USTA League Mixed Participation - A preliminary look at some USTA League statistics for 2023

 I've been doing some mid-year looks at participation for 2023 to get a preliminary idea of what any continued recover post-COVID there is or if the general decline we've observed since 2013 may be continuing.  I even took a look by section, first warm weather sections, then the rest, and saw some sections are declining faster, and a few have actually shown growth.

In doing that analysis, I looked at only the main Adult advancing leagues as I've done that each year and it provides consistency for comparing things year to year.  I thought it would be interesting to also look at Mixed, so this post will dive into that.

For this analysis I'm looking at unique participants during the USTA rating year in the 18 & Over or 40 & Over Mixed leagues.  This is unique participants, not total registrations, so someone playing in both leagues or multiple levels will be counted just once.

Also, since the USTA had a 2-year rating period for 2020/2021 due to COVID, I'm grouping those as a single "year".  As you  might expect, when I've looked at them individually in the past, 2020 was way down, and 2021 recovered some but not all the way to 2019 (or 2022) levels.

Here are the overall participation stats for Mixed!

This may be the first time I've done this for Mixed, so we actually get a view into the years from 2013 and on to see how it compares with the trend in Adult.  From 2013 to 2018, Adult dropped about 7-8% and here it is similar, although the bulk of the drop was in 2018.  There was a slight recovery in 2019 like Adult leagues also saw, but Mixed was a bit larger.  Combining the COVID years also shows a greater bump than Adult, and then a similar drop in 2022.  So overall Mixed participation very much mirrors Adult.

What is interesting is that 2023 is way behind 2022 at this point.  That is alarming at first, but a number of sections run Mixed leagues either in the Summer so just starting, or as early start leagues so still to be played, so much of that gap is due to that.

Another observation is that Mixed obviously requires the same number of men and women on the court, but every so slightly more women participate than men.  My observation locally is that to ensure player availability, teams often have more women than men, so this seems to back that up.

Next, I went ahead and looked at unique participants across Adult and Mixed.  Adult showed 275K in 2013 and Mixed shows 91K, so do these get added together?  Alas no as many players play both so only get counted once when looking at the combined stats.

Here is the chart.

Since the trends are similar in each category by themselves, combined we see the same trend.

It is interesting that in 2013 the combined number is 296K which tells us that about 21K appear to have played Mixed but not Adult that year.  In 2022 it was 243K in Adult and 262K combined so about 19K playing only Mixed.

What do you think?

Note: These are statistics from the data I've gathered for calculating my ratings and generating reports and may not exactly match the USTA's data or they may report numbers using different criteria than I am.

A preliminary look at some USTA League statistics for 2023 - Overall participation by Section - The rest of the sections

I've started taking a preliminary look at some participation numbers from USTA League play for 2023 and started with the overall numbers, now I'm digging in to look at the numbers by section.

As a reminder, I'm looking at participation only in the advancing leagues for consistency across the years.  This means if participation is up or down in Mixed or Tri-Level or other alternate leagues, the charts I create won't show that.

And I'll stress again that the 2023 numbers are preliminary, they can and will go up, in part based on where league play is to date, and also if a section will have early start leagues in the Fall.  But I think it is still interesting to see where they stand right now.

I already looked at the warm weather sections, now the rest of them.  Will these have significant different participation and/or have gotten a COVID bump from the additional players the TIA and USTA tell us picked up the game?

We'll go sort of largest to smallest starting with the largest of these sections, Midwest.

Midwest kind of follows the National trend to a point, but did not get a COVID 2-year period bump, dropped further in 2022, and is way down so far for 2023.  At this rate, they may not be the largest of this group of sections much longer.

Next up, Intermountain.

Intermountain has been close to flat, did get a little COVID 2-year period bump, then a small drop in 2022.  2023 still has a bit to match 2022.

Next, Mid-Atlantic.

A "national following" trend for the most part.  The 2-year COVID period was flat though, and a significant drop in 2022, although 2023 is looking close to the same.

Next, New England.

New England was flat through 2019, but struggled in 2020/2021 and dropped further in 2022.  2023 may still match 2022.

Next, Eastern.

This was mostly flat through 2019, but was hit hard by COVID and recovered slightly in 2022, but 2023 is behind so far.

Next, the Pacific Northwest.

