USTA constantly booking public tennis courts (Durham: school, live in, parks)

[csblack10]

Originally Posted by cheese_cakes

It is not unprecedented I've been playing on the Garret courts for a long time and it wasn't like this before.

Whether you have been playing for 15 years or 3 months should not matter. The fact of the matter is I see the same organization and same people on those courts. I can't reserve them (I am on an email chain with someone who is trying to reserve courts for me) and every date I look into is booked by USTA.

Communities can have programs but not every weekend at peak hours. These are public courts and being in an organization should not give you an upper hand with regards to how much access you have to the courts.

I have a friend group of beginners who want to learn Tennis. They live really close to Garret Road and want to use the courts but none of us ever can.

"We're all taxpayers too, we're just organized". That shouldn't matter and that's the point. There's a limit to how much courts should be reserved.

I will get to the bottom of this and end this BS

no, actually you won't "end this BS". just because a location is "public" doesn't mean it's available to the public at all times. USTA has matches on most evenings during the week and at certain times during the weekends and garrett road is one of the locations used. that's not going to change.

and you make yourself sound foolish by assuming that everyone who plays USTA is upper middle class or rich and can afford private lessons and country clubs. fact of the matter is that you don't know a single thing about these people.

if you want to play whenever you feel like it then go to jordan high school or duke east campus.

[JO783]

Thought I'd mention I played for ~3 hours yesterday AM at Garrett (without a reservation) and there were at least 2-3 other open courts the entire time. Perhaps Sat AM is worth trying if you haven't yet? Was a little cloudy so perhaps some people were deterred by the threat of rain, but wound up being a beautiful (albeit sticky) day.

[don6170]

Originally Posted by csblack10

no, actually you won't "end this BS". just because a location is "public" doesn't mean it's available to the public at all times.

Reminds me of the Ron White bit about "being thrown into public"

Originally Posted by csblack10

if you want to play whenever you feel like it then go to jordan high school or duke east campus.

I don't have a dog in this fight, but it reminds me of when CASL would book all of the available soccer fields in the area. Just a thought - why doesn't USTA play at Jordan or Duke?

[bluecomet]

I am not familiar with this situation but I would start with Durham City Council members or County Commissioners, whichever is applicable. They are elected officials and one of them is probably assigned as coordinator for recreation. Good luck!

[lottamoxie]

Are the courts booked from sunup to sundown and beyond? I'm talking like 7am -- has the USTA booked the courts that early? They can't possibly have every court booked every hour of every day.

If the USTA starts at, say, 9am, then get up early and get over to the courts if those are the courts one insists on accessing.

[csblack10]

Originally Posted by don6170

Reminds me of the Ron White bit about "being thrown into public"


I don't have a dog in this fight, but it reminds me of when CASL would book all of the available soccer fields in the area. Just a thought - why doesn't USTA play at Jordan or Duke?

usta can't book duke or jordan b/c they aren't durham city courts. they are owned by the schools.

[csblack10]

Originally Posted by lottamoxie

Are the courts booked from sunup to sundown and beyond? I'm talking like 7am -- has the USTA booked the courts that early? They can't possibly have every court booked every hour of every day.

If the USTA starts at, say, 9am, then get up early and get over to the courts if those are the courts one insists on accessing.

of course usta doesn't have them booked all day. they are often (but not always) booked b/n 6:30 and later for league matches. there are never usta matches b/n say noon and 6:30 during the week.

[lottamoxie]

Originally Posted by csblack10

of course usta doesn't have them booked all day. they are often (but not always) booked b/n 6:30 and later for league matches. there are never usta matches b/n say noon and 6:30 during the week.

I was curious because the OP says USTA has the Garret Rd courts "booked constantly" and she cannot ever book a court no matter how far out.

To me the possible range of solutions are:

- go to the courts super early in the day, even if you don't want to -or-
- go to another court -or-
- petition the city government to extend times the courts are open for public access and also propose a limit to number of hours one organization can book more than 2 courts at a time and/or
- Find a friend who lives in a community that has their own private courts and arrange a playdate to play tennis on those courts.

[JO783]

Definitely not booked constantly (see earlier - played 3 hours with open courts).

I was surprised how busy weekdays were though. It may not be <all> courts though, so its worth checking. I have previously made the mistake of arriving at an empty courts, picking one that looked good, the rest get filled up with random folks playing and then I get kicked off because I happened to pick the one court that was reserved.

It would be nice if a physical copy of the schedule was posted at the courts each week. Especially if the online one isn't up to date like the OP seemed to imply.

[lottamoxie]

But if *none* of the courts are booked by the USTA between 6:30am to 9am, then there is a window where the public can get in. I'm suggesting early morning because I bet courts are available for someone besides USTA and groups.