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.
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?
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