Dick Squires had some thoughts on how court construction should change to grow the game:
The November, 2002 edition of Platform Tennis Magazine was primarily concerned about where our lovely sport is going…or not going. We should all be concerned.
The premier tennis court in America was built less than 50 years before the first
paddle court. Why did that sport experience widespread, meteoric growth not only in this country, but around the world? The tennis court consumes four times the amount of land and it too was initially a recreational activity for the wealthy, yet, it took off like a Southern California forest fire. How come?
It is truly a mystery why a rather boorish game like racquetball could experience astronomical growth during the late 70’s. Even though participation eventually leveled off almost as fast as it grew in the ensuing years, there are millions still playing racquetball regularly today. And this sport was `invented’ 25 years after platform tennis!
As we all know, platform tennis is the best of the racquet/paddle and ball sports, including tennis. It is fun, healthy, social, easy-to-learn and difficult-to-master, offers exciting and extended rallies, has several built-in equalizers (single serve, small court, the screens), the equipment is relatively inexpensive, etc., blah, blah. Why then aren’t there 100,000 courts spread out across the States and a few million paddlers enjoying its proven, built-in pleasures?
Certainly one of the reasons is because, as Gary Horvath wrote in his fine article, “The Future of Platform Tennis,” it has been a well-kept secret. There is only a handful of Americans who have any knowledge about the sport, seen it played, and fewer who have actually been on a court. This wonderful game is given absolutely zero coverage or exposure in the media. No one is aggressively promoting it as an ideal athletic, recreational facility for colleges, resorts, upscale retirement communities, ski resorts, country clubs or any place that now has (frequently used) tennis courts.
What is desperately needed is a change in mind-set for those that play and govern the sport. Although its heritage is a pleasurable pastime played outdoors in the winter months installed at county clubs, in actuality platform tennis could and should be enjoyed anywhere and any time of the year.
Yes, one of its distinct attractions and advantages is that it can be played outdoors in cold weather, but its true appeal and benefits far transcend this traditional point of view held and espoused by insular purists. Such a theory is tantamount to the attitude of every tennis pioneer who believed real tennis had to be played outdoors and on grass. Thank God they didn’t win out.
A $50,000 aluminum court with a heated deck built on piers is a wonderful luxury and necessary for courts sited in chilly, snowy climates and hilly terrain, but for most of the geographical areas of the country such an expensive structure is total overkill and stifles the game’s expansion. Take the raised platform out of the court
and substitute a ground-level, hard playing surface perhaps made with a little latex mixed in with the final coat pitch it slightly for drainage, and add an easily-assembled and installed superstructure (the essence of the game) and voila, you’ve got all the court components necessary to play platform tennis. The snow gates would remain as leaf or debris gates. In the same area of one tennis court, three paddle courts could be laid out, including a club house for viewing and displaying paddle equipment and attire – no longer called a warming hut.
The individuals who love to play and those who administrate platform tennis have to stop “preaching to the choir” and start telling their friends at other clubs, their town’s rec. directors, community developers in the neighborhood, architects, resort owners, and university athletic directors that platform tennis represents the ideal athletic pastime for fitness and healthy competition 12 months a year. Continuing to be a well-kept secret and building courts in the air is a sure-fire way to precipitate the ultimate and sad demise of this great game that offers so much for everybody.
Not-so-incidentally, that other game, paddle tennis, played without the wires, has two governing bodies overseeing two different versions (East and West Coast), the United States Paddle Tennis Association and the American Paddle Tennis League. Our APTA could be renamed the American Paddle Tennis Association without infringing or even having to change it’s logo!
It took the USTA almost 100 years to drop the “L” (for Lawn) from it’s acronym. Someone finally discovered that 99% of the tennis courts were clay, hard, or composition. Grass was too expensive to lay down and maintain. Hello? Hopefully, in the near future there will be as few raised platform tennis courts under construction as there are new grass tennis courts being installed today. Then we will know for sure that our sport is on its way to realizing the widespread popularity it deserves.
Source: Platform Tennis Magazine, Vol. 4, Issue 3, January, 2003
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