Hey, this is Shaun with the GoTennis Podcast, powered by Signature Tennis.
Speaker:Check us out at LetsGoTennis.com, and while you're there, be sure to register for the
Speaker:2025 GoTennis, tennis, and pickleball fall festival.
Speaker:Tennis drills, pickleball clinics, the best coaches, vendors, sponsors, food, and more.
Speaker:You don't want to miss it.
Speaker:And now let's get into our recent conversation with Matt Grayson.
Speaker:Matt is Director of Athletics at the Ansley Golf Club in Atlanta.
Speaker:We talk about the unique culture of his club, the evolution of country clubs over the past
Speaker:30 years, and the changing dynamics of membership expectations.
Speaker:We specifically cover the upcoming RacketX Club's City Series conference, Matt is hosting
Speaker:at Ansley.
Speaker:I'll be there moderating one of the panels, so if we don't see you in person on November
Speaker:1st, we hope to see you at Ansley on November 9th.
Speaker:Have a listen, and after you get registered for the fall festival, let us know what you think.
Speaker:Who are you and why do we care?
Speaker:Well, my name is Matt Grayson again.
Speaker:I'm the Director of Athletics and Rackets here at the Ansley Golf Club.
Speaker:I've been here for about 13 years.
Speaker:I went to Baylor University for college.
Speaker:I've been kind of at Atlanta native.
Speaker:That's an oddity for Atlanta.
Speaker:My whole family is from here.
Speaker:My parents went to Georgia.
Speaker:I went to big UGA fans until Baylor came knocking to have the opportunity to go there.
Speaker:I was one of the few and our family didn't go to Georgia.
Speaker:Been in Atlanta teaching tennis for now since 1995.
Speaker:You can do the math.
Speaker:I won't tell you how old I am.
Speaker:Just I'll let you guys figure that part out.
Speaker:That's kind of who I am, and I've been doing this for quite a while now, but been in the Atlanta
Speaker:area the entire time.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:And Bobby, of course, you're going to bring up TCU and Baylor, but we're going to try
Speaker:to switch that.
Speaker:I may cut out here and there.
Speaker:I can see that I'm trying to reconnect.
Speaker:But next question, Matt, prop to us about your club.
Speaker:Talk to us about where you are.
Speaker:Director of Rack is there.
Speaker:What is interesting about that club?
Speaker:What's unique about you and where you are?
Speaker:So Ansley is a pretty unique club just because it how active it is.
Speaker:We're smack in downtown Atlanta.
Speaker:So we're right in the middle of everything.
Speaker:So space is always a problem for us, but it is one of the most active clubs I've ever
Speaker:seen.
Speaker:Most of our members live within three miles of the club.
Speaker:We have about 1,600 member families that belong to our club.
Speaker:So you do the math out on that.
Speaker:It's probably 5,000 members.
Speaker:And most of them live within three miles.
Speaker:We even have three shuttles that will come to your house if you live within a certain radius
Speaker:of the club.
Speaker:And they will come get you and bring you to the club because parking is such a problem.
Speaker:So they almost have our own little mini uber system for the club to get members here.
Speaker:So they are here all the time.
Speaker:We have so many tennis players that we have to rent courts over Bitsy Grant, a public
Speaker:facility not far from here, to house all of our Anzli Thursday and Sunday out to teams.
Speaker:So we rotate who plays here to Anzli.
Speaker:We have to go over to Bitsy for some of their matches.
Speaker:Being in the I'm in charge of the wellness, that also includes youth care, fitness, swim
Speaker:team, pool.
Speaker:We kind of joke here that I'm in charge of everything but golf and food.
Speaker:So that's a big part of what Anzli is, but it is one of the most active memberships
Speaker:I've ever seen.
Speaker:Since I've worked at other clubs in Atlanta, when I came here, it was just amazing to
Speaker:me that if I just sent out about one email and said, "Hey, we're going to have something
Speaker:going on this Friday."
