TOURNAMENT PARTICIPATION
WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?

By Charles E. Vasoll

Everyone seems to be in agreement that the number of teams in club, local and national tournaments has been down and seems to continue to be shrinking. Everyone also agrees that there are lots of reasons for the decline and no one has a magic solution to reverse the trend. I wish I could supply the answer. There are some mistakes that are being made that can be corrected but maybe the greatest difficulty is beyond everyone’s reach. I submit it is a combination of family, economics and demographics.

We hear it all the time. “I cannot play in the tournament because I have to do something with the family”. Using the better part of two days on a weekend to play our sport is just not possible for guys with children who are engaged in other activities. Likewise, most of the women’s tournaments are during the week when many of the possible contestants have other obligations or are unable to take time away from paying jobs.

Playing in tournaments can also be costly. Expenses for travel, boarding, meals and the entry fee, add up to a tidy sum. Even at my home club the entry fee is posted as “$______ approximately”. The size of the entry fee is so dependent upon the number of entries that a specific dollar amount is not posted.

The number of persons in various age brackets also has had an effect on the number of teams available for a tournament. The popularity of the 125+ and 95+ events have risen because players have a wider choice of partners by using a combined age figure rather than a specific five-year span.

At the Long Island Platform Tennis Association, we have tried most of the suggestions that have been offered. We have had one-day events with smaller draws; women’s events on weekends, a cut in entry fees, etc. all without any substantial improvement in the number of teams attracted.

There must be some magic that we all are missing. Maybe it’s time for a contest to determine the best idea to increase the number of teams in tournaments.

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