USTA Teams in Your Area - Club Teams or Independent?

C

catfish

Professional
Most of the USTA teams in my area are “club teams”. That means that members of a club form a USTA team, all players on the team are club members, and the team’s home matches are at their club. The teams pay league fees, but no court fees. It seems that in other areas, the USTA coordinators rent courts at various clubs for league matches, and the teams pay court fees at each match. There aren’t any home and away matches since courts are assigned per match. This means that captains can choose whoever they want for their team since they are not restricted to using club members only. I can see pros and cons to each method.

How does it work in your area? If you pay court fees per match, how much are they? Is it worth the extra expense to get to hand pick teams, or do you prefer playing with your fellow club members? I was discussing this with some teammates recently, and we were wondering how things work in other parts of the country.
 
In Northen VA, we mostly have teams that are independent of clubs, though some clubs do have their own USTA teams.

The local USTA coordinator for the league buys court time at different clubs in the area and sets up a schedule of where and when each team plays. We don't have a "home court" club, though some seasons, we may play in a certain club for a lot of our matches.

Cost for court time is $15 per player for each match.

As far as I know, a lot of the guys on the team don't belong to any of the tennis clubs, I don't, so this is our only option.
 
In the 4.5 league team that I played in last season there were 8 teams, six of those teams, including the top three were independent. The two club teams weren't strict about having all members on their teams, it was about 50/50. I think the court costs worked out to about $20 per person for the season, we had 14 matches. The guys who were very available and played a lot definitely got their money's worth.
 
JRstriker12 said:
In Northen VA, we mostly have teams that are independent of clubs, though some clubs do have their own USTA teams.

The local USTA coordinator for the league buys court time at different clubs in the area and sets up a schedule of where and when each team plays. We don't have a "home court" club, though some seasons, we may play in a certain club for a lot of our matches.

Cost for court time is $15 per player for each match.

As far as I know, a lot of the guys on the team don't belong to any of the tennis clubs, I don't, so this is our only option.
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You guys play indoors, right ?
 
atatu said:
You guys play indoors, right ?
Click to expand...

We have indoor and outdoor leagues.

Outdoor leagues play at various public parks, and cost is 10 dollars per match.

Indoor leagues are as JRS described for men's/women's seasons and combo leagues. Mixed is 16 per match (but the time limit is two hours rather than 90 minutes). Tri-level was 13 per match, but home team had to provide tennis balls (something that is usually not something we have to worry about).

I also played in an outdoor singles league which was one flat team fee and one flat match fee, and then that was it...2 hours for those matches.
 
In the Seattle area our leagues are all club teams; however, not all players on the teams have to be members at the clubs. Each club has its own rules on if non-members can play on that facilities team.
 
Topaz said:
We have indoor and outdoor leagues.

Outdoor leagues play at various public parks, and cost is 10 dollars per match.

Indoor leagues are as JRS described for men's/women's seasons and combo leagues. Mixed is 16 per match (but the time limit is two hours rather than 90 minutes). Tri-level was 13 per match, but home team had to provide tennis balls (something that is usually not something we have to worry about).

I also played in an outdoor singles league which was one flat team fee and one flat match fee, and then that was it...2 hours for those matches.
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Topaz, Are those fees per player, per match. Or per court, per match.
 
In AZ we have both. There are club teams some of which have strict membership requirements and others not so much but are still majority members. Public teams can recruit anybody. Often one team will have members that are all over the city if they are trying to win the division. In general the teams from public facilities almost always the ones going to the playoffs and club teams are usually in the bottom half of the standings.
 
In Maryland, we play only indoors, year-round, timed to two hours. Balls included. Facilities are either county-owned facilities or private clubs, sometimes posh, sometimes not.

Cost is $17 per person per match. Our cost is higher than Virginia because it includes balls and is an extra 30 minutes. Indoors means more $$$, but it means no rain delays etc. You know exactly when your match will start and finish, and you don't need sunscreen. :)

DC charges $78 per player for the whole season, which was 9-10 matches outdoors this spring. I only played two matches, so that was $39 per match (yes, I'm still unhappy about it). Other players played as many as 10 matches for the same $78.

