THE USTA LEADERSHIP IS UNWILLING TO UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEM TENNIS HAS. By Javier Palenque

The only way to solve the tennis problem in this country starts with identifying it. This is very easy to do, all you need to do is find out how long the Chairman of the board has been involved in a leadership position (16 years) and do the same for the CEO (14 years)? next all you need to do is find out how many more kids play today in 2024 than did 16 years ago in 2008. This information should be available on the web and searchable by zip code gender and income level. Of course, this information is never to be revealed as it would prove how the leadership fails to comprehend the problem tennis faces, or if it does comprehend it, then it chooses to neglect it. The problem is the lack of participation.

Most tennis kids have already chosen to play tennis by age 10 and much of it matters where they grew up, where they live currently, family tradition, and how much fun it is. That is the short list of drivers to engage kids in the sport, of course, if they stick around until the age of eighteen, then they are likely to be fans for life, otherwise, they are not.

This is a simple model developed for sports teams that all major leagues know about and understand, of course, we need to exclude the USTA as they are incapable of understanding the problem, much less solving it. Please do not take my word for it, ask the Chairman or CEO why is the participation data not readily available online if we have 24M players and only senile fans who are about to lose to nature their lives.

Imagine I want to start a tennis academy here in Miami and I have $10M available from my Saudi College roommate, the first question he would ask would be to tell me how many people play in Florida by age, race, zip code, and income levels. Then ask the same question for Miami.? This would be the starting point to create this new academy in Miami. Guess what fellow coaches and entrepreneurs, this data is not available for you, it is held top secret at the USTA. Why? if I want to create jobs for coaches, give grants out, sportwash with Saudi Money zip code by zip code, and engage kids of all income levels?

This is a question that has to be answered by the Chairman of the Board, who also neglects tennis in the very zip code in Queens NY that generates the money for the USTA, 11368.

Sad is it not, remember he has been there 16 years (that is four kids generations). Did anyone from the $10M yearly payroll executive team bother to care for that zip code? Use this link and use your zip code put the zip code of Arthur Ashe Stadium 11368 and read the tables. Just doing that you would agree with me that the Chairman must resign, imagine sixteen years in a leadership position and not once caring about the neighborhood where the largest tennis stadium in the world is located. Zero for sixteen Mr. Chairman, please leave the sport, it is an embarrassment what you not do. Did you know the USTA is a not-for-profit? Does this still bother no one? I think I made my point, remember this is the same person who ordered the censoring of my email to avoid accountability, brilliant! and forbid their executives from reading what I write, awesome?

Now let us look at fans for a second, there are three kinds in sports, the casual fan, the “love of the game” fans, and the “fanatic” fans. Of course, I am a fanatic fan as I am trying to save the sport from the people who run the sport but are running it to the ground at the USTA.? Here is a graph also from Deloitte that shows how and where the problems are for the USTA leadership.

In the graph below, please understand the color scheme and the engagement level to comprehend just how bad the future of tennis is in the United States.

Then think about how can the board pay executives $10M per year if they fail to address the problems I describe here for free. What does this tell you about the capabilities of the leadership? capable they are not.

As usual, I am unequivocally certain of my opinions and of course correct. Remember the board refuses to meet with me since I will hold them accountable for their failure. I just proved to you what a waste of resources it is to keep paying people who have no idea what to do. $10M per year, what a joke!

No need to agree with me, simply share the article so more people wake up to the reality of their collective incompetence. They must resign, there is nothing more to do than to liberate the game from the Ol’ boys, who have proven incapable of understanding their mission.

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

I can be reached at [email protected]

PS.? I do like the sound of Senor Presidente, do not forget it. Please do the zip code comparison with Arthur Ashe's stadium (11368) it is depressing but true, here is the link again.