Special Report on Tennis Facility Construction
Part II: Court builders anticipate slowdown

By Liza Horan

Sheldon Westerveldt has been designing and building tennis facilities of all scales--from private courts to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center--for 53 years. He's seen the economy dip, dive, climb, and spike. As of Tuesday, not one of his projects had been dropped, stopped or postponed.

That changed Wednesday morning.

"We just got notice this morning to stop work on the project," Westerveldt said yesterday afternoon about a "big" job on a private indoor club in the Northwest. "They told us, 'The project is stopped.'"

It's the first indication that the economy is catching up with the court building business, Westerveldt said from his Boynton Beach, Fla., office for Global Sports & Tennis Design Group (GlobalTennisDesign.com).

"Is it all doom and gloom? No," he said. "But, in general, I don't see how our leisure time sport won't be affected in some way. The economy is obviously going to impact our industry as it is everyone else's."

That's the general sentiment of those in the court building business, including John Graham, Managing Director of DecoTurf (DecoTurf.com). "I would say it is too early to tell at this time. Certainly there are concerns within the industry," says Graham, "but we, as leaders, must continue to work together to create a positive tennis environment regardless of the economic conditions that exist."

Wall Street's woes have hit Main Street, and even High Street. The U.S. economy is having worldwide impact. Whether it will rock the heavily leveraged and super-aggressive tennis construction trend overseas has yet to be seen.

"I have heard of no slowdown whatsoever in our key markets," said to Don Galliers, who manages the international division of SportsMaster Sports Surfaces (SealMaster.net) and who cautions that a "domino effect" from the worldwide economy could hit the tennis business in another 30 to 60 days. "To date there's been no scaling back, but I do not anticipate that carrying forward."

Those "key markets" are China, India, Turkey, and the Persian Gulf, where the seeds of a tennis boom were planted (largely by Galliers) 15 years ago. Russia was on that list during Boris Yeltsin's term, Galliers said, but Vladimir Putin has had other ideas, so new facility construction has backed off. In top growth countries, the tennis infrastructure has been built by governments and national tennis centers that aim to make tennis part of mass culture and to produce pro stars. They have made serious financial commitments.

The tourism industry has followed suit. In South Vietnam, for example, Galliers said the coastline once dotted with military beachheads is now full of tennis courts at destination resorts.

Galliers isn't starry-eyed, though. He remembers when the Japanese economic bubble burst in 1990: "There was a 75 percent reduction the next year (in court construction business), and it has never recovered."

The difference today--whether in the United States or abroad--may be the sound infrastructure that governing bodies have built over the last decade or so.

Domestically, as tennis participation has been on an upward swing--surpassing 25 million in 2007 for the first time since the 1990s, according to the Tennis Industry Association--court construction has followed. In high-demand New York City, for example, new courts are being built at longtime clubs, like Roosevelt Island Racquet Club, and new bubble facilities are being erected along the waterfronts, according to Skip Hartman, the owner of several clubs.

New facilities are springing up, too. The $10 million luxe CityView Racquet Club (CityViewRacquet.com) opened earlier this year with seven courts, and the $14 million Sportime Randall's Island (SportimeTFM.com) is set to fully open its multipurpose 20-court facility in January. The long-awaited indoor facility at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center should have nine of its 12 courts open by Thanksgiving, according to Danny Zausner, NTC managing director. The 265,000 square-foot building includes classrooms, a food commissary, fitness center, pro shop, warehouse, museum, and a 5,000-square foot lobby with terrazzo flooring. Zausner calls the $65 million project a bargain: "You can't even build a shack in New York City for $300 a square foot."

The new NTC building, like the other projects opening now, were ahead of the economic curve, of course, yet the faced challenges as "the cost of construction and supplies catapulted over the last two to three years," said Zausner. Still, from the sound of it, those builders may enjoy a few sighs of relief that their fund-seeking days are behind them. For new projects hoping to receive public funding or secure loans, the time might not be right.

"In Florida, funding of public facilities dried up last year," said Westerveldt, who is looking forward to the Nov. 14 grand opening of the $1.5 million Seaview Tennis Center, a public facility in Palm Beach, Fla.

No matter--for the one phone call he received to halt work on Wednesday, Westerveldt said he got several calls inquiring about new projects.

By Liza Horan

While the mainstream press reports that not-for-profit organizations may be threatened by reduced government spending and private donations in 2009, at least one pocket of the U.S. Tennis Association budget seems safe: the $1 million that it plans to give communities to renovate or build public tennis courts.

"Our commitment in 2009-$700,000 in grants and another $300,000 in technical and engineering-will be the same as in 2008," says Virgil Christian, director of USTA Community Tennis Development. The nine-person team, based White Plains, N.Y., works with more than 300 communities to help them secure grants through the USTA as well as funding through local government and civic bodies. "We haven't had any projects that have been cancelled so far."

Since 2005--when the grant program sprung from the Adopt-A-Court program thanks a $2.3 million investment and the urging of then USTA President Franklin Johnson and community tennis chief Kurt Kamperman-the USTA has awarded $4.7 million to build or improve 1,107 courts. Local governments, civic organizations and private donors contributed $44 million to those projects.

In other words, Christian says, "We put in a dollar, they put in 10 dollars. And that's really what we should be doing-building the infrastructure. If there's no place to play, no one is going to play."

Educating local officials about the benefits and growth of tennis, and endorsing community tennis plans is vital part of the USTA's work and is a more robust effort than ever before. "We made a big change last year to be more customer service-oriented," Christian says. "A lot of us in the business know the good news and think it happens overnight, but it takes three to four years for the good news to trickle down."

Previously the group had simply administered grants, many of which were denied because of incomplete applications or the lack of technical expertise included in a project scope. So, the USTA stepped up to help local groups scope out the concept with engineers and designers, as well as craft a financial plan. It's created closer ties to local activists.

Today, for example, the suspense of a city council vote in West Point, Miss., runs more than 1,000 miles straight up to White Plains. Before the council is a bond that would finance a large public works project that includes building a tennis facility. Like any lobbyist, Christian hopes the votes he and local activists are counting on-at least 3-2 in favor of the bond--do come through. If so, it would be the green light for new tennis courts that local activists and the USTA have been working toward for nearly six months.

"It's a pretty powerful tool, they say, when the national governing body says, We believe in this project," Christian says of efforts to lobby a mayor's office, advocate on behalf of local parks and tennis leaders, present trends on the growth of tennis, or convince politicos that QuickStart Tennis benefits their citizens in numerous ways. "It helps them raise money and it helps them raise support."

For now, the USTA facilities grant work appears safe from economic cutbacks.

"Tennis isn't going to be affected as other projects might," says Christian, adding that the feedback from city planners and parks directors casts tennis construction as "reasonable" and "affordable," especially compared to golf courses and aquatic centers. "If there's going to be any drop-off, it's going to be in 2010."

Christian is hopeful because the half-sized courts used in QuickStart Tennis are proving popular with parks directors seeking activities for all ages, and planners, who want to use leftover footage. Harrison Tennis Center in Marietta, Ga., for instance, had more extra space beyond their nearly 20 full-sized courts. "They had a little bit of room and asked, What are our options?" Christian says. The answer was adding six 36-foot courts for QuickStart. "The response has been tremendous."

Pushing a new product in a down market can make a difference. Time will tell.

Part II of this series, appearing next Thursday, will feature forecasts from tennis court builders.

Liza Horan is editor of the TennisWire Network.