The USTA is closing its White Plains office, which houses the USTA Eastern staff, amid its desire to achieve $20 million in cost reductions by reducing salaries, canceling annual meetings, reducing promotion and training of "blue chip" players as well as canceling non-essential capital projects.
This reorganization has been in the works since 2018 but has been accelerated due to the current COVID-19 crisis. This "strategic plan", according to USTA Chairman and President Patrick Galbraith, is "designed to bolster the organization's mission” which is to "promote and develop the growth of tennis."
Many have criticized the organization in the past for excessive salaries, lavish meetings, non-essential capital projects, ineffective marketing and inefficient training practices as outside the scope of the organization’s mission.
I am one of those critics and I applaud this approach as progress.
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Steven Kaplan Steven Kaplan is the owner and managing director of Bethpage Park Tennis Center, as well as director emeritus of Lacoste Academy for New York City Parks Foundation and executive director and founder of Serve & Return Inc. Steve has coached more than 1,100 nationally-ranked junior players, 16 New York State high school champions, two NCAA Division 1 Singles Champions, and numerous highly-ranked touring professionals. Many of the students Steve has closely mentored have gone to achieve great success as prominent members of the New York financial community, and in other prestigious professions. In 2017, Steve was awarded the Hy Zausner Lifetime Achievement Award by the USTA. He may be reached by e-mail at StevenJKaplan@aol.com. |