This section had shown some very small growth through 2019, one of the few to do so, but was hit by COVID and 2022 fell a bit more.  2023 is looking pretty good in comparison though.

Next, Middle States.

Just a slight drop through 2019 here, a little hit from COVID but 2022 inched up, but 2023 is behind.

Next, Missouri Valley.

Very flat through 2019, but really saw a bump during the 2-year COVID period, and 2022 remained up from 2019.  2023 may match it by the end too.

Last, Northern.

Pretty flat to even a little  growth through 2019, but 2022 dropped and 2023 has dropped even more it appears.

Any surprises from what you see?  While all are warm weather sections. several have had significant drops, much more drastic than the national average, while Southwest, SoCal, and Florida have shown some modest gains.

How does this compare with what you've observed locally?

A preliminary look at some USTA League statistics for 2023 - Overall participation by Section - The warm weather sections

I've started taking a preliminary look at some participation numbers from USTA League play for 2023 and started with the overall numbers, now I'm digging in to look at the numbers  by section.

As a reminder, I'm looking at participation only in the advancing leagues for consistency across the years.  This means if participation is up or down in Mixed or Tri-Level or other alternate leagues, the charts I create won't show that.

And I'll stress again that the 2023 numbers are preliminary, they can and will go up, in part based on where league play is to date, and also if a section will have early start leagues in the Fall.  But I think it is still interesting to see where they stand right now.

In this post I'll take a look at the warm weather sections.  One might think that the sections where players can play pretty much year-round would be the most likely to maintain participation and/or have gotten a COVID bump from the additional players the TIA and USTA tell us picked up the game.

We'll go sort of largest to smallest starting with the largest section, Southern.

First, in 2013 there were right at 80K players that played in Southern.  Given the overall number was around 275K, that means nearly 30% of player participation comes from a single section!  That means whatever the trend is in Southern will likely have a significant impact on the overall stats.

And we do see that there is a general decline down to just over 70K in 2018/2019/2022 and so far, 2023 is still several thousand short of that.

Next up, Texas.

Texas had a small drop through 2019, but had the 2-year COVID bump and then back to 2019 levels in 2022.  2023 is behind but still time to make up the gap.

Next up, Northern California.

Northern Cal showed a similar drop from 2013 to 2019, around 12%, but unlike Southern had a significant drop for 2020/2021 even combining the years.  2022 was down even more, although 2023 has already gotten to 2022 levels.

Next, another warm weather section, Florida.

Here we see the decline from 2013 to 2016, but since then an increase, and a large increase in the combined 2020/2021 COVID rating period.  2022 was up significantly from 2019, so it will be interesting to see if 2023 ends up matching it by year end.

Next we go to the rest of California, Southern Cal.

Here we see growth from 2013 and forward!  2020/2021 had a slight dip despite being a 2-year period and 2022 was down a bit more, but 2023 is already up slightly over 2022.

The last three are some of the smallest sections starting with Southwest.

Southwest was pretty flat from 2013 and on with very modest growth in 2017-2019 over 2013 levels.  It did have the bump from the 2-year period then back to about the prior years level in 2022.  2023 is still a bit behind but there is time to make it up.

Next, Hawaii.

Hawaii does show a pretty significant drop over the years, about 17% from 2013 to 2019, and was significantly hit during COVID and 2022 was down a bit more.  Still time for 2023 to match 2022 but right now, it is down more.

Last, Caribbean.

Here we see pretty flat numbers from 2013 to 2017, but then a significant drop, and COVID has a big impact with 2022 down even more.  2023 is looking better though already.

Any surprises from what you see?  While all are warm weather sections. several have had significant drops, much more drastic than the national average, while Southwest, SoCal, and Florida have shown some modest gains.

How does this compare with what you've observed locally?

The rest of the sections coming soon.

Not all USTA League sections will be going to 5-courts for 2024 40 & Over

I wrote last week about what appears to be a change back to a 5-court format for the 2024 season of 40 & Over USTA League play, albeit a new one singles / four doubles format and not the prior two singles / three doubles setup.

What I did not highlight is that just because National changes the format, it doesn't mean every section or area will follow suit.  Individual sections have always had the ability to run their local leagues using a different format than will be used at USTA League Nationals, and some did it in the past when the National format was 2S/3D and some used an alternate format when Nationals changed to 1S/3D.  This was typically done at a district or area level and not across an entire section, but it still happened.

