USTA Florida Board Approves New Tennis Management Division to Help Improve Public Tennis Facilities

USTA Florida’s Board of Directors last Saturday 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 USTA Florida’s new headquarters, slated to open later this summer adjacent to the USTA National Campus in Orlando. Additionally, the board of directors approved funding for the director position and negotiations to manage one public facility by the end of 2017, with the expectation that several more facilities will come under the USTA Florida umbrella in 2018.

“This year alone we have received calls from several cities across the state that have asked us if we could help with the management of their public tennis centers,” said Robert Hollis, president of USTA Florida. “After seeing many of those facilities struggle and face possible closure, we felt it was critical to our mission that we put the pieces in place to help improve these facilities.”

USTA Florida Executive Director Doug Booth says the organization will be judicious in its approach to managing public facilities.

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

Booth says USTA Florida is uniquely positioned to help municipalities manage public tennis facilities. It has the ability to make significant facility improvements, run programs that cover all ages and demographics, and leverage promotional tools to reach new audiences. The organization also recently strengthened its ongoing partnership with the United States Profession Tennis Association Florida Division (USPTA Florida Division) to ensure programs are being delivered by the best certified professionals in the tennis industry. This Tennis Management Division is expected to further enhance this partnership.

“Having USTA Florida take on this role will benefit our entire industry,” added Chuck Gill, president of USPTA and a member of the USTA Florida Board of Directors. “It will create more opportunities for good, quality certified teaching professionals to run public facilities, and it will help raise the standards for tennis programs and facilities across the board. The success of this new division is critical to the future of our sport. This is an excellent example of how the goals of elevating teaching standards and growing grassroot participation are shared visions of both associations. The partnership between USPTA and USTA Florida is uniquely positioned to realize these goals.”

The search for the director of tennis management will begin immediately. You can view the job description at www.USTAFlorida.com/Jobs. For more information on USTA Florida programs and services, visit www.USTAFlorida.com.