HIGUERAS, A DICTATORSHIP AND THE USTA LEADERSHIP. By Javier Palenque

Recently Jose Higueras, ex-head coach of Player Development, wrote a letter complaining about the USTA waste and his concerns about underfunding Player Development. Here is the article published by the Athletic. I disagree with Higueras as I think that while there is a place for player development as a nation, funding $25M per year is a complete waste of funds. Much more so if half of that is salaries, when the future players need travel money to gain experience and skill. Enough to say is that while McEnroe (Higueras’ boss) was there at a salary of $1M, he did work part-time and did nothing of value. This is of course called the status quo, which is the Kool-Aid that everyone drinks if you get paid more than you are worth, and somehow think it works for American tennis. Well, no it does not it’s a waste of resources.

Total waste of player development last decade $250M. Players produced, no one. Did they increase tennis participation, no. How about increasing fan reach, no. How about coaching opportunities for more kids, NO. So, what did they achieve? well wasted more funds for tennis in a country of 60 million kids of school age.

The reason I am writing about Higueras is that I heard a podcast in which Craig Shapiro interviewed him and Higueras repeated everything I have been saying for the past six years but by being inside the USTA before and now commenting from the outside. The intention of his letter is very clear and that is to grow the game.

I hope you take the time to listen to the podcast, but before you do remember these points that he will make and that I have been stating for a long time:

• More kids need to play.
• The USTA has a dysfunctional governance structure, and the status quo will not change it.
• The USTA is run like a dictatorship by temporary board members.
• American kids are wonderful, but they need better sports and tennis education.
• Tennis must reach more people and kids. This means participation.

The problem the USTA board has is one of vision and governance and none of the board members wish to address this, so in the end, the sport misses out on people, and the status quo remains in control and since there are no longer families as fans, the USTA settles for fans that are institutions, and they sure do not do anything to grow the game as they never take lessons. This is absurd but it is the business model the CEO pursues.

It is time for the entire board to resign and of course, the CEO, who claims that by watching a tennis match, one will run to take lessons and become a fan. It is funny how in 14 years he has watched tennis and never bothered to learn the game, this fellow should know that he belongs to Generation X, like me, and we are 65 Million, so if 65 million parents don’t like tennis or are exposed to it, what makes this fellow think that our kids will? ?He must think that expensive pop-up food at the US Open, clean bathrooms, or charging for kids ages 2+ full ticket prices will grow the game. Foolish is it not? and he is the CEO? imagine what middle management thinks then? or a better question is do they think?

Now remember this is the fellow who has never played, and ignored his own generation and that means he ignored our kids generation millennials who are 73 million who are now of parenting age. Here is some math for you sir, 60 M + 73M = 130M people you miss. And he thinks more expensive box seats are a good idea, all in exchange for $1.4M per year. What a joke, remember the CEO reports to the two-year changing board that reports to not a single shareholder. As you can see the governance structure of the USTA is simply awful, and yet they never will change it, because if it changes, the welfare ends.

Here is the link to the podcast , I encourage you to listen to it, you will discover that once again I am unequivocally correct.

I Say NO to ineptitude and YES to growing the game.

I can be reached at [email protected]

PS. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting better results is insanity. But the brilliant board of the USTA thinks it is working when everything around them tells them that it is not. That is called ineptitude and that is the reason we are the laughing stock of the tennis world with the most money in tennis. Poor Chairperson of the board, every day he demonstrates that being a fiefdom is foolish in a decade of connectivity. These people must leave the sport, they are simply clueless, and it shows.

Before I forget, here is the congressional investigation that the board brought onto itself read it, and the video of how they avoid accountability in sexual harassment claims against it.