VOLLEYING
WEB SITE VISITOR RESPONSES

Re: MY SERVE: AD IN (+) DEUCE (=) AD OUT (-)
(February 2007 Issue)

The following is a response that I received by e-mail from Rich Green of Chapel Hill, North Carolina to my comment in “My Serve”
about the APTA grant of funds to the Chapel Hill Tennis Club to install two new platform tennis courts.

From: Rich Green
To: <info@platformtennisnews.com>

I request that after you become better informed about Chapel Hill that you change us from an "Ad Out" to "Ad In". Bringing paddle to Chapel Hill is such a great positive for the future of our sport.

First, I can quickly rebut the bit about helping a "private club". Yes, technically, The Chapel Hill Tennis Club is a private club. There is also something very special about The Chapel Hill Tennis Club. It is a completely open club, anyone may join at any time. Full dues for year round tennis and more are about $100/month for a family. The new winter access program from October through March for non-members is comparable or less expensive than public (or YMCA) paddle. Our first half season was priced at $86 for under 30 or over 65, $116 for an adult, $150 for a family. A full six month season is priced at $200 for young adults and seniors, $300 for individuals, and $400 for families. This includes outdoor tennis except for October and November which are prime tennis months in the south.

The Chapel Hill Tennis Club's trial program, with help from the APTA and PPTA, is doing a tremendous job to promote the spread of paddle in North Carolina. The club had one of the largest public kickoff events ever with clinics and exhibitions. More than 215 people attended. There were several newspaper articles written about the sport and dozens of former players came out of the woodwork in the Triangle Area. The staff and paddle committee volunteers are offering FREE introductory paddle clinics and play to anyone (member or non-member) that would like to try paddle. They are doing this 3 times a week this winter and plan on offering it again next season.

We, in Chapel Hill, would like to thank the APTA, PPTA, Reilly Green Mountain, and Wilson for helping to get our program off the ground. We would not have been able to install courts without the $12,500 assistance from the APTA or the RGM lease to buy offer. The APTA will recover some of those funds because of the requirement for winter access members to join the APTA. If paddle takes off as expected in the area it could mean significant revenue for paddle equipment and court manufacturers.

It is far more difficult than most people imagine to bring paddle to a new area or club and to start a new program. Thousands of hours of work are required in addition to adequate funds. So few clubs have added paddle the last 5 years and that is a sad statistic. We hope that the experiment in Chapel Hill will help institutionalize the process of starting a new paddle program and make it far easier for others to do it in the future.

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