I think I am not inclined to play DC again, as this is the second time I got burned. In the previous year, I played just one match for my $78.
 
CrocodileRock said:
Are you serious? That seems outrageous. Our fees were $33 each for the whole season, which was nine matches in our case.
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Are you playing indoors?
Are you playing at a club where you are a member?

Keep in mind that

1. most players are non-members.
2. Were getting court time at below normal cost - most places charge $30+ per hour IF they even allow non-members to play there.
3. I'm betting that real estate cost more in the DC metro area than in Texas - as an example, in NYC, where land is scarce, I saw a court that charged $75-$100 per hour..
 
Yeah, you give up some things tennis-wise to live in an area like DC, but there is a lot more to do in DC than play tennis. Me, I think I struck the right balance and have no plans to move to a state with lower rates for tennis court time.

That said, our local county public facility recently raised indoor winter rates to $43 for nights and weekends. When I saw that rate, my friend and I decided not to play that day and wait for the rain to let up. That is starting to get pretty steep when you consider that it's the cheapest tennis courts available.

Pro private lesson rates at the main private club I know just went up from $67 to $72. Ouch.
 
Here in Norcal, teams are responsible for providing their own home courts - courts are not arranged by USTA.

Some teams have a private club as their home courts. Each club has its own rules regarding whether all team members must be members of the club or not.

Some teams play out of public facilities as their home courts. In this case, they may need to pay the facility for court usage. But that's between them and the facility - the away team never pays any court costs for away matches.

Some teams play out of private facilities other than a tennis club - for example, use a private college's tennis courts as their home courts. Again, it's then up to them to take care of any court costs for home matches.

This seems like a fair system to me. Tennis clubs that have their own facilities can field teams and decide who they allow to play on them (members only or non-members as well). And pretty much anyone else can also field a team as long as they can arrange usage of courts for home matches (and take care of paying the facility if required).

The only downside I can think of is that as an individual player you are not guaranteed to find a team that will accept you onto the team, unless you join a club that has a policy which ensures that members are guaranteed a spot on the team. But practically speaking I've never heard of anyone that wanted to play but couldn't find a team, except for in one very specific case, and that was because this player had such a reputation (well deserved) that no team wanted to associate with him.
 
In ATL you have teams from Subdivisions, Parks, Clubs, Schools, Churches, etc. The home team is responsible to provide the courts and the home team is responsible for fees for the visiting team to play at their facility if there are fees....the coordinator does not rent courts.

Our matches are not timed and you play best 2 out of 3 full sets....no 3rd set tie-brake.

Home team opens the balls and provides finger foods, snacks, drinks.
 
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Regarding court costs, I played on a non-club team that used semi-public courts for our home matches. We paid the facility court costs of $10 / court / hour for our home matches.
 
rich s said:
In ATL you have teams from Subdivisions, Parks, Clubs, Schools, Churches, etc. The home team is responsible to provide the courts and the home team is responsible for fees for the visiting team to play at their facility if there are fees....the coordinator does not rent courts.
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And many subdivisions around Atlanta have tennis courts, so play is free. My subdivision of 350 homes has 4 courts. We currently have 3 men's USTA teams, but have had 4 in the past. In Atlanta we play two lines at a time, so if you have 4 courts you can field up to 4 teams (2 home, 2 away each week).
 
amarone said:
And many subdivisions around Atlanta have tennis courts, so play is free. My subdivision of 350 homes has 4 courts. We currently have 3 men's USTA teams, but have had 4 in the past. In Atlanta we play two lines at a time, so if you have 4 courts you can field up to 4 teams (2 home, 2 away each week).
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In the area where I live, there really aren't subdivisions with homeowners' associations and suchlike. The homes were built in the 1950s, and there is isn't any empty space bigger than a post card. There are three options for tennis courts.

