Tennis Court Squatters in America - Good for Tennis? Not so fast!

Susan Nardi: “Imagine running a business in your office building. Business is good and all the staff are 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.”

THE SURVEY

I decided to research this unfortunate situation some more after hearing how prevalent the problem really is in the United States. Last month, we asked several U.S. teaching professionals to fill out a survey and received some amazing feedback. Of the 48 readers who replied,

• 35.4% said they were concessionaires on public tennis or pickleball courts

• 93.8% said they had experience with teaching pro “squatters.”

• 60.4% said “squatters” are a real problem for them.

We asked, “What actions are you taking to eliminate or mitigate this problem, if any?” Here are the answers.

• Point out the Rules posted on the court fence to squatters and their patrons, but squatters and patrons just deny they are exchanging money, or patrons claim ignorance.

• None really

• Find an available court

• Ask them to stop as they are in violation of Club policies

• We are a private facility with a large footprint, we have been forced to lock gates and have routine patrols for any non-staff member teaching lessons on our tennis and pickleball courts. We were having security remove court squatters 1 - 3 times per week until they finally got the message.

• We market our certified pros that are safeplay compliant, but if so-called pros can charge less, the consumer might not care.

• The city of Santa Monica does virtually nothing- it is very annoying

• City talks big, but does nothing.

• You can report squatters to the PTR and RSPA - it's a violation of their Code of Ethics. You can also report them to the park district managers (since this is usually where it happens).

• Refreshing locks (they have current keys)

• We have a standard statement we give to them, plus we try to get their name into a database

• In Atlanta and most cities in the suburbs that are not leased out, you can teach as long as you pay to reserve the court. The reservation is your permit.

• I have no energy for the fight. We work as hard as we can to make whatever dollars we can. Pickleball squatters also cutting in to the numbers of tennis players as well across the country we are suffering greatly.

• We are a club with 11 pros but people still try to hop on. Are gates are locked at night and we have a pro shop with active staff to watch over courts. However sometimes members want to bring their own pros. If we see that, they are asked to leave.

• Making the local town's park and rec aware of this situation

• If they belong to a professional organization, RSPA, for example, they should be reprimanded from there

• At a private club so not a problem .

• I have no recourse. The City does not enforce the City Codes to kick off squatters. I have reported this to the City many times and every time the squatter lies about not coaching or receiving funds for coaching tennis. A few years back a licensed coach was assaulted because he walked on a the court to give a scheduled private lesson. I fear for my life that this will happen to me or worse.

• NA

• It's more frustrating for my coaches who have to play by the rules and then these guys (who we Call Bootleggers or the Black Market) go out there and hurl their $100+ an hour private lessons on the public courts that we pay rentals and Follow City policies.

• Talk to the city regarding this. I ask the squatters to see their permit

• Confronting the occasional perpetrator on an as-needed basis.

• Tell members they can't bring their own pro, they have to use the club's pros.

• It's not a problem

• I speak to the parent of the child taking the lesson and to the "tennis pro" giving the lesson

• I report them to my supervisor. If they are being antagonistic, I will call a park ranger or the police.

• In the past contacted the city or club management. If USPTA, referred them to legal for discipline. Contacted individuals personally.

• Talk to the Park admin

• none

• not applicable

• built my own court

• Not a problem at the club where I coach but it exists on public and private courts in the area.

• Encourage them to be certified. Safe play

• None

• None really, just making sure our staff is excelling so that anyone can see the obvious difference in quality/experience

• So I have gone to the city municipal and asked to rent a court!!! You can rent a soccer field, you can rent a baseball/ softball field, why not rent a tennis court? Depends on city and how they organize there court usage. In case not asked in next questions why are group lessons taught by non certified - was uspta , now Rspa, or PTR to name a few liability teaching cross overs!!