Speaker:You have about 40 people sign up from a bet in about five minutes.
Speaker:So I've never seen a club that was so easy to get things going and moving just because
Speaker:everybody here lives so close and is so active, even though we're smack in the middle of
Speaker:downtown Atlanta.
Speaker:And so Bobby, talk to Matt about the differences, the interesting thing here with this kind of
Speaker:club being in Atlanta, that kind of membership, it's different, with different types of directors
Speaker:of tennis and different types of clubs.
Speaker:How different is that from what Bobby does on a daily basis, from a director standpoint?
Speaker:Bobby's got potentially similar numbers with access to his club, but Bobby, what does
Speaker:that look like from where you are versus where Matt is?
Speaker:Well, that's about right away.
Speaker:How many hours a week do you spend on court?
Speaker:On court, I really tried to stay at about 12 to 15 hours at the most for me personally.
Speaker:Now even though we're only an eight-court facility with tennis, we have three permanent
Speaker:pickable courts on top of that.
Speaker:We have six full-time tennis professionals and a full-time pickable pro to go with that.
Speaker:So we're teaching that much here, and all the other pros teaching out between 30 to 32
Speaker:hours a week of their schedule.
Speaker:So because I've been charged with some other things, I try not to be on the court more than
Speaker:the actual, they club would rather me be on the court only 10 to 12 hours a week, honestly.
Speaker:So I think that's the number one, the biggest difference, Sean.
Speaker:As you see, the bigger club, as he's director of athletics, his responsibilities go beyond
Speaker:where the guys like me, like you said, might have the numbers, but we're still, most of our
Speaker:money is made on court and through the program that we run.
Speaker:And we have a hard time, as we always talked about, with scale, and then we have to deal with
Speaker:the guys from Ansely who come and take our pros too, because he was taking Greg Kasha from
Speaker:me back in the day as well.
Speaker:I have to lend out my boy to everybody throughout Atlanta, so it makes it hard.
Speaker:He did a good job for us as one of our part time guys.
Speaker:We have to bring in part time guys every now and then too.
Speaker:We have so many people that come through here during the season.
Speaker:So that's, we add a couple of part time guys on top of those six full time guys as well.
Speaker:Yeah, Greg's a good guy, but I mean, did that's the hard guy that we were talking about?
Speaker:How do we clone these guys and share them because it is hard for the other clubs to scale?
Speaker:But I think it's great with what's going on.
Speaker:Obviously, Intercity Atlanta, that much tennis participation.
Speaker:Obviously, the people at Bitsy must love you as well because they're probably making a
Speaker:good deal of money off of what you're bringing through Bitsy.
Speaker:Yeah, they get court time from us every season and they know we're going to pay the court
Speaker:time.
Speaker:They know the cheques are going to clear.
Speaker:And they know we're going to pay it every season.
Speaker:So we're guaranteed court time every single lot of season for the four teams that we
Speaker:play out of there.
Speaker:We have one on Sunday and three on Thursday.
Speaker:So they love it.
Speaker:So we try to keep up a good relationship with whatever management company is running
Speaker:the city courts at that time.
Speaker:So they do like it and it works for us too because it's one of the few clay court facilities
Speaker:that we can use clay courts to play on since our members are used to play on clay over here.
Speaker:So it works well for us as well.
Speaker:And so I'm real quick is I know we're out of taste, but I feel like I'd be remiss that Matt
Speaker:is one of the last.
Speaker:I don't know what the graduates of the country club of Roswell, director of tennis machine
Speaker:that used to be helmed by Cindy Jones.
Speaker:And if you know you wanted to become a director in city of it in Metro Atlanta, you had to go
Speaker:pay your dues with Cindy Jones and Wilson, Tineo.
Speaker:They were on quite the roll back in the late 90s, early thousands with who they were producing.
Speaker:So Kudos to Cindy for all the great people that she put out into Metro Atlanta tennis
Speaker:force.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Cindy actually hired me to be the head pro at Country Club of Roswell.
