RALLYING WITH THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

If we are both Tennis Insiders, then we can probably decipher the terms successfully.

HOAT means Home of American Tennis and refers to the new USTA mega-facility in Lake Nona, FL, just outside Orlando. 

The site has 100 tennis courts of various surfaces and dimensions including courts for red and orange tennis plus offices and facilities for USTA Community Tennis and Player Development staff, volunteers, visitors and players.

NetGen is the new youth brand of the USTA.  NetGen will connect tennis providers like local teaching pros giving lessons, after-school programs, clinics at the local club or park court site and many other ways to sample tennis with current and potential youth and adult players.  Think of NetGen as the Amazon of tennis.  If it’s out there in tennis, The USTA wants it to be on NetGen.  The brand and website will be rolled out during 2017 with full implementation scheduled for year-end.

Digital USTA is the new website of the USTA and its seventeen area Sections that cover the USA.  The website customizes its appearance based upon the location of the person viewing the content.  Its appearance is user friendly and the menus use regular words instead of USTA jargon.  The idea is to have a website for the 95% of the population who are looking for tennis information not just the 5% who already know it.

That explains HOAT, NetGen and Digital USTA but what does it mean for you and me?

For me, it means that there are exciting times for tennis in the road straight ahead.  We can play tennis and find tennis and access information about tennis in more ways than ever before.  Now it is up to the USTA to spread the word about tennis so the non-players want to find tennis, too.

What do the new USTA offerings mean for you?  Please email me at bhunt@scta.usta.com.

Bruce A. Hunt – Executive Director
Southern California Tennis Association