Mole #63 Make Pertinent Documents Available, Please Read and Decide
The 2003 Lease Agreement
The Site Plan
The Recent Proposal
Evansville Community Tennis Association (ECTA)
Our mission is to “Grow Tennis in the Evansville Communityâ€
Evansville Department of Parks and Recreation Presentation
June 1 2011
Terry L. Clements
President of ECTA
Proposed Expansion of Wesselman Tennis Center
The lease signed in year 2003 for a term of 25 years with an extension of 10 years provides the ability for the ECTA to build 12 additional outdoor and/or indoor courts at the Wesselman Tennis Center. All construction requires the review and approval by the Evansville Department of Parks and Recreation.
In order to continue to grow tennis in the Evansville community additional courts are required to support the various ECTA Programs such as 1) Middle School; 2) Leagues; 3) Junior and Adult Tournaments. Currently Evansville is lacking the necessary minimum indoor court count required to petition for USTA League Championships. In addition this deficit restricts the ability to petition for high level Adult/Junior Tournaments.
The ECTA Wesselman Tennis Center Master Plan addresses growing tennis by the addition of six Indoor courts and six Outdoor courts within the existing lease property.
The high-level characteristics of the proposed expansion are:
Site:
Parking will be expanded to support the additional player capacity
Landscaping will be added along North, East and South of expansion
Indoor Building:
Specifications of indoor facility will follow USTA Court Construction Book
Design meeting local and state building requirements
Design and construction focused on minimizing operating expenses
Post-Tension construction resulting in longevity of investment
Locker rooms to address player needs
Office space to support professional tennis instructors and meetings
Mezzanine for viewing all matches
Energy efficient lighting
Energy efficient air handling
Outdoor courts:
Specifications of outdoor facility will follow USTA Court Construction Book
Post-Tension construction
Mezzanine for viewing all matches
Lighting equivalent with existing lighting with reduced pole height
OVERVIEW
Evansville Community Tennis Association (ECTA) is a non-profit 501-c3 organization.
Formed in year 2000 from the Evansville Patrons (youth) and Evansville Tennis Club (adult) with the goal of growing tennis in the Evansville community.
Our volunteer board consists of 3 officers and 10 board members listed below:
President – Terry L. Clements;Vice-President/Secretary – David Wu; Treasury – Barb Kemper;
Junior Chairman – Karan Wilson; League Chairman – John Wolk; Tournament Chairman – Barb Boone; Marketing Chairman – Amy Johnston; Facilities Chairman – Robert Patten; Legal – Brian Carroll; Women’s Professional Tournament – Kim Angermerier; Fund Raising Chairman – Kavone Mitchell; Member at Large: Larry Larson, Dr. Emil Weber
We are a Community Tennis Association (CTA) organized under the United States Tennis Association (USTA) with the mission to grow tennis. ECTA is in the Midwest Section, Indiana State and Central Indiana Tennis Association (CITA) District. ECTA has managed the USTA Leagues in Evansville since the inception of local league play. In the past 8 years we have had two presidents of CITA and various members sitting on CITA committees. In addition, Woodie Sublett from Evansville is currently the Head of all Referee for the USTA and Kim Angermeier is currently a Referee (both active members of ECTA).
We operate the following programs at the Wesselman Tennis Center: USTA Leagues, Local Leagues, USTA Junior Tournaments, USTA Adult Tournaments, Middle School, instructional and community service. Each program is targeted to different tennis players.
The Evansville Department of Parks and Recreation (EDPR) has partnered with ECTA in creating the existing lease signed in 2003 to support the growth of tennis by managing and improving the Wesselman Tennis Center.
The expansión and operational costs of the Wesselman Tennis Center are supported by programs ECTA operates and by donations from individuals and organizations.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
The Evansville Department of Parks and Recreation (EDPR) has partnered with ECTA in creating the existing lease signed in 2003 to support the growth of tennis by managing and improving the Wesselman Tennis Center.
The lease signed in year 2003 for a term of 25 years with an extension of 10 years provides the ability for the ECTA to build 12 additional outdoor and/or indoor courts. The lease requirements were fulfilled in year 2006 by the completion of 4 additional courts and installation of new lighting on all 12 courts.
7/15/2003: Wesselman Tennis Center Lease signed
2004-2005: Constructed 4 additional Post-Tension Courts
2005: Resurfaced (new paint and lines) on 8 courts
2005: Created gravel parking lot
2006: Replaced existing lights with Musco lighting for 12 courts
2007: Constructed Club House and Paved Parking lot
2008-2009: Constructed Viewing Stand on North side of facility
2010: Resurfaced (new paint and lines) on 12 courts
The estimated value of the capital improvements since the lease signature is $700,000. It is estimated that the current investments will out live the initial and extended lease term. The construction of the Club House and Paved Parking Lot required borrowing of $105,000 which was paid off in an eighteen month time period.
Since the signature of the lease the various programs operated by ECTA have grown. The two programs demonstrating the highest growth have been 1) Middle School Programs of 310 middle school students in 2010; 2) USTA/Local League Adult Program (450 league players) with an 11% growth in 2010. The growth of these two programs has resulted in high utilization of the existing 12 courts from April until October of each year.
During the years of 2009 – 2010 the lights were utilized an average of 4 hours each evening for 237 days per year.
Since 2005 the USTA 10K Women’s Professional Tournament has been hosted at the Wesselman Tennis Center. This tournament has been noted by the USTA as a model tournament in the areas of management and facility.
