Decline in 3.5 entries in USTA tournaments

Nacho

Hall of Fame
Honestly, we are trying more adjusted format tournaments here in the Southwest. I don't know if a tournament over two weekends has really been tried. If people are having enough problems committing fully to one weekend, the two week thing is even worse.

I agree with the "cause" type tournaments and it is something I've suggested. I recently picked up a dog from a homeless shelter and have been considering working with the group I got mine from for a benefit fundraiser tennis event/adoption day. We adopted a surface Slam series event here in the Southwest a few years ago, to try to entice people to play....so we created an indoor, grass and hard court event. We also made them our highest ranking points events. Venue is key. People want to play at a nice place. We've also tried to institute a mandatory food amenity (lunch or player social -that's coming in 2016 for all of our major events). We're trying really hard to teach our tournament directors that they have to do more publicity type things to have people know about these events.

Sponsors - like anyone dropping money - want a return on investment. It's very hard to entice or attract a sponsor with the small numbers drawing in many local tournaments. I'd honestly rather us cut back a bit on the schedule an spend considerably more time promoting 8-10 real major tournaments a year, ones where 400+ people attend, where a sponsor might actually be able to come out, talk to all the players. Some of these tournament sizes literally are 30-45 people. Why would a company want to give money to that? We have to increase draw sizes to really entice sponsors.

But if you can't take half a day off on a Friday or get off on a Thursday night a bit early to play, it's hard to increase numbers...so players have to be realistic. I mean no way can an event be a happening (lots of players, lots of draws, energy, enthusiasm) if people can only play in one time window. Which...is probably why people play league tennis more regularly.

Honestly, I'd say so much of this comes down to player interest in an event. I hear people complaining all the time that they can't play if an event can't be scheduled around their time. That's fine if some of those things can be taken into account before draws are made. But a tournament director can't plan an event around 100 inflexible schedules. I see a LOT of people complaining about it once the event has started. Honestly, if you're playing multiple events and doing well in an event, you're NOT going to have a weekend, so just forget it. Bagging on back draws also sucks for many players, who were just looking to get that extra bit of value and another match for their money.

Also, if you're a business or a sponsor, contact your section's marketing person and tell them you know people with pockets that would like to help. I'd love to have night time concerts, full on BBQs, you name it.

Very interesting to hear, thanks for taking the time to respond. Yes, the time off is tough, but if its after work I don't see much of an issue. Also, the national tournaments should be something you earn. So in other words, you have to play a few to qualify, maybe this would encourage sectional participation similar to jr tournaments. It would also help people set goals. Why play local tournaments if I can just go straight to the big ones? There could be a similar set up to the leagues where you go to districts and nationals....Biggest thing I hear from people is they just don't know when the tournaments are, the USTA website is tough to navigate for this or they don't go to it, they like the consistency of schedule, they like playing at nice clubs, they like the social aspect, and they like having local events. I wonder if in the information sections the tournaments advertise the potential schedule beforehand? Maybe they have to state when first round matches are played, and limit the draws? If I know I will play my first round match at 6pm on Thursday, I would be more likely to enter rather then not know until 2 days beforehand? (as an example) I want to play in the national hardcourts, but it just gives roundabout dates for the tournament, so it is tough for me to figure out when to take off and make arrangements to travel....you mentioned W/D as well, I have noticed this as a problem but it happens, hard to control that. Usually it is one or two people a tournament... Thanks again for responding
 

charmedRic

New User
In the Pittsburgh area a lot of the 3.5 players are self-rated players what belong in the 3.0 or 4.0 bracket, so 3.5 is a rather volatile rating as far as finding steady levels of competition. My 3.5 Team has won and gone to sectionals 3 out of the last four years and we've had a couple guys get bumped to the 4.0 level. One thing that'll foreever impact tournament and league participation is the strenght of each NTRP band. A 3.5 in Allegheny Mountain is weaker than a 3.5 coming out of Philly or Jersey where 3.5 is stronger and more competitive.

The very nature of the NTRP I think makes it discouraging for social players to try new things like driving out to a tournament venue or joining a team of mostly strangers. Thankfully I have a strong 3.5 team and a 4.0 team that's welcomed me with open arms as I push myself to raise my game.
 

NTRPolice

Hall of Fame
In the Pittsburgh area a lot of the 3.5 players are self-rated players what belong in the 3.0 or 4.0 bracket, so 3.5 is a rather volatile rating as far as finding steady levels of competition. My 3.5 Team has won and gone to sectionals 3 out of the last four years and we've had a couple guys get bumped to the 4.0 level. One thing that'll foreever impact tournament and league participation is the strenght of each NTRP band. A 3.5 in Allegheny Mountain is weaker than a 3.5 coming out of Philly or Jersey where 3.5 is stronger and more competitive.

The very nature of the NTRP I think makes it discouraging for social players to try new things like driving out to a tournament venue or joining a team of mostly strangers. Thankfully I have a strong 3.5 team and a 4.0 team that's welcomed me with open arms as I push myself to raise my game.

If you go to nationals your entire team can be bumped! Had a 3.5 guy get bumped to 4.5! Even players that did not actually play in nationals too! Sectionals seems to be pretty soft on rating bumps, but once your team goes to nationals your entire team will probably be bumped, and on appeal, probably only 1-2 will be able to appeal back down.

NTRP is a decent rating system (it could use improvement), but where social players get turned off is when they overrate themselves. If a social player knows they are in the middle of the pond and accept losing to higher rated players of the same NTRP range they are usually ok. The ones that get upset are the ones that actually thought they could beat a top range of the NTRP when they are clearly in the lower range. Since tournaments dont affect NTRP here, there are usually only top range players that play in them. When a casual player plays in these tournaments, who usually goes about 50% W/L in league, only to lose first round, or wins no matches in a RR, they get discouraged.
 

Ft.S

Semi-Pro
I just signed up for my first tournament with USTA. I went through the self-rating questions, it classified me as NTRP 2.5, I bump it to 3.0, and registered with the 3.5 singles group for the tourney. When I registered there were only 4 entrants two days ago, registration closed last night and now there are 12 :)
 
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