The USTA has announced a fairly significant restructuring of the membership cost model. This initiative is a recommendation from the “Membership Transition Advisory Group” which studied “best-in-class” membership models to develop a new engagement structure for tennis. The upcoming changes are as follows:
· Junior Membership at no cost
Excerpts from email from USTA CEO Mike Dowse 8/28/2020
· Membership Organizations at no cost
· Cease selling Family and Lifetime options
· Cease selling multi-year memberships (3 and 5 year)
· Maintain Adult and Senior 1-year membership costs ($44 and $42 respectively) with the vision that one day soon those options will also be at no cost
It is an understatement to say that this is a significant financial change for the USTA. In 2018, the most recent year for which public financial data is available, the USTA collected $18.5 million dollars in membership dues. That was 6.5% of all revenue collected for that year. While some fees will still be collected during the transition period, many of these changes are immediate.
For example, no cost membership for juniors starts immediately. Similarly, it is no longer possible to purchase family or long term memberships. I suspect that the phase out period for the collection of adult membership fees may run five years which would be the length of time for which active adults have already purchased memberships.
The transition is an indication that the USTA is migrating toward internet era modernization of the engagement model. The elimination of membership fees lowers the barrier of entry for people to engage with the USTA. Thus, the “best-in-class” digital platforms will be more accessible for universal use. In the future joining the USTA will be a simple matter of registering for membership with no fee attached. This is exactly how other engagement platforms currently operate.
A month ago, in “Radical Ideas for Bridging Juniors to Adult Tennis” I recommended that the membership fees for juniors be waived for the first five years after they age out of junior tennis. Under the new initiative, I would amend that recommendation that adult membership fees for transitioning juniors be waived throughout the adult membership fee phase out period.
It is tremendously exciting to see the USTA having the fortitude to make the structural changes necessary to operate in the modern era of internet digital engagement platforms. The change in membership structure is a brave and significant step forward in engaging widespread participation in tennis. This is genuinely good news.
- USTA to Make Major Changes to Membership Model, Racquet Sports Industry Magazine, August 28, 2020.
- United States Tennis Association IRS Form 990, 2018.
This significantly changes the cost-benefit analysis for lifetime membership holders. I wonder if there will be any concessions offered by the USTA. When Houston Tennis Association eliminated membership fees (or rolled them into league fees), they gave a refund of $10 per league paid on an annual basis to lifetime membership holders.