You might recognize the movie quote as being close to one Kevin Costner made famous in 1989, which actually means I have misquoted it for my entire post-1989 existence. I really believed the quote was, “if you build it, they will come”. It’s not. Which means, now it’s ours!
Would you rally behind efforts from your tennis association to build a tennis complex?
If you weren’t sure if you had a Tennis Association, you do. It’s this one, Tennis Austin. This is your community tennis association if you have played in a Tennis Austin League or a Tennis Austin Tournament or participated in any Tennis Austin shindig, anywhere, anytime.
You are a member. You belong. Tennis Austin is all of us, and when we talk about the future of tennis in Austin, we mean your future, too.
So now that we have that all cleared up, your voice is needed.
A Tennis Complex in the Austin area. Does that excite you? Would you support the efforts with time, talents, treasures? Could you lend an expertise to the vision, the planning?
This will take experts from throughout our community. Tennis Austin (CATA) has a rich history of tennis activity, but leading the charge on a tennis complex will be a new skillset. That means finding the people who have built, financed, designed, developed, fundraised, advocated and negotiated projects like this before.
You want more tennis, you want hospitable facilities, you want more league play, more tournament play, more playoffs. Our main, largest, public-ish facility is showing its age in ways none of us can ignore. We love that it serves enough tennis to host league playoffs and tournaments. We love the location. We love the big shady tree.
Even with all we do not love, the tennis we play cannot withstand its demise. So what do we do if they do finally close for 15-18 months for a rebuild? What do we do if it’s repurposed, changes more to other sports, or simply can no longer withstand patches and repairs? And even with a full rebuild, Austin-area tennis remains at the mercy of their scheduling, their availability, their stipulations.
This isn’t just about replacing courts we could lose.
This is about adding a tennis home base to everything Austin-area tennis already has. Players still learn, practice, compete and build community at the clubs, academies, schools and courts they call home, then when it’s time to bring those communities together for something bigger, Austin would have a place large enough to do it. Tournaments in one location. League playoffs together. Junior and adult tennis crossing paths in a community-building setting. Families spending the day instead of driving from site to site. A place for the tennis happening all around Austin to come together when it makes sense.
Your Tennis Austin community needs to hear from you.
Please complete this brief questionnaire and tell me how dreams of a local tennis complex makes you feel. Share what you think! Does it excite you? Would you support it? How? What haven’t we thought about?
And if a questionnaire isn’t enough space for what you have to say, email me at [email protected].
Your perspective matters. It’s needed.
If you build it, they will come.
Would you?