Speaker:Said no knowing she was coming up on the retirement.
Speaker:She brought me in and said, hey, if you come in, be the head pro for a couple of years,
Speaker:when I move out, I want you to move in and be the director here.
Speaker:So that's kind of like she brought me in to kind of take her spot when she was leaving.
Speaker:So that's how I got a got to country of Roswell and then became the director there.
Speaker:And that brings along the wider, I guess, right guys that ran three big clubs during Atlanta
Speaker:for quite a while.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Speaker:And so the wider question, Matt, that says, okay, what have you seen in the last 30 years
Speaker:because from a country club standpoint, there's a difference.
Speaker:There's growth.
Speaker:There's certain clubs that produce great training for country club pro types.
Speaker:But what is there other differences in the last 30 years?
Speaker:Is it all just the same?
Speaker:What do we see that's changed in that time?
Speaker:So there is a lot of difference.
Speaker:Kind of what we've talked about this past weekend, we just had our board of directors retreat
Speaker:where our board of directors in our department heads all went away for the weekend and did
Speaker:a big planning retreat for all of next year.
Speaker:And you know, some of the conversation was because, especially in downtown, there's been
Speaker:a big resurgence, but because tennis itself, since COVID, shot up 30, 35, sometimes 40%, depending
Speaker:on where you are, it's been a huge resurgence.
Speaker:As a club at Anzui, we have a seven year wait list right now.
Speaker:We're full.
Speaker:We cannot take anyone members.
Speaker:We have about a seven year wait list.
Speaker:So what's happened is now, dues go up, like the initiation fees of all the clubs have gone
Speaker:up.
Speaker:I mean, there's a lot of clubs in downtown Atlanta that have a $150,000 initiation fee.
Speaker:So we joke, you have to pay that $150,000 to get the privilege of getting a big, big
Speaker:bill in the mail every month to be able to stay a member, right?
Speaker:So what it used to be that, you know, when those things were smaller and people were getting
Speaker:into clubs at a much more affordable rate, they came into the club and it was more of like,
Speaker:hey, what can I do to help my club be better?
Speaker:They were much more like a, they wanted to join, wanted to be on the board, wanted to be
Speaker:on the committees, and they wanted to be more of that a part of that club.
Speaker:And you still have some people that way, but I think you have a lot more people that
Speaker:are joining clubs now saying, hey, we just paid $150,000.
Speaker:Do you remember this club?
Speaker:And now I got to pay dues every month.
Speaker:What is the club going to do for me on day one?
Speaker:So I think there's a little bit of a difference of attitude.
Speaker:And then we understand why.
Speaker:I mean, if you're paying that much, that's reasonable.
Speaker:But it is a very different feeling in some of the clubs.
Speaker:Some of the clubs have still held on to that family feel.
Speaker:And I think Anzli is one of those.
Speaker:They talk about being the Anzli family and it's not a kind of a stiff kind of club.
Speaker:It's pretty very laid back kind of family feeling place.
Speaker:But there are a lot of clubs that have gotten much more stiff and a lot more hard to manage
Speaker:membership expectations.
Speaker:When they come in because of those high initiation fees and more member expectations and more
Speaker:to the fact of, we don't want to do things to be a part of the club.
Speaker:We want the club to do things for us.
Speaker:I managed the swim team.
Speaker:It used to be that a lot of the clubs in Midtown, they always had swim team committees
Speaker:and the parents volunteered and we're all staffing up the swim meets and they had to
Speaker:do all their volunteer hours.
Speaker:We still have that here.
Speaker:And I know of several in town clubs that now have no parent volunteer hours.
Speaker:They staff the entire swim meet and they have they pay people to run the entire swim team
Speaker:where the parents just drop the kids off and that's it.
Speaker:So you're starting to see more of that which is a change which because of dual working families
Speaker:and things like that that they're expecting more support not having them be more fled in.
