"PLATFORM TENNIS" IN THE NEW YORK TIMES

By Charles E. Vasoll

Everyone jokes about "when was the last time you saw something about our sport in the New York Times?" Well, it has happened and this time it was not in the sports section as a recap of the champions of all sports for the year. (We generally do make that listing).

This time our sport was in the sub-headline of "The Ethicist" column by Randy Cohen in the Sunday, October 19 issue of the New York Times Magazine. It read, "I belong to a club to which members can bring guests and pay a small charge for using sports facilities – tennis, squash, platform tennis, swimming pool. I have been told that I am one of the few who actually sign for guests. This is all on the honor system. Am I wrong to think perhaps I should join the crowd of noncompliers?" Mr. Cohen gave a very interesting answer that I will not repeat here.

The problem that the writer poses, however, is probably a fairly universal one for our sport. While in some large facilities where there is an employee on duty to police the fee for guest players, in the majority of our locations, there is no such person. As was stated in the question, paying for guests is on the honor system.

I am most familiar with platform tennis court facilities at golf clubs. I can attest to the fact that, because the golfers are in charge of the organization and they employ a strict program to be sure guests pay fees for golf, they get very upset when they don’t see any significant amount of guest fees coming from the racquet sports areas of the club. They see this as "cheating" even though the amount of money involved is miniscule to the club’s revenue. I know golfers don’t like "cheaters". No one does. But it has been my experience that they get more excited about this form of noncompliance then almost anything else that deprives them of some revenue, such as an extra beverage that is not on the tab.

I am sure that thinking of racquet sports players as "cheaters" is a fallacy. On the court as well as off it, players of platform tennis are as honest a bunch of human beings as you will find anywhere. Signing in guests just does not come naturally and having a guest is usually so infrequent that it is easy to overlook.

What can be done about it? Probably nothing. I expect that the Boards of most golf clubs will continue to believe that their racquet sports friends are getting away with something. They recognize, however, that it just is not economical to have an employee on duty to police the guest sign-in, so it gives them something else to grouse about in regard to their racquet sports members.

It’s too bad that when "platform tennis" finally makes it to the New York Times Magazine, we are put in a bad light as being among those who are not conforming to a policy of payment for guests.

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