LEADERSHIP MATTERS, USTA!

By Javier Palenque

As many of you know, Boeing has been in the spotlight due to safety concerns at their plants and the tragic accident, this is a note from the new CEO to us all.

?

As you well know, Boeing is involved in a quality control mess, well one of the things that addresses the issue is getting rid of the CEO. This mess has led to a congressional investigation, finally forcing the company to address these critical issues. As a Boeing shareholder, I received a public letter from the new CEO, outlining his intentions to resolve these problems.

I want to highlight seven key points from the CEO’s letter and compare them to how the USTA board and its CEO operate. After reading these points, I hope it becomes clear that the current leadership at the USTA cannot continue. The only way to enforce dissent and accountability within the USTA may be through a congressional investigation.

1. Boeing's New CEO: Restoring Trust

USTA’s CEO: Blocks dissenters, lies about participation numbers, pays for skewed reports to TIA, focuses solely on the US Open, and neglects all other tennis communities, even the ones near the US Open, Queens.

2. Boeing’s New CEO: Restoring Trust by Keeping Commitments

USTA’s CEO: Claims to grow the game but only cares about the US Open. He ignores the mission, truth, and tennis community, focusing on revenues, not profits instead ( they are pathetic). Proudly partners with alcohol sponsors for a sports non-profit, with little accountability or actual support for the sport itself. In 14 years how many sponsors for the sports engagement, not one, how and why allow this stupidity?

3. Boeing's New CEO: Helping ?Customers Achieve Their Goals

USTA’s CEO: Thinks the real customers are Wall Street bankers and long-time sponsors, not everyday tennis players, parks, parents, kids, or coaches. Tennis is dying in the U.S., but the US Open's bathrooms are pristine for the annual pop-up show. The non-profit status needs to be REVOKED you serve no one that matters.

4. Boeing's New CEO: People's Lives Depend on Us

USTA’s CEO: Couldn’t care less about coaches, kids, or parents needing affordable tennis. He’s focused on entertaining Wall Street, oblivious to the sport's decline. He ignores the fact that tennis is becoming a national disaster—expensive, inaccessible, and old. But cares for food, drinks, tables, and clean deodorizers for toilets.

5. Boeing's New CEO: Get Close to the Production Lines

USTA’s CEO: Should be visiting parks and communities, but instead avoids them. Despite plenty of invitations, he’s never come to see the state of tennis in places like Miami. He prefers to ignore the reality on the ground, focusing instead on how to never change the status quo. He barely walks around Lake Nona and does not bother to watch a tennis match; I get called every day about how he never shows up to watch events. What a joke you allow.

6. Boeing's New CEO: Commitment to Transparency

USTA’s CEO: Transparency is the last thing on his mind. He ignores FOIA requests, spreads false participation numbers, and hides the true state of community tennis finances. His handling of serious issues, like sexual abuse cases, only proves his commitment to avoiding transparency. Here is the congressional investigation petition.

7. Boeing's New CEO: Regular Updates on What I'm Hearing and Seeing

USTA’s CEO: Never steps foot on the ground where the real issues are. Instead, he sticks to friendly environments, promoting the USTA’s false narrative. The USTA operates like an old socialist regime, with no accountability—just protecting the US Open’s revenues as profits are very small. Why allow this still?

A troubled company like Boeing picks a leader who listens, respects, and works to improve the entire organization. In stark contrast, the USTA is run by a group more interested in selling overpriced food, drinks, and “ premium experiences” at the US Open than actually growing the sport.

They’ve turned tennis into an expensive pop-up restaurant with entertainment for two weeks, a joke, with zero accountability and a focus on revenues, not even profits over the sport itself. The Ol’ Boys need to leave the sport, for the sake of the sport. ?

I say NO to ineptitude and YES to Growing the game.

How can anyone believe that this Klan of incapables can grow tennis? It’s time for the USTA’s CEO and board to own up to their failures and resign. The way tennis is handled in this country is nothing short of a joke, these people do not even realize the tennis world laughs at us. The incompetence is simply mind-blowing.

The board will pretend to ignore the six years of me trying to meet the board and hold every one of them properly accountable. They will all play the silent and long game. This is not only dishonest and wrong, but also why everything I send and write goes with a physical copy to the NY attorney General, Mrs. Leticia James as well as the Queens district congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.

The board’s position is simply unsustainable, I am asking respectfully to be granted the meeting in which I will not only hold you accountable for your failures and waste but also provide solutions for the sport. Some of you have heard less than 5% of what needs to be done. Yet you refuse to listen and rely on the same old minds that got the sport to this terrible stage and point. Gentleman, it is not 1939, it is 2024. You have no idea what to do to improve the sport, so you must leave it to those who do. You received enough welfare already.

Buying participation reports that are convenient to the failure of leadership, is a fraud, raising prices for the US Open to unheard-of levels is stupid, and not acting as a not-for-profit with the designation is a scam to us all. ENOUGH! No more incapable people, PLEASE!

I can be reached at [email protected]

Ps. The sport needs new people and fresh blood, and you just need to accept, that your time has expired and leave! GET OUT!