Speaker:So that is a little bit of a change and I understand why it's not a, it's not a rip on people.
Speaker:It's not saying it's better or worse but it is a feel sometimes depending on the club and
Speaker:depending on what your demographic is of membership.
Speaker:Bobby, go ahead and give me the answer.
Speaker:What would you say when Windomir came to you and said we'd like you to also run the swim
Speaker:team please?
Speaker:I think it's easier just for me to look at and say what Matt just described is why I, Ken
Speaker:and Riano is at Atlanta Country Club and I'm not at Atlanta Country Club.
Speaker:You know and you have to be the right person to know whatever your qualifications are it
Speaker:has to be the right fit and when that was all happening I just looked in the mirror and
Speaker:said I'm not the right fit for this and Ken does it do nearly what Matt does.
Speaker:Nothing against Ken of the Ken to do.
Speaker:You know there's still his Matt's membership.
Speaker:How many out the teams do you have play at it?
Speaker:Let's say this fall season.
Speaker:How many players were teams were out of angially?
Speaker:Here we had seven Sunday teams we had 11 Thursday teams.
Speaker:I believe it's six junior teams this season and two senior teams.
Speaker:We ran our men's league as an in-house league that we run and we have about 90 guys on our
Speaker:men's in-house league that we run internally and we also have a women's pickable league on
Speaker:Wednesday nights at about 90 ladies in our in-house pickable league.
Speaker:We run on Wednesday nights.
Speaker:So we do think something's in-house as well.
Speaker:So I think what happens is on that programming part like the reason all the athletics directors
Speaker:and why that's kind of become a thing is tennis pros have always been really good at programming
Speaker:right we come up with different programs we come up with things to get the membership
Speaker:engaged and the club sees those things and they go hey there's not as much program there's
Speaker:not as much member engagement in the fitness center.
Speaker:So they look to the cut they look to the pro and say hey you've done a good job of getting
Speaker:people all the tennis courts pros are kind of like trainers they teach people how to play
Speaker:tennis the trainers kind of teach people how to work out can you help program that area.
Speaker:So you start getting people to come to fitness classes you start getting people to go on
Speaker:group runs you you program people to go run the peach tree together and you put together
Speaker:programming there they're like hey that's going better now or make generating more revenue
Speaker:in the fitness area because the program is put together tennis is making more money because
Speaker:you put things there and then they go hey well you've done that can you do programming
Speaker:at the pool and that starts going better they go hey we need some programming in the youth
Speaker:care department can you program there well.
Speaker:So once you show people you do better with programming they start coming to you to program
Speaker:all these different areas and I think that's why a lot of tennis directors and what racquet
Speaker:sports directors now wherever you want to say depending on what your club is are getting
Speaker:asked to do more of this stuff because they're proving their their worth as a programmer and
Speaker:so the clubs reach out to you to help program on all those different areas that maybe lacking
Speaker:in programming in the past.
Speaker:And I think I think you're doing yourself an injustice there not only the programming
Speaker:but you're the person on the ground and you're very approachable and you are the person
Speaker:for better or worse that most of the people will reach out to when there's a problem no
Speaker:matter what hat you're wearing kudos to angely to realize that and say okay this should be
Speaker:our point person because you know creativity doesn't necessarily fall into but I still
Speaker:want to talk to this person there's been a lot of obnoxious creative people but the fact
Speaker:that you're very approachable and makes it where the people want to talk to you then
Speaker:it's a win-win and again angely was smart enough to see that and build on it I just hope there's
Speaker:enough hours in the day for you.
Speaker:Sometimes there aren't sometimes there's not but it all goes it all ends up working out
Speaker:pretty well.
Speaker:And you've got a cool event coming up at your club now Matt I say now we got to get this
Speaker:published before it comes out we just dated our conversation but November 9th you've
Speaker:got racquet x coming in talk to us about that I've been surprised there isn't more buzz
Speaker:about it in Atlanta so hopefully we can get this out and create some buzz for you.