Outdoor county-owned courts in public parks. Free, but often not well-maintained. Be prepared to pick up dog poop. Waiting for a court is common when the weather is good on weekends. Stupid rules about vacating courts on the hour.

Courts at public schools. These are the best -- you can play as long as you want -- but you can be kicked off by a PE class.

Indoor county-owned courts. $43/hour during peak hours. Gotta compete with the world to reserve a court on the computer, five days before you want to play. If I need a court, I try to book it one minute after midnight, because everything will be taken if you wait until the morning.

Private clubs/country clubs. You have to pay to join. The country club nearest my house requires $50,000 up front non-refundable membership fee plus monthly dues plus court costs. The private tennis clubs are cheaper (maybe $200 membership fee for the winter season), but you still have to pay for court time ($48/hour). Nicely maintained courts, though.

It's rough. I don't like getting seasonal time and playing with the same six people all winter long, so I tend to join several teams and get my tennis in that way, at $17 per match.
 
Cindysphinx said:
In the area where I live, there really aren't subdivisions with homeowners' associations and suchlike. The homes were built in the 1950s, and there is isn't any empty space bigger than a post card. There are three options for tennis courts.

Outdoor county-owned courts in public parks. Free, but often not well-maintained. Be prepared to pick up dog poop. Waiting for a court is common when the weather is good on weekends. Stupid rules about vacating courts on the hour.

Courts at public schools. These are the best -- you can play as long as you want -- but you can be kicked off by a PE class.

Indoor county-owned courts. $43/hour during peak hours. Gotta compete with the world to reserve a court on the computer, five days before you want to play. If I need a court, I try to book it one minute after midnight, because everything will be taken if you wait until the morning.

Private clubs/country clubs. You have to pay to join. The country club nearest my house requires $50,000 up front non-refundable membership fee plus monthly dues plus court costs. The private tennis clubs are cheaper (maybe $200 membership fee for the winter season), but you still have to pay for court time ($48/hour). Nicely maintained courts, though.

It's rough. I don't like getting seasonal time and playing with the same six people all winter long, so I tend to join several teams and get my tennis in that way, at $17 per match.
Click to expand...

We have a similar situation in our area. The public parks have courts, but they are usually not very well maintained, some are in unsafe areas, and the fact that you can’t reserve a court is an issue. So most people in our area join a club with tennis courts. These range from no-frills community centers to very expensive country clubs with $60K initiation fees. We have a few neighborhood courts, but none in my neighborhood. Some of the high school and middle school courts are OK, but the nicer ones are locked up and not really open to the public.

If you want to play on a USTA league team, it’s tough to find one unless you join a club. Most league teams play at their clubs since it’s about the only place where you can make sure courts are reserved for your matches. The public parks won’t allow courts to be reserved for league matches. A few high schools will, but you run into problems since the buildings are locked up and there are no bathrooms for players. The men don’t usually care, but I can tell you that some arguments have risen when someone refused to “use the bushes” and they drove 5 minutes away to use a Mcdonalds bathroom. So, most people end up joining a tennis club to avoid these problems. The few teams that are handpicked, non-club teams and actually find some courts to use are usually the best teams. They often advance to Districts and do well. The club oriented teams that are made up of club members tend to not have as much depth, so they don’t do well beyond the local level.

The USTA coordinators in our area have tried to find some public park courts that will allow courts to be reserved for league matches, but most won’t cooperate. Leagues are very popular in our area, so the clubs win out because people will join clubs just to play league tennis.
 
Cindysphinx said:
In the area where I live, there really aren't subdivisions with homeowners' associations and suchlike. The homes were built in the 1950s, and there is isn't any empty space bigger than a post card. There are three options for tennis courts.

Outdoor county-owned courts in public parks. Free, but often not well-maintained. Be prepared to pick up dog poop. Waiting for a court is common when the weather is good on weekends. Stupid rules about vacating courts on the hour.

