In 2022-2023, a Task Force of the Board of the NWTO completed a 10-question survey of 16 of the 17 Sections of the USTA (all but the Caribbean). The newsletter will be publishing the results of the survey, one question at a time. Learn more about this initiative here.

QUESTION 8:  What amenities does your section provide at tournament or league sectional play? Does your Section feel they need additional funding for this? Could more be done to provide a better experience for the players?

Florida: USTA Florida provides a small stipend to the league sectional and NTRP tournament directors. They give T-Shirts and bag tags to all league players and all league captains receive a special gift. They currently do not provide any amenities to tournaments. I informed her they used to provide a large gift basket to the tournaments to use as a raffle item, she agreed to start doing this again as budget allows and enough notice is given to them. I informed her I would stay in touch with her on this. We will target the April Level 3 Barbara Cooper Cup. No funding is needed at this time. She will keep discussions open. They feel this has more to do with the tournament director and where and how they are willing to invest funds. The biggest complaint they receive is players don’t always feel they get enough matches for the entry fees they are charged.

Midwest:  T-shirts, awards for winners. Districts responsible for district stuff. Section provides t-shirts and trophies for Section league championship winners. Of course they need funding.

Intermountain: The Section has no funding at all for amenities of any sort, but it would love to do more.

Eastern: Eastern provided amenities when they had events, but they now claim "it's not in the budget."

Pacific Northwest: Each individual Tournament Director and host determines their own amenities. The Section offers amenities for all Section hosted Section Championship events and tournaments.

Texas: Grants are issued for senior/super senior major zones. Major zones are required to provide a player gift.

Southern California: The league play in Southern California is so strong it pays for itself. Sectional tournaments are supported with a player gift, captains gift, prize raffle, lunch, and snack bar table.Texas: Nothing formal. Ranking lists in print magazines (which are maybe going away). Used to do certificates but it was perceived to be low value against the cost involved. Have a Margaret Canby social media feature in the work. Similar features are recognized as an opportunity.

Southern: The Section offers a grant to Level 4 tournament directors to provide better amenities for the players. All the TD has to do is provide some pictures of people enjoying the amenity, and they will get their grant. Only a couple of TD's have gone to the trouble of requesting this money.

New England:  USTA NE does not provide additional amenities for the Senior Slams. Tournament directors offer a banquet or lunch for players. The NESTF helps with this.

Northern California: Small player gift at adult league sectionals. Give small player gifts to TD's who are hosting a first tournament. Sometimes they will have giveaways if there is a specific promotion.

Southwest: The Section provides amenities at all of its tournaments, which include player gifts, lunches, food trucks, barbeques, and prize money in some of them. The amenities are a function of the entry fees for the tournaments. I suggested that the USTA should provide a photographer at Intersectionals and he agreed and said he would ask the USTA for $5,000 in 2023 to provide a photographer. As it turned out, the 75+ team from the Southwest Section did not get a write up in the Section newsletter because it did not have a photo of the team which would have had to have been taken by a team member.

Middle States: Middle States pays for court time and balls, as well as water and lunch at Interdistricts. This year every district in Middle States (6) is charged with hosting an adult social event.

Northern: League Championships = t-shirt, player gifts, snacks throughout the weekend. Yes, it would be great to have additional funding in order to provide a better experience for the players.

Hawaii: The emphasis is to keep costs down for players since costs of lodging in their Section is so high. They cover court fees and facility fees. They provide captain’s and player’s gifts. Thus far, they do not charge players any fees, for example, to add other amenities like a player party.

MidAtlantic:  All tournaments in the competitive space are run by independent contractors. For the adult events, they set their own price point for entry, which therefore determines any amenities such as snacks, gifts, etc. Additional support could be used to incentivize the independent contractors to do more.

Missouri Valley: They do not provide amenities. They could use more money, and they could be more creative. The league play has more money than tournaments. League Section Championships provide captain gifts.

After reading the above, do you have any recommendations or suggestions on how Adult Competition is best handled?  Please provide your feedback to Info @NWTO.us. We encourage you to reach out to your Section contacts with concerns or feedback:

Eastern – Lynn Buffamonti  buffamonti@eastern.usta.com
Florida – Christine Ducey  ducey@ustaflorida.com
Hawaii – Sara Yoshinaga  yoshinaga@hawaii.usta.com
Intermountain – Monica Haller-Bradley  mhaller@ita.usta.com
Mid-Atlantic – Rachel Kros  kros@mas.usta.com
Middle States – Mary Wurtz  Wurtz@ms.usta.com
Midwest – Toby Gaynor  toby@midwest.usta.com
Missouri Valley – Scott Howes  howes@movalley.usta.com
New England – Shawna Fors   shawna.fors@newengland.usta.com
Northern – Taylor Heltne  taylor@northern.usta.com
Northern California – Joanna Broda-Schnuk jbroda-schunck@norcal.usta.com
Pacific Northwest – Matthew Warren  mwarren@pnw.usta.com
Southern – Milagros Sequera Huss  sequera@sta.usta.com
Southern California – Anthony Shirley    ashirley@scta.usta.com
Southwest – Matt Gleason  gleason@southwest.usta.com
Texas – Veronica Nicholls  nicholls@texas.usta.com
Caribbean – Angela Vargas  adults@cta.usta.com

Learn more about this initiative here.

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