Speaker:Right so racquet x is a big racquet's conference that they hold down to my amy every year and
Speaker:it's a big convention they tied it to a big padell tournament this year they have a big
Speaker:trade show that goes on and it covers tennis padell you know ping pong you name anything
Speaker:with a racquet senate it's down there and they did a new thing this year where they had
Speaker:a day where it was all about clubs and the tennis industry and they had people speaking
Speaker:on it and different panels of people you could ask questions to and because that went so
Speaker:well they paired together this year with the directors club of America and they created
Speaker:a city series and they went to Philadelphia first they went out to LA they now been to Austin
Speaker:they just wrapped that one up and now they're planning on coming to Atlanta for the fourth
Speaker:and final stop so at Anzli we're going to host that at last stop on November the 9th
Speaker:and they bring in industry people from all over the place they're going to bring in
Speaker:people talk about padell some pick up all people some tennis people some people outside
Speaker:of the tennis industry that are going to have some good insight to just business acumen
Speaker:talk about things that are happening in the industry overall I know they've had you know
Speaker:Ryan Dilman spoke at one of my believe and they've brought in you know guys that are part
Speaker:of the directors club of America to speak they brought in different GM's to help give
Speaker:different perspectives from different clubs to the guys that come listen to it so we're
Speaker:waiting on that finalized speaker list to come in but that's the kind of people they
Speaker:brought to speaker so it's really geared towards directors of programming and GM's and
Speaker:industry people of the rackets industry to really kind of help talk about what's happening
Speaker:in our rackets world and try to get more information out to everybody about the changes and things
Speaker:that are that are coming and the trends that everybody's seeing so we're excited to host
Speaker:that and be the Atlanta stop for them on the 9th so that's that Sunday and we're we're
Speaker:looking at the exact time but somewhere between like that 9 to 5 kind of time that day so
Speaker:it'll be a day time event that Sunday yeah and I'll be there I'm moderating one of the
Speaker:conversations there about getting attention in a world of FOMO and go figure we're the podcast
Speaker:people right so getting attention is something we're actually pretty good at but it'll be a
Speaker:good it'll be a good day because I think it's it's a fairly unique event and like I said
Speaker:I don't know that there's a lot of buzz yet and hopefully that will grow to get the attendance
Speaker:that everybody's looking for it's a fairly targeted audience for attendance it's general
Speaker:managers directors club owners they're not really sending out the invitation to anybody who
Speaker:isn't at I'd say at least but at least a director of ragged sports right it you know they're
Speaker:not trying to go to just the guy that's just trying to be an independent teaching pro because
Speaker:out there's what they're going to be talking about wouldn't really apply if you're not going
Speaker:if your goal is just to you know come and teach in a neighborhood and put balls back
Speaker:your car and teach which there's a lot of those guys in Atlanta that do very well and
Speaker:are very good at that but it's not geared to what those guys do on a daily basis what they're
Speaker:going to talk about is not the newest drill how to coach ladies what doubles tactics are
Speaker:out there none of that will be discussed it's going to be more about the management side
Speaker:how to run a club what club owners are looking for trends in ownership trends in club management
Speaker:so it's going to be that level of ideas and talking points that wouldn't be geared towards
Speaker:just teaching and junior development those kind of things less of like our local workshops
Speaker:that we do a lot because we've also got like the RSPA is doing a workshop in early December
Speaker:which I think is more on court it's more targeted to say the boots on the ground type that are
Speaker:out teaching lessons and want to get better at coaching so in that case we've got that
Speaker:in coming up November 9th you say that's a Sunday I'm excited about that one I was thinking
Speaker:it'd be a neat thing neat is such a boring word I apologize it'd be a great thing to bring
Speaker:in every year is this the kind of thing you're a DCA member as well I think so is this the
Speaker:kind of thing they're going to try to do in Atlanta a lot they're going to pick another
Speaker:four cities next year is this a pilot program do you know this is the first year they've