Some would use a 3-court format if rosters were small to promote more teams, some stuck with 5-courts when National went to four, and some used a 1S/4D format in the past when National used 2S/3D.

Well, it appears some areas are planning to not adopt the 5-court format for 2024 and stick with the same 4-court format in use for the last few years nationally.

One of those is my section (Pacific Northwest) or at least my area (Seattle/Northwest Washington) as our 2024 schedule shows 40 & Over still being 1S/3D.  I've also heard that other areas are sticking with 4-courts.

I'm guessing court availability is the driver in some areas for staying with 4-courts.  Particularly in areas where 40 & Over is played early in the year and it is still cold/wet and it is played indoors, courts can be at a premium, and now that facilities had several years of 40 & Over only using 4-courts, they don't want to go back.  This is perhaps an unintended consequence of trying out the 4-court format for several years.

Most 40 & Over leagues for 2024 haven't started yet, many won't for 6 months, so all this could change I imagine.  But these things are usually planned well in advance and some may stick with 4-courts to see how it goes in 2024.

What are you hearing will be done in your area?

A preliminary look at some USTA League statistics for 2023 - Overall participation

It is mid-June and the calendar year is almost half over, and with it league play is in full force or even into the post-season in some areas.  That means for the most part players have signed up for teams and are playing and we can begin to take a look at some USTA League stats for 2023.

This will be a sequence of several posts as there is too much to fit into one.  To start, I'll take a look at overall participation.

For reference, here is my post from late last year looking at this metric through the end of 2022 where I also discuss different ways of looking at 2020/2021 COVID years.  I won't rehash that here and just show 2020 and 2021 as a combined single 'year' since that is how the USTA treated it for rating purposes and I'm using rating years for this analysis.  That does cause that 2 year period to look a bit high in comparison to other single year periods, but it is what it is.

Here is preliminary 2023 unique player participation in the main Adult leagues.

The year is obviously not over yet, players could still sign-up and play on 2023 teams, and some areas will have early start leagues for 2024 play during the 2023 rating year so the 2023 participation number will go up, but there is a pretty substantial drop right now from just over 243K in 2022 to just over 222K this year.  And the drop is across both women and men in about equal percentages.

To compare apples to apples, I looked at what participation was in 2022 through June 19 and that number was 227K, so 2023 is only 5K behind at this point.  If that gap remains at the end of the year, it would be somewhat consistent with, but on the higher end, of the general trend you can see in the chart above.  Most years have seen about a 3K decrease, but a few have been higher or lower than that, and only 2019 showing a real increase (about 1K).

It would seem then that participation in the main Adult USTA Leagues continues to decline.  We'll see where we end up at at the end of the year.

Note: These are statistics from the data I've gathered for calculating my ratings and generating reports and may not exactly match the USTA's data or they may report numbers using different criteria than I am.

Related: A look at the same stats by warm weather sections.  And the rest of the sections.  Then a look at Mixed.

More USTA League Regulations Changes for 2024 - 40 & Over back to five courts?

I still haven't seen a 2024 USTA League Regulations document, but to follow up on my last post about some changes that appear to be coming for 2024, here is another big change that I think will be welcome.

For the last few years, the National 40 & Over format has been using a 4-court format, 1 singles court and 3 doubles courts, much to the chagrin of many who preferred the previous 5-court format with 2 singles and 3 doubles courts.

The change was seemingly driven by a few captains who had trouble fielding two singles courts, and some facilities that didn't like league matches taking five courts.  The majority of players I heard from didn't like it for a number of reasons ranging from reduced playing opportunities (7 players instead of 8 in a match), fewer opportunities for singles players, and complicated/confusing/inequitable determination of team match winners.  On the last point some sections went to points per position to avoid the whole team win fiasco.

I did a poll at the time of the change and given the choice of 2 singles / 3 doubles or 1 singles / 3 doubles, 85% preferred the former, a pretty clear indication the change was not well received.  Comments and feedback also indicated if a change was required to reduce singles, a 5-court format with 1 singles / 4 doubles would be preferred.

Well, indications are that for 2024 we are going back to a 5 court format for 40 & Over!  And it very well may be 1 singles / 4 doubles.

If the 2024 regulations aren't out yet, what do I base this on?