Facility Management and Use
Consistent with the management of the existing 12 outdoor courts and Clubhouse the management of the expanded facility would be the responsibility of the Facility Committee reporting to the ECTA Board.
This Facility Committee would be responsible for managing the staff required to operate the facility; for reviewing and scheduling ECTA League, Tournament and community programs; and managing the profit and loss for the Indoor courts. Revenue for the indoor facility to offset the operating costs would be derived from facility membership, instructional fees, league fees and tournament fees.
Outdoor courts would be scheduled based on ECTA programs while also providing public access.
So, let’s see.
-The tennis assoc. is proposing to build a 42000 sq ft structure when their contract with the Park Board states 3000-5000 sq ft.
-They missed their deadline to get this done by over 2 years. This was to have been proposed and completed by 2009 if my math is correct.
-And they want to take public multi-use land and dedicate it to single usage for a select group of people.
DO they not know that teachers bring school children to that field? Do they not realize that this field is the only large open area in Wesselman Park other than the golf course? Does no one realize that the field in question tends to hold water when it rains so a big question is storm water run-off when concrete replaces grass?
Yet the tennis assoc. is pushing hard to get this thing built by November so that certain parties can have a publicly-supported place to play and teach tennis.
Did you notice that the Parks Dept will be paying for electricity, water, and sewer for this building and the outside courts?
Do you realize that the Tennis Association is planning to pack the house at the Wed 8:30AM Convention and Visitors Bureau meeting at Mesker to force their interests to be heard?
Normally the correct avenue is to present the plan to the CVB director and he then takes it to the board when he feels that he has enough data to do so. Apparently the director feels he does not have sufficient info yet to take it to the CVB board so the tennis assoc. is forcing themselves on the CVB.
And we know that CVB money is public money, yours and mine. Public money should not be spent for private interests or for the benefit of the very few. It has been established that the return on tourism investment for the proposed new tennis facilities is minimal.
Why do people think that park land is up for grabs? Green space is extremely valuable. Many cities would love to have what we have in Wesselman Park and Preserve. Let’s put a stop to this land grab once and for all.
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Thanks for the expose’! My first impression of this proposal was “what the heck, why not?”
I NOW see clearly, the true nature of this acquisition and misuse of public lands.
Again, thanks!
According to the above ECTA document:
450 leage players… I wonder if that is duplication for players playing in multiple leagues (spring, summer, fall, doubles, mixed doubles etc.) I looked up on the USTA site and found that there were only 189 registered USTA league players at the Wesselman site.
Is the city going to contribute a million dollars to cater to these individuals?
The 10K professional challenger event that ECTA runs at Wesselman Tennis Center since 2005…. Funny thing, it was run at U of E for over a decade on only 8 courts (and they put temporary bleachers on two of them so they only used 6 courts). Back then it had more sponosorship, and was a 25K event. As I understand it, the event does not even fill completely and ECTA invites local high school players to fill the draw.
The largest USTA jr. Event that ECTA holds is the Stevenson Memorial. in 2005 it drew over 90 entrants, this year only 55. From looking at the USTA site, only 5 families from over 60 miles away participated.
SO, as I see it, the proposed monies spent by the EVCB will go to fund a club facility for a small group of vocal residents who will contract out to the management of a now defunct local club. Since ECTA took over the site, the actual numbers have at best remained flat with the adults, and have shrunk in terms of professional involvment and jr. tournaments.
Seems to me like some tennis professionals are getting a free site to conduct a very lucrative business on the public dime…
The 189 registered USTA league players amounts to about 0.1% (1 in 1,000) of the people in Vanderburgh County.
Do not forget that there are a number of adult league players from newburgh too…..
That would lower the percentage by adding in that population to the 189 that are registered.
What amazing comments. I think I have heard these comments before OH I know at the public meeting today. It is a shame as an owner of Tri State you do not have the vision to see that the growth of tennis is good for your club. How much have you grown tennis. You stated that your membership is flat so one is to assume no growth. PS How many Groupon coupons are you going to accept at the determent of your members having court time. Please get some vision for the good of Evansville tennis
I just read an article (sorry I am late to this) regarding the decision by the parks board to give the ok to the plan to build this tennis club at Wesselman Park. In the article, ECTA president Terry Clements is quoted as saying that “over the next 5 years ECTA plans on putting on 19 tournaments that will bring $200,000.00 to Evansville” That is 4 tournaments a year. FOUR TOURNAMENTS A YEAR!! Is that what a million dollars of Evansville tax dollars buys? How many have they run in the last 5 years? I bet it is not significantly less than 19.
REALLY… so ECTA is asking for $1,000,000 of “free” money so that they can return $200,000 over 5 years? Even large tennis tournments only take 5 days. so a total of 100 days of tournaments in the next 1,825 days. Meanwhile there will be an ECTA “management team/staff” that will be operating a city funded club and charging the public dues, and fees for court time.
What am I missing here?
It is hard to run tournments when you do not have the number of courts you need to even put in a bid. I think it is great that Jasper has enough courts for these tournments.What do you think about the high school tennis courts we pay for and they are locked so the general public does not have the opportunity to use.Come to Wesselmans and enjoy the courts, they are not locked.
Why are the EVSC tennis courts not available to the public during non-school hours? Of all the things that I have heard in the last couple of days that is the most unacceptable. I run and am just infuriated that I have to climb a fence to train on a track that was paid for by tax money. California, Texas, and Kentucky are not like that.
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