Speaker:ever done it it was a new pilot program this year Robin heads up racquet x and Jarrett
Speaker:does a direct school of America I haven't heard them talk about next year but I know that
Speaker:so far the first three stops have gone well and they've been happy with what's come out
Speaker:of it so you know what's this stop in Atlanta comes through I'm sure they'll talk about it
Speaker:figure out what they want to do for next year and see if they want to expand this offering
Speaker:or or see what happens but I haven't heard anything from them yet but I know they're
Speaker:just trying to get through these four stops because it takes a lot to coordinate all
Speaker:these these four places and get that going so they just finished all of them I think last
Speaker:week so they're turning right background in Atlanta so they got their hands full so I'm
Speaker:sure once we wrap up Atlanta they'll be some discussion about what they want to do going
Speaker:forward yeah they're not not involving me in that conversation but it's probably a
Speaker:smart thing to do which is keeping keeping next year let's worry about next year after we
Speaker:finish this year at some level especially if you're doing something for the first time you
Speaker:say you've been at an ansley for over a decade you've probably already got next year
Speaker:all planned pretty much we just went away for the weekend with the entire you know board
Speaker:of directors to talk about all the budgeting and all the planning for next years there's
Speaker:always a few curveballs we throw in there and things we try to add to the calendar but
Speaker:we pretty much have 26 kind of wrapped up as far as least our programming side for us well
Speaker:I know Robbins working on changing some things about the racketex conference that they do I
Speaker:think they're gonna try to hold it maybe in a little bit different possible location next
Speaker:year but I don't know what that is I think she's trying to finalize all those things I
Speaker:don't want to you know talk and I turn and say it's the wrong place but I know that there's
Speaker:some discussion about what they want to do so you know I know there's there's some changes
Speaker:they're trying to do and make it even bigger and better for everybody so we'll see but
Speaker:I know that they're doing a great job of trying to keep it fresh and new and you know Robbins
Speaker:an idea person every time I sit down and talk to her she's throwing out 12 different things
Speaker:and asking like what would you do this would you do this and so she will never run of ideas
Speaker:it doesn't look like so I think it will always have some new fresh feel to it so I know
Speaker:that she's always got something in her head plan I just don't know what all those things
Speaker:she's confirmed yet so it will continue to grow and move yeah ideas go ahead Bob I'm sorry
Speaker:no I'm sorry we have to remind Robbins that she lives an hour away from downtown Atlanta
Speaker:that you should think of us first and I was I was also proving to be I didn't say it worked
Speaker:and believe it and I went in a whole entire hour on a conversation and I did not speak but
Speaker:I listened and just an amazing organ is what they've done and what they have to do to put
Speaker:on that weekend conference and the cost associated with it it is an unbelievable undertaking so
Speaker:you know and and she like Matt said she there they are trying to figure out ways and I would say this
Speaker:anything that came out of the conversation you know because we always talked about it that since
Speaker:paddle and pickleball are the new kids in town and with new usually means more companies are
Speaker:willing to spend money to try to make their brand the recognizable brand that they kind of had a
Speaker:big paddle in pickleball platform associated with them but they realize the importance of tennis as well
Speaker:and are trying to pivot and get more tennis involvement and get more tennis exhibitions and whatever they
Speaker:can for the consumer because you know that was the fun part they use like B2B and B2C and I'm
Speaker:sitting there saying okay what is B2B oh business to business cool I was business B2C oh business
Speaker:to consumer cool so you know they use all those great words and you sit there so they like I said
Speaker:I was very impressed it was great to be part of that call just to listen and I'm a big fan of Rob I
Speaker:was tracking Robin for about six months and finally found a way to get her to at least answer my text
Speaker:and it was it was great to hear what's going on so I'm excited when I read that they were coming
Speaker:to Ansely because I would and I'm a big Jared fan as well because I think what he did with pickleball
Speaker:he was so far ahead of the curve there that he was smart enough to leave Maryland or wherever he
