I GUESS I MISSED IT. DID YOU?

By Charles E. Vasoll

I was “surfing” (or I suppose it is “volleying” in our sport) through the APTA web site recently and came across “Results of Survey” in the “About the APTA” menu on the Association’s web site. I didn’t recall anything about it so I checked it out. I found that most of the replies were as you might expect but I found some interesting, some unusual and, at least, one humorous.

Before going further I contacted Marjorie Hodson, the APTA Executive Director to get some background. She advised me that approximately 4,000 “invitations” were sent out by e-mail and more than 1,000 responded. That’s 25%, a fantastic statistic by itself. Most surveys of this nature get a small single digit percentage (less than 10%) return.

Marjorie also clued me in to an article in the November 2004 issue of Platform Tennis magazine, which summarized most of the replies. The opening paragraph says the survey was in “mailboxes in May” which may have meant the one at your front door or the one on your computer. Later in the article the text made it clear that the survey was sent to APTA members by e-mail where the Association had their electronic addresses.

From the replies, as might be expected, an overwhelming amount of play was in country clubs or private athletic clubs. There was also a considerable percentage that indicated they played at a public facility. Since the question was, “Where do you play platform tennis? (Check all that apply)” there was some duplication in the answer given. It might have been better to get only a single answer indicating where the respondent primarily plays.

Proving that once you “get the platform tennis bug” you are hooked, 93% of those who replied have played three years or more. More astounding is that 46% have played more than 10 years. Is it possible that platform tennis will some day replace golf as an “ol’ man’s (woman’s) sport”. Probably the truth is that you have to attain a certain level of financial wealth before our sport becomes available to you. For many that does not usually come at a young age. Reinforcing this observation was the answer to the question about the age of the respondent’s children. Roughly 35% had children age 16 and above.

One of the questions not included in the summary in the magazine was “Would you be more inclined to travel to a tournament if there was a cash prize for winners?” The reply was 87% negative. I found this omission from the magazine interesting because, at the time, there was a move afoot to offer such prize money rewards. That option seems to have faded away.

Another question was “Do You Know Your APTA Number?” The response was “No” by 70% of the respondents. Although it is a very small group of APTA members, my guess is that most of those who did know their number were Life Members whose number is the same every season. If not Life Members, they must be numerologists. (I looked it up in the dictionary. There is such a thing.) I realize that an APTA membership number is not requested as frequently nor is it as important as one’s Social Security number but maybe it could be made easier to recall if it were the same for each individual every membership year. Surely there are enough digits to handle our sport’s membership for many eons.

“ What type of content would you like to see on the APTA Web site?”, was also asked. There was no clear direction in the answers and many indicated that visiting the site was not a high priority. Someone, however, suggested a solution to the lack of interest might be solved by featuring “platform babe centerfolds”. Does Hugh Hefner play our sport?

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