Courts at public schools. These are the best -- you can play as long as you want -- but you can be kicked off by a PE class.

Indoor county-owned courts. $43/hour during peak hours. Gotta compete with the world to reserve a court on the computer, five days before you want to play. If I need a court, I try to book it one minute after midnight, because everything will be taken if you wait until the morning.

Private clubs/country clubs. You have to pay to join. The country club nearest my house requires $50,000 up front non-refundable membership fee plus monthly dues plus court costs. The private tennis clubs are cheaper (maybe $200 membership fee for the winter season), but you still have to pay for court time ($48/hour). Nicely maintained courts, though.

It's rough. I don't like getting seasonal time and playing with the same six people all winter long, so I tend to join several teams and get my tennis in that way, at $17 per match.
Click to expand...

True , it does get steep.

Durring the winter I usually join leagues to keep my tennis cost down -

For example: USTA Double League ($17 per match), Singles League held at a local gym/tennis club where they let non-members play ($140 for 8 matches - 2hrs), group lessons held at a local gym/tennis club ($35 per 2 hr session).

This usually lets me get in tennis 2-3X a week without breaking the bank too much.

Only down side is that you may find yourself playing at 10pm or 11pm.
 
In Tulsa it is predominantly club teams (probably due to the relatively low cost of membership). Most clubs here require that the vast majority (90+% of the team be members). Clubs teams are usually the ones to advance to districts and sectionals where they usually fall just short to an "all-star" squad from another district.
 
In Michigan it's almost all club teams because of the weather, obviously, but in the summer you will see some independent teams.
 
Following on to what Catfish says . . .

Another reason I have balked at joining a club is that they are so incestuous. You see the same people, over and over again.

And you wouldn't believe the politics. Either the teams are run by players who favor their friends, or players engage in shenanigans to avoid being challenged for their spot on the team, or the pro picks the players and does line-ups and the lady who is *banging the pro* gets preferential treatment, in more ways than one.

At least with the non-club leagues I play in you don't have politics at quite that level, and if you don't like how a team is run you can always leave or start your own team.
 
Cindysphinx said:
Following on to what Catfish says . . .

Another reason I have balked at joining a club is that they are so incestuous. You see the same people, over and over again.

And you wouldn't believe the politics. Either the teams are run by players who favor their friends, or players engage in shenanigans to avoid being challenged for their spot on the team, or the pro picks the players and does line-ups and the lady who is *banging the pro* gets preferential treatment, in more ways than one.

At least with the non-club leagues I play in you don't have politics at quite that level, and if you don't like how a team is run you can always leave or start your own team.
Click to expand...

I agree with that. Club Politics can be so crazy. Even if you try to avoid it you seem to get sucked in somehow! I try to play on independent teams. We have a hard time finding courts at times, but at least we have fewer problems.
 
In my area, there is a large community association that owns and operates several tennis facilities that are paid for by memberships and annual fees levied on all homeowners. The USTA leagues are all run by this organization so there are no club teams and home/visitor status is arbitrarily chosen during scheduling.

There are like 2-3 additional leagues nearby that are run out of private clubs, but they are a joke. They usually only have like 1 or 2 NTRP divisions and like 3 teams in the league.
 
Where I play in SC the USTA league is run through our County Parks and Recreation Department. This means that our biggest public court facility is available for any independent team as a "home court" and the coordinator is on-site to ensure that league matches get priority use of those courts, which he schedules. So I can basically pay the $14 registration fee and our team uses those courts at no cost. Pretty sweet deal when you have a group of guys big enough to form your own team.

Our local Country Clubs also have teams for thier members, but do not tend to be competitive on a consistent basis in the higher levels of play because they get watered down. Also, we have teams from nearby towns that also play using their local city or county facility as a home court. Seems to be very common around here and keeps the expense to a minimum. Plus, since the courts are maintained by the city for league use, they tend to be in pretty good shape and have pretty good lighting at night.
 
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