Speaker:was to go to Texas so again I'm all for any time you can make that switch I'm all for that as well so
Speaker:I think they got some really good people I heard someone describe those three sports with pickleball
Speaker:and tennis and pickleball I mean with Pudel and it was kind of a neat thing they said hey if you
Speaker:want to compare those three racket sports to like auto racing they said pickleball is kind of like
Speaker:dirt track racing everybody can get into it it's pretty cheap to try it out and you can figure out
Speaker:if you like it or not right tennis is like NASCAR there's big events there's big money in it there's
Speaker:sponsorships it's been there for a long time and it's good a state it's not going anywhere and Pudel
Speaker:is like Formula One that's where the money is that's where the new sponsors are going that's where
Speaker:it's the flash is that's where the kind of the sexy part of the sport is and that's where people
Speaker:are kind of moving to and where the TV and all the advertising and kind of the movie rights are
Speaker:going to right so I thought that was a pretty good comparison of sports a different sport to where
Speaker:the rackets are was comparing race car driving to the rackets world Bobby I'm sure you're going to
Speaker:steal that so write that down so we don't forget right that's a good one I like that I love the
Speaker:Formula one not knowing that apples look into put money into Formula One I'm like that hey that
Speaker:makes a lot of sense so yes it does like it so Bobby you got anything else from Matt before
Speaker:hitting with King of tennis no I'm happy listening okay Matt anything else you want to talk about
Speaker:because you know the King of tennis a question is coming I'm but anything else you want to mention
Speaker:we talked about the racketacks we talked about Anzli we caught up on you and who you are and end
Speaker:it some industry trends got anything else interesting that's been on your mind recently you want to
Speaker:discuss no I think we covered most of the things I guess really good okay then I will jump to
Speaker:King of tennis and this one is my favorite question I love it I love ending with it I think it's
Speaker:a lot of fun but if I ask you and I say if you were King of tennis whether it was the whole world
Speaker:social professional any version of tennis whatever it is whatever scope you can picture if you
Speaker:were King of tennis is there anything you would do or change I did think about that question when
Speaker:you ask it to me and I tried to think like well do I go real big or do I kind of think smaller to
Speaker:to our market and you know if it's if it's real big I think it's got to be that we make it a little
Speaker:more you know a little more fun I think you know the intense tennis that was here in Atlanta did kind
Speaker:of bring that out with the music that was playing in the lights and in the kind of the sound of the
Speaker:way that it kind of fits a little bit better with some of the younger generation people coming up
Speaker:that are looking for more excitement and not the quiet and sit real still the whole time but you
Speaker:know I kind of landed on hey if I if I had to change something in the market where I am if I'm in
Speaker:the Atlanta market and I got to be King of the Atlanta market for a day what I would say is we've
Speaker:got to call out on and I won't I won't play favorites I will let somebody else decide which one we
Speaker:got to call out one of the seasons of either alto or USDA because right now that the problem that I
Speaker:see with it is we have spring summer winter fall right we play year round and everybody's coming in
Speaker:for lessons everybody's coming in to try to improve but everybody comes in on Tuesday to improve for
Speaker:their match on Thursday everybody comes in on a Wednesday and says I got to be good by Thursday they
Speaker:come on Friday I got a match on Saturday I got to fix my serve in in one hour and so nobody really
Speaker:has time to get better at the game so everybody gets to about mid B low A in alto terms and they just
Speaker:flatten out and they stay there for 30 years like like tennis in Atlanta and I really feel like if
Speaker:there was one season where people could just say hey we're not going to have matches for the next
Speaker:three months and you actually had time to say hey we're going to have time to actually work and
Speaker:develop our game and work with somebody to say hey I don't have a match I can actually change the
Speaker:grip of my serve I can actually learn how to hit a slice backhand I can actually learn how to hit a
Speaker:pop spin forehand you know those kind of things where people could actually grow in the sport
Speaker:I think that it would be way better and I think people would enjoy it a lot longer because I think
