In the Trenches: Poaching in the Concrete Jungle

Nobody likes squatters. Right?

Imagine running a business in your office building. Business is good and all the staff is filling customer orders. It just happens that on your floor there is an empty desk. One day you notice a new guy come in, sit at the open desk, and start working. You find out that he doesn’t work for you; in fact, he is running a business exactly like your company business. You call the landlord/building owner and the police to remove them, but no one helps. The guy is in direct competition with you. He’s using your space, heat/air conditioning, and electricity. Because he is not paying for those things or rent, insurance, and such, he can offer a better price.

Then you go into your boardroom to see a person leading a meeting of 24 people who have nothing to do with your business but are operating in your office space and organizing their services related to your product. This all sounds crazy. Right? Welcome to pros and groups operating on city, club, homeowner, and high school property, running businesses illegally all over the US.

Pros/coaches, whether they are certified and insured or not, as well as community organizations that are businesses have been doing this for decades. I’m a capitalist. I want to see people playing tennis and coaches working. However, these individuals are operating a business without permission and circumventing the system. Both tennis and the public lose.

Here are my top 4 reasons why we need to care

1. Facilities: The owners of these courts charge fees to coaches that they approve for using their facilities. They use this revenue to maintain the courts and cover long-term projects like resurfacing, windscreens, fences, etc.

2. Legitimate facility staff pros: These coaches have met a series of requirements to be there, which includes maintaining professional certification, liability insurance, SAM insurance, background checks, TB shots, etc. This is all done to protect the patrons as well as the facility. Most of these coaches are independent contractors and are paying these expenses out of their own pockets. These staff coaches have to charge a bit more to recoup these costs.

3. Concessionaire: The loss of revenue to not only their staff pros but also to their bottom line is huge. Most people don’t realize that some cities require concessionaires to pay property tax for buildings on site as well as utilities to operate.

4. The public: The model in the 1970s was anyone with a basket of balls, a slick warmup and swagger could coach. As we all know there is a baseline of knowledge and education needed to engage clients in the learning process both as beginners as well as through long-term player development. The detriment to the uneducated public is tremendous, greatly diminishing their ability to learn the game.

Here are some suggestions on how to address the problem

1. Parks & Recreation departments: need to find ways to start enforcing the rules that do not allow unauthorized coaching on their courts. In a large city like Los Angeles, millions of dollars of revenue are lost because these organizations don’t compel the police or park rangers to give unauthorized individuals tickets or run them off. Practically speaking, unauthorized coaches pose a health and legal liability risk for both court owners/managers and the public, who may suffer injury or loss. They can also do a better job researching “community groups.” Most are using that term, so they reduce their cost when they are actually a business charging money and running programs for profit that compete with the concessionaire. Additionally, individuals posing as “friends” or “relatives” who are actually giving paid lessons without permission should be held accountable for bypassing park, city, state, and federal fee and tax requirements.

2. Teaching/coaching organizations: need to support the concessionaires who are members of these organizations by reprimanding any member who has been “squatting” on courts. Putting some teeth behind it would help hold these rogue coaches in check. Currently, nothing is done.

3. Legitimate coaches: need to defend their integrity by calling out non-sanctioned pros using their facilities without permission. Failing to do so damages the professionalism of all coaches, not only those who compromise their values by cheating the system. Coaches have an obligation to respect one another and set a good example to all players, especially children who look up to them as authorities and role models.

To grow the game, we need to work together to show respect to those coaches on the court who have gone through the process to be there. Let’s support the coaches who are in the trenches, doing it ethically and holding the “squatters’ accountable.