1-Question Tennis Industry Surveys can be quite revealing

My newsletter TENNIS CLUB BUSINESS features a 1-Question Survey every month since the end of 2022. The survey is not very scientific and the response rate is quite small (between 40 and 300 people) but nonetheless, it gives me that "pulse" feel about some areas of the tennis industry. Here are some examples of surveys we conducted.

February 2022

"If you were hired as the new USTA CEO, what would you do in the first 3 months at your job?"

5 Replies out of 87

• Get rid of the wokeness that the USTA picked up over the past two years
• I would promote free weekly tennis instruction for children 10 and under throughout the US. If we want to catch the most talented will need a bigger net. No pun intended.
• Cut the fat (bloated salaries, unnecessary jobs, get rid of travel for dignitaries); move more money into facilities: courts, indoor, etc and more money into instructors, equipment, programs
• Rebuild the army of passionate, dedicated volunteers who have always been the driving force behind the growth of tennis.
• As CEO of the USTA I would begin by saying the quiet part out loud:

-Tennis has evolved from parks game to country club is is now an elites only sport.

-USTA will continue to buy tennis clubs (like in the PNW) so we can own the sport

-Pay myself 2 million a year and my sidekick Danny Z. 1 million per.

-We will buy pickleball organizations one at a time until we own that to.

-Allow cheating in USTA junior tournaments "because everybody does it."

-Pay the winner of the US Open, men's and women's open winners 5 million each.

-Turn the National Tennis Center into the largest concert/event center in the NE.

-Continue to marginalize the USPTA and the USPTR by overlapping what they do.

-Lease the National Campus to Disney World

-Buy the Tennis Channel when it goes into Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

April 2022

"For USPTA and PTR members: How happy are you with your organization? If you don't belong to any of the two, please tell us why."

5 Replies out of 39

• I am a uspta member and have been happy with our conventions. Our section is small so we know everyone and share quite a lot of information. I would give our uspta a B.
• Not very happy with them right now. Both have had trouble getting back to members questions, assistance needed. I am a member of both and both are to blame.
• I am certified and belong to both. I am very happy wit PTR - they are being very creative in the area of improving the number of women in the organization and working toward a more equal and diverse organization. They have a long way to go...USPTA is stuck in the mud. I hear over and over from them 'we are doing great with diversity and equity' - as spoken by people who make no efforts to make changes.
• PTR member. Not happy. Dues too expensive due to the fact that the majority of the dues are used to fund the organization's salaries and events (such as the Symposium) which are geared toward rewarding friends of the office, testers, clinicians and others who help bring money into the organization. Both organizations allowed non-expert teaching pros to write articles and give lectures on sport science topics they are not trained in.
• I am a long time member of both. I am not too pleased with either one right now. They are both promoting and supporting pickleball. I realize they are chasing dollars but they should spend all their time promoting tennis.

December 2022

"Do you think we're going too far in holding the USTA's national and section executives' and coordinators' feet to the fire?"

5 Replies out of 239

• Don’t stop!
• The USTA is great at spending money, but terrible at promoting the game. Keep up the pressure!
• Yes, give it a rest Rich, focus on the positive for awhile.
• Tone it down a bit ... maybe go with the "more bees with honey" approach.
• Pressure makes diamonds. Keep it up.

January 2023

"Should the USTA become the National Governing Body for pickleball?"

5 Replies out of 98

• Not just no, Hell no! The don't have any more business being NGB for pickleball than they being the NGB for heart surgeons. They need to focus on being the best NGB in the (heart surgeons included)!
• Why would anyone support this?
• They have proven they can't do tennis; why should they be given control over another sport. Won't the United States Pickleball Association have something to say about that?
• Pickleball is in direct competition with tennis for resources, players and facilities. "You cannot serve two masters!"
• It would be a great way to throw up a roadblock to pickleball’s success! lol

March 2023

"Betting in tennis - do you like it? What is your experience?"

5 Replies out of 37

• I disagree with any betting in general but betting on sports...that's really bad.
• Lost more than I made but like doing it.
• I think gambling on Tennis is the worst thing to happen to Tennis. The players get threatened, the ITF shuts down, the money behind it is so corrupting you can almost hear it in the broadcast, sometimes you don’t even know who Coco is playing against. It has tainted our game.
• No, never ,can't even think of damaging the sport which I love the most
• Never placed any money on tennis

May 2023

"Will John Embree leave the USPTA in better shape than when he started as CEO 11 years ago?"

5 Replies out of 66

• Overall did a fine job in a difficult position.
• Embree is a nice person; however, he lacks vision and doesn't understand that the USPTA is a membership organization. He does not understand the high school, college, and parks and recreation tennis is an important part of the sport. The USPTA took a step backward when John was hired and he moved from Houston to Florida. The main benefactor of the past 11 years has been the PTR.
• John Embree did a lot of positive things at helm of USPTA, but he and others fumbled the ball entering a new era as I have described above.
• Joh Embree was a great CEO. Very honest, dedicated to the USPTA and its membership
• Years ago USPTA had their own dedicated magazine. I'm not sure who did this but we've been relegated to the back pages of tennis industry magazine. On the front cover in the lower right hand corner there's a tiny little piece of real estate that says: incorporating USPTA advantage magazine. Absolutely pathetic. Shameful for such a wonderful trade organization like USPTA to be stuck in the back of someone else's magazine. Was that you John Embry?