Speaker:where we lose people in tennis is they start out at a low level and they see this great incline of
Speaker:play they see this great increase in their abilities and then they flatten out and once they flatten
Speaker:out it gets a little bit less exciting for them and if their friends all saying it they stay in it
Speaker:but if their friends start to dis-pay too then we lose them because they don't they don't have that
Speaker:time to actually work on their game because they're so afraid they might lose their next league play
Speaker:match which in Atlanta happens every day so to me that's what I think would be my thing is I would
Speaker:call out one of the leagues from one of the seasons and have three league seasons instead of four
Speaker:in the Atlanta market so there's actually a time to work and improve your actual game and your
Speaker:play Bobby a social tennis offseason what do you think I used to say more white columns but
Speaker:longer as you say like USDA is the season we practice we want to win dinner plates like matchup
Speaker:we're probably every play sells it might be different but here Alta is king so we would play for
Speaker:the dinner plates and I would say the same thing because and I completely agree and Matt we cut
Speaker:it alluded to it before we went live so they don't know exactly how old we are but you know in the
Speaker:80s there was a business term called the pita principle which within an organization you would rise
Speaker:to your level of incompetence I always base that's what Alta is based on you know you're gonna go as far
Speaker:then you're gonna plateau and now it's up to you to decide do we improve or we happy with the
Speaker:social aspects of it and I'm fortunate with the dynamics of a neighborhood changing people coming
Speaker:and going you lose if you know the dynamic of the social changes you lose tennis players and that
Speaker:hurts our income so I think if we could create that environment where learning becomes just as
Speaker:as much fun as playing you know yeah and I think the leagues even been done but not really a great
Speaker:job in Atlanta to where there used to be some gaps between the leagues where when Alta ended you had
Speaker:about three weeks or four weeks or something of break between that when USDA started well now
Speaker:city finals Alta's one Thursday USDA starts the very next Thursday like then they've spread out
Speaker:the leagues to where there's for some reason now we play one USDA match and then we take a break
Speaker:the very next week in May and then we go back like why don't we just start after that break instead of
Speaker:having that one match in the middle of May that would give three weeks so people could actually
Speaker:work on something I think that's something that they could we could really work on because people just
Speaker:don't get better because they're not willing to make a change because they're so worried they're
Speaker:gonna lose their next league play match so yes it's hard to keep what you're I say you know I'm a good
Speaker:pro not a miracle worker I can't fix everything in your game in one hour uh-huh well and so in that
Speaker:case Matt just quick question you're king can't you just implement a non-season at your club and say
Speaker:I'm sorry guys you are not a let we're picking winter whatever it is right we're not allowed to play
Speaker:league we're not gonna do it here are they just gonna go somewhere else and find it like is that
Speaker:the problem because you could just say this is our club this is how we do it this is time to get
Speaker:better now if I'm gonna be king I gotta be king of the entire city so I can just shut it down city
Speaker:why I just got it down in my club you're probably gonna be seeing me looking for a new job next week
Speaker:just asking you see where I can go next next time because if I take tennis away they're gonna be
Speaker:they're gonna lose their minds but yeah so I would have to be king of the entire city where I could
Speaker:just say hey city wide this is not happening yeah that makes a lot of sense I'm good with that this
Speaker:has been a lot of fun I really appreciate it Matt and I apologize a little bit for my uh my pixelation
Speaker:I'm traveling and Bobby you never know his his network sometimes works but uh that's why I like
Speaker:doing this because we don't have to be in the same room but we still get a chance to talk to guys
Speaker:like you and I really appreciate it we really appreciate you making the time and coming to talk to
Speaker:us between all of us thank you so much Matt I really appreciate your time thank you Matt
Speaker:no problem thanks for having me I was a lot of fun
Speaker:well there you have it we want to thank reGeovinate.com for use of the studio and signature tennis
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