2019 USTA League Nationals Dates and Locations - For real this time! Oklahoma City a new site!

News about "Nationals" is a hot topic today!  I just wrote about NTRP Tournament Nationals, now USTA League Nationals.

It is almost April and in some areas, teams have already qualified for Sectionals, but until now we haven't known where and when the various 2019 USTA League Nationals would be.  I wrote a couple months ago about a schedule I'd found on a USTA site, but learned it was not accurate and the real schedule would be forthcoming.

Today I learned that the dates and locations are as shown below.  This should show up on the Nationals page on usta.com soon.

This schedule no longer has Mobile as a site which is consistent with the earlier one, but an interesting change in this official schedule is the addition of Oklahoma City for a couple events.  This appears to be at the expense of Arlington, TX which is no longer a host site.  Las Vegas was added last year and still has several events this year.

The busy sites are going to be the National Campus in Orlando, as you would expect, but Surprise, AZ is back as a site and will be hosting an event for every Nationals weekend but one.

It is good to see Mobile no longer being used given the rain issues of past years.  I'm guessing the significant rain issues from last year in Arlington contributed to it not being selected this year.

From all reports, the events hosted in Vegas and Surprise always go well so it is good to see them listed.  And you'd expect the National Campus to be used a lot and it is.  Still no return to California though, but the Southwest is represented very well, between the Surprise and Vegas sites there will be nearly as many events there (9.5) as Orlando (11).  So overall, a pretty good balance geographically with just a slight bias to the east.

I know nothing personally about the facility in Oklahoma City.  Perhaps some readers who are familiar with it will comment and share some information about it.  But it looks like it was the 2016 USTA National Facility of the Year, so that sounds promising, as does having 24 outdoor and 6 indoor courts.

There is a clear trend with all 55 & Over in Arizona and all Mixed in Orlando.  Vegas only has Adult 18 & Over events and no Adult 18 & Over event is in Florida, while Adult 40 & Over has a mix across the sites other than Vegas.

Here is the full list.

Adult 18 & Over

• 2.5W - October 11-13 - Darling Tennis Center - Las Vegas, NV
• 3.0 - October 11-13 - OKC Tennis Center - Oklahoma City, OK
• 3.5 - October 4-6 - Surprise Tennis & Racquet Complex - Surprise, AZ
• 4.0 - October 18-20 - Darling Tennis Center - Las Vegas, NV
• 4.5 - October 18-20 - Surprise Tennis & Racquet Complex - Surprise, AZ
• 5.0+ - October 4-6 - Darling Tennis Center - Las Vegas, NV

Adult 40 & Over

• 3.0 - October 18-20 - USTA National Campus - Orlando, FL
• 3.5 - October 18-20 - OKC Tennis Center - Oklahoma City, OK
• 4.0 - October 11-13 - Surprise Tennis & Racquet Complex - Surprise, AZ
• 4.5+ - October 25-27 - USTA National Campus - Orlando, FL

Adult 55 & Over

• 6.0 - November 8-10 - Surprise Tennis & Racquet Complex - Surprise, AZ
• 7.0 - October 25-27 - Surprise Tennis & Racquet Complex - Surprise, AZ
• 8.0 - November 1-3 - Surprise Tennis & Racquet Complex - Surprise, AZ
• 9.0 - November 8-10 - Surprise Tennis & Racquet Complex - Surprise, AZ

Mixed 18 & Over

• 6.0 - November 8-10 - USTA National Campus - Orlando, FL
• 7.0 - November 1-3 - USTA National Campus - Orlando, FL
• 8.0 - November 8-10 - USTA National Campus - Orlando, FL
• 9.0 - November 1-3 - USTA National Campus - Orlando, FL
• 10.0 - November 8-10 - USTA National Campus - Orlando, FL

Mixed 40 & Over

• All 4 Levels - November 15-17 - USTA National Campus - Orlando, FL

From my perspective, this is a very sensible schedule and uses sites where good/dry weather is almost assured and/or there appears to be some provision for indoor courts or a large number of courts to be used to catch up.

Oklahoma City is new and so we must do a weather check, but my quick research shows highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s, and while there are on average 5 days with rain, rainfall totals for the month average under 3 inches.  This is not as ideal as some of the other sites, but is noticeably better than Arlington with 7 days with rain and over 4.5 inches in October on average, better than Mobile, and even a little better than Orlando.

Now, if they'd only adopted my tie-breaker rule change proposal, all would be good!

What do you think?  Are you aiming to make it to one of the events?