Sportime Sees Expansion as Good for New York

Written by: Staff on 17th November 2011

Sportime Sees Expansion as Good for New York |

Sportime’s proposed expansion of its facility at Randall Island, New York, is experiencing a bit of opposition, but it appears as if the Tennis Center might have the ability to satisfy the demands of its detractors.

The Sportime Randall’s Island Tennis Center is one of the few new facilities in the New York metro Area and demand for court time at the 20-court tennis center is extremely high, so much that in just over two years of existence the company’s management is confident that it can install nine new courts in a dirt parking lot next door and immediately fill them with players.

Mark McEnroe, the Managing Director of Sportime Randall’s Island and the John McEnroe Tennis Academy, says that there is almost never a time when the courts aren’t filled. The club has so many junior programs going after school that the adults complained that they were unable to get enough court time after work, so the club had to establish adult only weekend playing hours.

Moreover, with the NY Metro area having lost 75 courts over the past the past decade or so, the demand from recreational players for both indoor and outdoor courts has become extremely high, which is why the company has been able to turn a profit while at the same time providing hundreds of hours of free indoor and outdoor tennis programming to under-resourced children in partnership with the parks departments and schools. Sportime also provides financial aid to McEnroe Tennis Academy students and estimates that some 1000 children play at the facility each year.

However, the company’s expansion plans has hit a at least a small roadblock as a park preservation society and some neighborhood groups in East Harlem and the South Bronx are questioning the move because access to the courts might be too high priced for some

“The public is losing access to Randall’s Island inch by inch and year by year,” East Harlem Preservation spokesperson Marina Ortiz told the Daily News.

Sportime is not the only facility on the island, which since 2007 has been transformed from an underused, deteriorating swath of land into a wide ranging sports mecca where in the past four years, over 60 athletic playing fields have been rebuilt, many of which are homes to league games for a variety of schools. The island has soccer, baseball, softball, football, lacrosse, field hockey and rugby fields, as well as golf course and tennis courts.

But the revitalization is by no means complete and the nonprofit Randall’s Island Sports Foundation, which manages the site and has already overseen $130 million in projects, is running low on cash to do major capital improvements projects.

That’s why McEnroe says that companies like Sportime are critical to goals of the foundation, as it has never asked the city or parks department for a penny and financed its $18 million facility by itself. It also pays approximately $1 million per year to the parks department, which is said to support the expansion. Plus, 50% of the new facility’s tennis court inventory is designated for holders of standard parks permits during daytime hours from May 1 through mid-October, even though the courts are maintained and operated at Sportime’s expense.

McEnroe says the proposed expansion represents an expected $5 to $7 million in capital investment in the park by Sportime and that once again there will be no public funds used. He also estimates that additional license fees will represent an estimated $400,000 to $500,000 per year for park maintenance, operations and programming.

The Randall’s Island Sports Foundation manages the site and uses monies from Sportime and others to manage and improve the island, but some community members say the money should be directly going to parks in needy communities East Harlem and the South Bronx.

A native of New York, Mark McEnroe says that he and his brothers John and Patrick (who is currently the head of USTA Player Development) have always supported the idea of increasing the number of areas in the city where kids could take part in athletes .

The Sportime Tennis Center, which is the largest tennis facility to open in New York City in the past 30 years, seems to fit the bill.

“I know there are some issues between the some of the community groups and the Sports Foundation about what should and should not be happening in regards to permits and to who and who should be not be playing on which fields and for how long, but when John and I decided to start the academy and work with Sportime, the main thing we were aiming for was to address the lack of courts in the city and to introduce more and more kids to tennis,” Mark McEnroe told DTN. “We think we have done that with Sportime and the Academy and have provided enough options for anyone from every socio- economic group to have a chance to play. I do understand that tennis is not as popular as basketball is and that’s there is a desire for more basketball courts at Randall Island, but there are far more basketball courts in New York than tennis courts and I think we have proven that there is a large demand from tennis players to have more courts built.”

While the plans will soon be presented to a community board for public review, it sounds like the opposition is not exactly aimed at the tennis center, but where the additional revenue from the expansion will go.

Matthew Washington, chair of Community Board 11, told the News that “We want to make sure money is not a barrier for kids in our community (to use the tennis courts).” He added that he would like to see scholarships to allow kids of all skill levels be exposed to tennis.

The island does have designated wetland areas, gardens, bicycle and pedestrian pathways that are free from cars, trucks and buses, Sportime has offered to build more pathways to connect its facilities with the rest of the island as well as install complimentary rain gardens and increased lighting.

“DAILY TENNIS NEWS WIRE”

Topics: Mcenroe, Randall Tennis Center, Sportime