This weekend I have been bemoaning the fact that the USTA doesn’t direct market tennis tournaments to its members. I am wondering if the data that the USTA has stored even allows them to effectively do that. Quite frankly I think that every USTA member should receive a weekly summary of events within a 100 mile radius of the mailing address that the USTA has on file for the player. That would be relatively straight foward to do.
I would also want the ability to subscribe to notifications about all tournaments based on individual criteria. I personally would like to be informed about all Senior Women’s Level 1 and Level 2 tournaments, regardless of the location. Similarly, I would also like to be notified of all adult tournaments in my USTA section.
I am starting to suspect that the USTA doesn’t market tournaments to its members because it doesn’t not have the data structured to precisely target communication. In “Overthinking a recent USTA Social Media Post” I observed that the USTA went to Facebook to try to find members in the 18-39 demographic rather than reaching out to them directly. Despite the fact that I returned a signed contract for the USTA “Tennis Champions” initiative, I continue to receive messages in my inbox trying to recruit me to the effort.
I simply don’t think the data management systems of the USTA enable anything other than mass contact. Creating the “Best in Class Digital Engagement Platform” is only possible if the underlying data architecture supports that. It is time to repair the foundation of the house.