Well, there have been rumors of this change for a bit, but as Sections that run 40 & Over as early start leagues begin communicating about those leagues, word is getting out about the format.  Specifically, a district in Missouri Valley sent out an e-mail announcing 40 & Over moving to the fall with a 5-court 1 singles / 4 doubles format, calling out specifically "NEW FORMAT to match National Format!". 

Even in the absence of a 2024 regulations document, this seems to be a pretty clear indication that we will be using 5 courts with 1 singles / 4 doubles in 2024.

I think this will be a welcome change to most players.  It gets rid of the confusion of 2-2 ties and it actually gets more players in a match, 9 vs 8, than the old 2 singles / 3 doubles does.  It doesn't address playing opportunities for that want to play singles, but is still better overall than the 4-court format.

The only challenge may be that rosters  need to be a bit bigger to make sure you have 9 players available for every match, and in smaller areas this may mean fewer teams or more defaults when a team doesn't have 9 players avaialble.

What do you think?  Is this change a good thing?

USTA League Regulations Changes for 2024 - Strikes in Mixed?

It is only June 2023, but with 2024 early start leagues beginning in Georgia already, and other areas starting in the late Summer and Fall, the USTA League regulations for 2024 are starting to become relevant.

I have not seen a full regulations document yet, but have heard about a few changes, some National, some section specific, that I think are interesting and IMHO, probably a good thing.

First, it appears that National is going to be calculating dynamic ratings for Mixed in 2024!  This means that self-rates, appeals, and mixed-exclusive players will be subject to strikes from their Mixed play.  This is big and I think will help cut down on some of the abuses of the system we see in Mixed where new players self-rate too low and dominate, but there is very little that can be done to disqualify the players that are clearly out of level.

I have not heard if this will begin with 2024 early start Mixed leagues or only for play during the 2024 rating year, but am working to find out.  I assume that the rating from Adult league play will still be what goes into year-end ratings, but have not confirmed that yet either.  But what do you think?

Second, in most sections, Tri-Level has counted for year-end ratings for a number of years.  Southern has been a hold-out, which could again be abused in some scenarios where players could dominate in Tri-Level for several years using an artificially low year-end level from a prior year.  Well, in 2024, Southern will be including Tri-Level matches in year-end ratings.  Southern will also hold Sectionals for Tri-Level in 2024 which I guess they haven't in the past.

Third and last (for now), also in Southern, a change is being made to the levels for Mixed leagues.  In the past, I believe every section has run Mixed leagues as "combo" leagues, e.g. 6.0, 7.0, 8.0, 9.0, and 10.0, where the players on the court cannot have a combined current level over the level of the flight.  This allows for a 4.5 and 3.5 to play together on an 8.0 team for example.  This gives teams a lot of flexibility, and allows friends and spouses at a variety of levels to play together, but can lead to a pretty wide disparity in ability on the court at the same time, e.g. a 4.0 male with a 3.0 female (or 4.5/3.5 or 5.0/4.0).

Well, for championship year 2024 leagues in Southern, Mixed is going to be straight-level leagues, e.g. 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 5.0, meaning it will be like normal Adult leagues where just 3.5s and 4.0s can be on a 4.0 roster for example.  This will reduce the disparity of abilities on the court, but perhaps put Southern at a disadvantage come Nationals where they will have to face combo-level teams.

There are some side-effects of this of course and I assume they were all considered as some might be perceived as or actual negatives for a number of players.

A simple one is that this restricts the ability for some friends/family/spouses to play together on a team.  A husband and wife that are a 4.0 and 3.0 could play 7.0 before, and now can't play on a Mixed team together.

A more significant side-effect is on participation though.  Where a player could have played on three different Mixed teams at different levels before (e.g. a 4.0 could play 7.0, 8.0, and 9.0), the same player can now play on only two teams (4.0 and 4.5) and will be at a disadvantage one one of them.  This has the potential to reduce participation 33%.  Now, one might argue that there are players that avoid Mixed because of the ability disparity issue and they'll come back and make up the difference, but we'll have to watch and see.

It is worth noting that parts (or perhaps all) of Southern has done 55 & Over leagues as straight-level so this is just making their Mixed leagues consistent with that.  That has worked for them, and Southern has done well at Nationals in this division, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

What do you think?