Most popular metro areas in the US for tennis?

[Craig Sheppard]

Hi all, I've lived in a few places around the country--the Philly area, upstate NY, SF Bay area, and now the greater Chicago area. All 4 are quite different with respect to the popularity of tennis. I actually find that the Chicago area has the most high-level interest of those 4 areas.

That got me wondering, for those of you who have lived in different areas of the country--which metropolitan area do you think has the most lively tennis community?

Things to consider are the number of available courts, the number of clubs, the number of 3.5 and above players (hey I can be biased toward better players), number of tournaments, etc...

I assume of course south Florida is #1, but there may be other areas I'm missing... maybe some people can talk about where they live and the tennis scene there...

-Craig.

 

[David Pavlich]

Tennis hot spots

I would say Atlanta is the king. Houston is also hot. There's an article in the November 1999 issue of Tennis that talks about this very subject. My little community of Mandeville, Louisiana gets a mention as does Baton Rouge.

David

 

[Hawaii 5.0]

Atlanta and ALTA rule this area of popularity.Sure the hotbeds like Texas,Cal,Florida rule level of play, but ALTA has tons more tennis patrons(members) than any other organized tennis league for one area.

 

[bcaz]

We have a nice thing going in the Phoenix area, where we play year-round outside. Lots of lighted courts, many free/very cheap places to play, virtually all hard courts. I hear Tucson, on a pound-for-pound basis, might even be a better tennis town.

 

[amarone]

ALTA has about 85,000 members, I believe. There is year round tennis with 4 seasons a year. USTA Atlanta is three times bigger than any other USTA league in the country. For example, the winter season that finishes tomorrow had about 125 teams at men's 3.5 alone, so probably had 400 teams across all men's levels. ALTA had about 165 divisions of men's tennis in the fall, so about 1,300 teams.

Tennis is so popular that any new subdivision of any size will have courts built, along with a pool. The whole family will be able to do swim/pool for typically $500/yr with no extra court fees.

If you haven't got family or a home yet, almost all apartment complexes in the suburbs have courts also. As do the parks.

 

[Jerry Seinfeld]

What about Minneapolis/St.Paul? I have heard they have popular league tennis as well. Anyone from that part of the country care to chime in?

 

[Kirko]

Reno,NV it was really great during the 70's & 80's I would think it still is .

 

[aceindahole2K5]

yea, northern section does alright up here......we cant bust out prospects like warmer areas of the country, but tennis is not dying by any means.....felt bad however when we had only 4,000 people show up for an exibition featuring blake fish johnny mac the jensens and dave wheaton.....considering the stadium seats 19,000 and the lower bowl was MAYBE half full

 

[Gaines Hillix]

amarone and H5O are right on about Atlanta. The problem Atlanta has is that it doesn't support higher level play. We've had pro tournaments, but they were never very successful. There's not a single ATP or WTA event held here now, AFAIK. Kind of sad, IMO.

 

[PFurlong]

Re

I agree Gaines. it just doesn't seem fair. We in Scottsdale have a tourney starting in today (qualies) and attendence is poor-always. If Agassi is not in the finals there are plenty of seats for the finals. Good seating. It was fun when we had the women and the men back to back, but the women left when they made the Pacific Life a larger tourney. Funny thing is...our weather is perfect and I have trouble finding players. I would play everyday, but am lucky to play twice a week.

 

[IN2MILKKEL]

I'm probably biased about my club here in sunny So. Cal. At the Claremont Club (TCC) we have 29 well kept tennis courts, Olympic size Swimming pools, Fitness Center, Pomona Valley Rehabilitation Center being added, Full service salon, Club Cafe, Structured Children Care Facility, In door racquet ball courts, Pilates studio,...The tennis programs, ladders, tournaments,...are probably the most popular and biggest at TCC. All High School CIF championships are held at our club. The Junior national tournaments are held at our club every year too.
I did talk to a fellow TCC Membership who once lived in Atlanta and he said that the tennis participation there was incredible (85,000) or something like that. I think California has too many distractions preventing people from playing tennis. i.e. golf, surfing, snow boarding, skiing, hiking, biking, hockey, soccer, boating, flying, fishing,... I think that Palm Springs, CA has 1 tennis court for every ten people that live in the city (or something like that) Lots of money in Palm Springs, Indian Wells, Palm Desert...thus, probably more private and public tennis courts as well as good weather!!!!!!!!!!!!!!