Too Complicated for USTA’s Chairmen of the Board? by Javier Palenque

A few weeks ago I received finally a reply from the President and Chairman of the board of the United States Lawn Tennis Association, he replied to me that the board will not meet with me as they are too busy and it would be impossible to meet with all the people who want to meet the board ( why would people want to meet the board unless they though something was wrong with the system that the only way to address it would be to speak to the board?). This of course is not surprising to me because coming from an insurance lawyer that reply was borderline absurd, disrespectful, antagonistic, and not well thought out as expected. It has been four years of me trying to enlighten the board by requesting a meeting and getting past the well-read and brilliant executives who are systematically bringing the sport down ( this is why they do not publish participation rates by gender, zip, and age groups) and cover their brilliance between themselves. Imagine the board refuses to show the numbers that their mission states. This way of acting is genial. But what follows is even better, I am now blocked from communicating with the USTA and their employees are blocked from answering me. This is called the tyranny of the inept. Somehow the Chairmen must think if we block him we deal with him down the line and make sure he is off the radar for a while. I speak for honesty, integrity, and accountability. If they block me or not, makes no difference to me, however, in the court of public opinion it shows them as they are inept, unthoughtful, and defending themselves. Obtuse is the correct word that describes the leadership of USTA. That action is utterly childish and frankly stupid. Keep in mind this is the second time they have blocked me from being critical. Critical only means accountable. I know some of you won't believe me so I have to put a picture to confirm. All the leadership of the world's best-funded sports nonprofit, all they can think of is not meeting, discussing, listening, seeing the problem from another point of view. No, that is too complicated, so they bully and cut all communication and defend what is true ineptitude and incompetence. yet all are hired and paid to do the exact opposite. Yes, I am sorry to prove to you the level of intellectual capacity at the dumbest organization in the world.

Mr. Chairmen your denials of a board meeting over a period of four years proves your complete lack of understanding of what the USTA does, should do and the population that is at stake, and how any decision that you make affects them. All it shows is a complete lack of respect and vision and in the open exposes your limited understanding of the sport, your lack of gravitas, and proves how poorly run the organization you lead is. On top of this, I question your tennis knowledge as your reply to my letter is void of content, context, value, and seriousness.

For those upset let me explain:

This is the scenario we have to deal with:

• A Kid will be a tennis kid if he learns to love the game between ages 4–10. This is the entry point for the sport. The first data point to growing and measuring. Where are these numbers?
• The parents of these kids are on average around 30–40-year-olds millennials who in all likelihood don’t play tennis. USTA has the fewest millennials of any sport (yet it is a huge part of the working force — I explained this in detail to Dowse). So, if the kid is on the court it is a miracle to start with. These are the people you want to keep, grow and protect. Retention is key, where is this data point?
• Net Generation does not attract them nor any program USTA has concocted. Yet $20M-$30M down the drain was misspent by your current executive team to attract no one and no one is held accountable. You realize you allow this waste, the same with Deloitte, Serve, and all dumb initiatives that do nothing but keep you employed and the game declining in interest. It is obvious that being employees takes precedence over the game and you as chairmen allow this. Wrong again.
• 75% of kids that play tennis quit by age 14, which means if you lose the base core, you are putting tennis’ future in danger. That generation of kids and their parents, will not come back. You are going to lose for sure if your system looks for a champion and subtracts rather than adds. I have explained in detail this to Dowse and no changes. Brilliant.
• In this country we have 41M kids ages 5–14, so USTA has approximately 0.18% of kids in this age if 75% of them quit by 14 you have only 0.04% of kids of that age. This is the equivalent of zero or no one playing. Yet you preside over the best-funded sports nonprofit in the universe. Do you understand everything is wrong if you get these numbers so close to zero and so far from one? to be the sport of the 1% you would have to increase participation by 2500%. I have not seen a plan to do so by no one at the USTA. So again here your decision, only prove one thing, people are keeping their jobs at the expense of the sport, this to anyone with any level of intelligence is a disaster that you allow. The question is why?

• In case it is still not clear, the trend is towards the disappearance of the sport, why this simple concept is so hard to comprehend? I even drew a chart (above) so you understand? if it were a $100 dollar bill, tennis attracts less than one penny ($0.004) 40% of one cent. Simply horrible. In case you did not know the smallest currency we have is one penny, your record is 40% of the lowest coin in the land. Are you not embarrassed by this fact? how are you emboldened by this level of failure?
• So the logical decision would be to make sure tennis does not lose those whom it has already attracted, and since what your executives are doing does not work, you should be open-minded to better alternatives and suggestions. So your job is to create that “intelligent lane” but you refuse to as do the two other Chairmen, the courageous and brilliant Galbriath and the colorful and illustrious Adams. Why? because they know how terrible their work has been and want to avoid accountability at all costs, in other words, they put themselves above the sport and you do the same, the correct attitude towards the sport is the exact opposite and none of you display that attitude? this you must explain.
• Yet, when given the choice of choosing between the kids, their parents, the coaches and their economy, and the incapable board (please don’t get offended by the adjective, its a reflection of your results and an accurate description of them, not only you three generation of boards), the Chairman chooses the protection of the time of the board over the future of tennis and its constituents. Your first decision of threatening Osaka was worldly bad ( the entire world rejected your first decision), then at the US Open the same read speech for both finals and used the same suit? Are there no marketing / PR people at the USTA? and now you can see how your own knowledge and understanding of the parts of tennis is so limited that you make a mistake once again. Being humble is intelligent, you must know this being from the poor south.
• What would I do differently? I would call for a board meeting, I would openly welcome ideas, I would make my time available for anyone to call me, I would form a committee to put forward the best ideas and I would monitor them publicly. If those ideas work excellent, but I would make sure that the executives are put on notice, as they are to deliver results, enough of the welfare mentality and to the absurd arrogance of their lack of knowledge. Then again I live in the business world, but remember this, it is our sport and ineptitude has hijacked it. Wake up section leaders, wake up parents, wake up coaches and clubs. The trajectory of the sport is in the opposite direction of where it needs to go. The data is the proof, the data they conveniently hide. If what you do is block me so you do not hear the bad news of your work, that is like pretending you are not obese and destroying all mirrors everywhere you see one. This is simply called stupid, stubborn, and inept. Traits no one needs in 2021. Much less the best-funded sport nonprofit with the fewest kids and oldest adults. I hope you realize your false narrative is false and cannot be supported. You will be held accountable.

• I expect the data requested to be provided to me by you as a lawyer and Chairman of the board, and not as a good old boy member who hides and protects his friends, puts the game at risk, disrespects parents, and what is worse promotes a Banana Republic culture in the sport that is currently hijacked by ineptitude for far too long. If you do not think you act like the Banana Republic, you would be honest, transparent, open-minded, and would have numbers of participation that anyone would be proud of. The tyranny of the inept does the exact opposite. It is 2021, not 1947. Why is this so hard to comprehend?

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

Read the letter below and decide whom the USTA is defending? You be the judge.

I can be reached at [email protected]