TENNIS CLUB BUSINESS

May 2020
SURVEY

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Regarding the May 1 USTA message:

APPLICATION FOR USTA FACILITY RECOVERY GRANTS

TO GO LIVE ON MAY 4

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1. Analysis by Gary Horvath

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Summary

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The highest concentration of answers were from California, Florida, Midwest, Southern, and New England sections.

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One-third of the facilities represented private clubs and 21% represented both commercial and parks and recreation facilities. The remaining 25% represented universities, schools, resorts, and other facilities.

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Surprisingly only 62% applied for the USTA grants.

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The most common reasons for not applying were that people did not think they would be chosen to receive a grant and they were not aware of the grant. A smaller number of respondents indicated they did not qualify for the grant or the grant did not meet their needs. A majority of the people who responded “other” indicated they had applied for the grant.

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The most common grant request was for balls and equipment followed by no-touch items and cleaning services. Many applied for a combination of the above items.

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At the time the survey was conducted, over 60% of the respondents had not received a response, 11% had been rejected, and 1% had been rejected. The remaining respondents typically expressed varying degrees of uncertainty about where their grant was in the process.

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The most common level of assistance was $3,500 to $5,000 followed by $2000 to $3,500 and $2,000 or less.

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A majority of the assistance was deemed extremely valuable or fairly valuable. Only a small percentage felt it had little value. The remainder either had not applied or were uncertain about the outcome.

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Executive Summary

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The major take-aways from the survey are the USTA’s efforts are appreciated and the assistance will be helpful; however, there were respondents who indicated their situation caused them to need more assistance. The most common response was for assistance with balls and equipment and cleaning supplies.

Numerous respondents were not aware of the program. Others indicated there was a backlog in processing, which is to be expected given similar backlogs for PPP and SBA loans and unemployment.

By definition, the grant did not accommodate smaller facilities, independent contractors, and private clubs. That was noted in the responses.

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The following are a group of individual comments that show the diversity of responses and emotions. I think in some ways the open-ended comments tell as good of a story as the data.

It is a nice gesture, but only a token effort ... there is just not enough money to do what really needs to be done.

Nice gesture, who knows what we are in for when we get the approval to open again.

Very valuable if we qualify for the grant.

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Not enough information. For example, as a private country club, I simply believed the grant should go to parks and stand alone tennis clubs, even though we could have used some major help.

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Since I didn't know it existed, they might want to use more capital letters, or put that directly in the subject line of the email.

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The USTA has done a tremendous job in this COVID timeframe.

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The USTA took action to the extent they could, and are trying to make some positive impact.

USTA, USPTA and PTR and local sections should be able to help out at a higher value as some of us could be closed for 2-3 months with no income. Our facility will lose up to 200k in revenues during this time.

I think this was a thoughtful process. It could always be more, but this is an unprecedented situation to which they are responding in multiple ways.

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Any clubs that carry debt service will likely struggle to survive. Tennis alone is not as profitable in colder climates and fitness, which often carries tennis, will not be able to support due to the lack of ability to service larger numbers of people per square foot. Monthly expenses are in the thousands and the USTA is kind to offer assistance, but their offerings are analog to putting a bandaid on gushing wound...

Need a small grant for independent pros at private courts

We have 2 courts, may not receive anything.

it's much better than going w/o.... Nobody else is doing anything...

Any assistance provided is not required. It is being done out of care and kindness. It is a gift - one should be thankful for aide/help.

We are going to use the funds for other stuff besides just cleaning supplies; example new equipment as we feel and have been told my our customers they'd feel better with new equipment and no touch items; also adding hand sanitizer on the court as well and in the pro shop

The process went very smoothly

We are in a section with a high number of applications with many being made by clubs, etc, that do not have a USTA affiliation, so there is a delay in awarding grants.

Disband mid Atlantic section !

USTA recovery grant is a nice idea but USTA has too many issues to be assisting other funds as the USTA has been stagnant for almost a decade in funds for the sport.

Try to work something out for independent contractors who teach full time but not at a certain club. We are struggling to and pay taxes just like everyone else.

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