• Putting signs up, closely watching courts

• Complain to the city parks admin. They then put up a sign saying “no lessons”

• I let them know our CTA has permits to use the courts. We will be there every week and will report them if they continue to use the courts without a permit.

• Clarify assemble mitigate

• Reporting them to Rec and Parks

• When I’m there I tell them they are not allowed to give lessons on our college courts , high school courts and town courts!!

• Had to go before the parks and recs board to list all the problems involved.

• The facility needs to do a better job of who is on the courts and for what purpose

• Staff asks “Squatter,’ to leave.

• I spoke to management. So far nothing has been done.

• Teachers need to be reported to the city and fined if repeat offenders

• There are third party apps / companies that are advocating this and helping this issue. I contact the CEO or owners immediately.

• There is no workable accountability for this persistent problem. Park Rangers are not present or ineffective, Park and Rec departments claim they cannot enforce the rules, posted Rules do not deter squatters or patrons do not bother to read them. Unfortunately, ethical behavior is not enforceable. Susan Nardi (LA Tennis) and I (Rising Stars Tennis Academy) have experienced this for years and have never found a satisfactory, workable solution.

• Happening around our area on the public courts and the instruction is awful.

• Most court squatters that I have dealt with will become overly aggressive towards myself, my staff or security when they are asked to leave or eventually trespassed. They feel as though they have a right to run an unlicensed business on public or someone else's private property with almost zero overhead. This practice has also confused younger coaches when they apply for payrolled positions as to what they think they should be making per hour but not taking into account benefits and employer payroll taxes.

• It’s bush league in my opinion. I label them “Vagabond Pros”.

• There needs to be enforcement of the rules and a consequence for violators

• It's a huge problem. The coaches that have contracts with cities get undermine by: squaters/rogue coaches, businesses like Play Your Court/My Tennis Lesson are profiting by encouraging coaches to squat and yet these business are making money and zero money is made by the P&R departments to maintain the courts that they own. These squatters can charge less as they aren't paying to use the facilities like those concessionaires. Who knows if these squatters have liability or SAM insurance which puts the city and public at risk.

• We have another problem in Metro Atlanta similar to squatters - teaching pros who may be paying park district directors under the table to let them put up to 22 people on two courts, charging them $20 each for "drills" with one pro! No other contractors are allowed to teach clinics at these facilities or these mega-programmers (who only accept cash) will lose their Golden Geese (and the tennis directors will lose their bribes) as students flee to the new coaches with lower student/pro ratios (no standing in line for minutes at a time). Multiple facilities in one county let contractors generate up to $400 for 90 minutes of drills, paying the park district only court rental fees (as low as $27.50)! The park district manager most likely doesn't know this is going on.

• My experience is vast with fake or real pros infringing on club or public contract courts. The RSPA used to promote a code of ethics but changed the wording at least 10 years ago (probably due to legal issues) and now I cannot find it. We used to ask if the “squatter” had signed the code of ethics which stated(roughly paraphrasing), “a member shall not teach or promote their business at another facility without expressed written/verbal permission from management.” This lack of industry leadership from RSPA has devalued RSPA and pros.

• I am 62 years old, a Master professional, a former tour coach, and most recently, the President of a Tennis Association. I was the Director of Tennis of the seventh-rated club in the USA. I have more lessons than I can do, as I only teach about 20 hours a week. I don't have any issues with other professionals teaching, and when other pros are teaching next to me, I get many of my clients. They can see the difference. I don't have to advertise much. Word of mouth and scenarios like I spoke about are all I need. I am in the late stage of my teaching career and have better things to do with my time than bother with BS. If a pro teaches on the court I have reserved, they leave.

• Never happened before as many had ethics and respected the organization that owned the lease. But now things have changed - and just like a NO AD point where players will call a ball out due to the stakes being so high - squatting tennis and pickleball people will steal anything they can.

• I think posted signs are good to have out front of public courts but it’s hard to monitor.

• This is becoming a big problem as there is a liability issue for the town as well as the person coaching, it takes away revenue from other coaches following the required processes, reduces the availability of public courts and often gives our sport a bad name

• This is a problem at public parks. I understand how teaching pros are upset . Hopefully we can figure out a solution.

• It is frustrating to have to pay for court time and others come on for free.

  We ended up hiring one on and he's become one of my tennis club's best instructors.

• We are a club, but in a housing area, so people that live here look at it like it is a public court. We have one court that is out of sight and people can sneak on to. That is the main problem.

• Been hitting with mommy groups for years on public courts. They drop kids at school and come talk and hit. Nobody is out there but us. I'm insured and teach at a resort most of the time. These ladies are friends. Why anyone would care is beyond me

• I explained that only certified pros that are on staff are authorized to give lessons at the facility. He kept coming back with excuses like I am PTR certified; your getting your court time; parents take balls out all the time.....at the end he said oh it's just about me taking business from your staff. What he didn't understand is that he was getting paid for his time, parents do feed balls to their kids (no charge....I hope) and he does not represent our facility nor do his teaching methods align with my Professionals.

• Some of these people are certified tennis professionals, most are not. When I have reported certified tennis professionals to their organization, only one time did the organization follow up, that was PTR, but it turned out the person pretended to be a PTR pro, so they gave him a cease and desist letter. when other truly certified pros have been reported, no action was taken.

• Need one (or two) certification(s) like PGA where all pros would have to have it to teach anywhere. Too many carpetbaggers that give poor instruction hurting the prospect for the students. A basic level of certification would ensure a chance for the students to improve.

• It's unethical and unprofessional for the pro to do this. The parks in my area should at least first post signs of the rules.

• Most of the public parks here are just that, public. Most have no teaching program. It is hard to blame an instructor for using public courts that are open.

• This topic is not new. From the beginning of my carreer (over 50 years,) people with opinions about the game and a basket of balls and an interest in making some money find willing ears to fork over some cash usually for a significant discount over more qualified teachers, instructors & coaches. A real problem is that often it's difficult to tell the difference between the options. There are licensed "pros" by say uspta, ptr etc that are good and have results, however there are also the same licensed "pros" that are not good at all. The same can be said of many who are not licensed. The only difference is licensed or organizational "pros" are insured which may be beneficial but doesn't nessasarily make them any better. It reminds me of the street food vendors in Santa Barbara bypassing fees that restaurants must pay to stay in business. Some are good and some bad. The fees theoretically are meant to protect the consumer but mostly the money goes to government or organizational leaders and are

• It can be difficult if the squatters are taking courts during group drills. We’ve never been overly concerned with them “taking our players,” but definitely don’t enjoy having to run them off in front of people. Also, they force your hand without understanding the bigger picture — if you don’t run them off, even if there is no court crunch, you run the risk of word getting a that you are ok with it, and then you CAN risk being overrun.

• If a concession is in place the current owner of concession will make money on there pros! It’s not the pro’s job to inform the squatters now they are the police.

• There is a sign on the courts that say “no tennis lessons allowed”. It’s clear they are giving lessons…. and I can’t play because of them. I will sometimes confront the squatter, and they deny it…. saying: “we’re just hitting”

• NonR

• I changed the signage, but it's a constant battle with letting squatters know they can't teach on the courts.

• It’s a private club and STILL they let these people in because they’re “hitting with members.” And the minimum wage high school age front desk staff isn’t going to confront either member or hitter. Why would they? They’re not paid combat duty pay.

• Our city courts are filled with squatters teaching which makes it a problem for those who pay their commission to the city and then the general tennis playing public get turned off to tennis bc the instructors are often rude to players who want to come out and play.

• This is a major concern. The UTR paid hits also created this issue and disrupt the club - pro industry.

In her aforementioned article, Susan Nardi made the following suggestions to try and solve the problem created by “squatters.”

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.

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.

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.