What does the USTA National suspension mean to Adult League play?

On the heels of several sections announcing cancelations/suspensions of league play yesterday, today, USTA National suspended all sanctioned play through April 20.

As I understand it, all sections are to follow the National dates, although I saw a communication from NorCal stating their previously announced suspension end date is still March 31, so perhaps they believe they can restart league play sooner if conditions merit it.

So what does this mean to league play?

Some leagues are mid-season:

• Will they be completed when play resumes?
• If not, will current standings be used to determine who advances to playoffs?
• If both teams agree to play a scheduled match and do so, can the score be entered?

Other leagues are yet to start:

• Will these leagues be played as scheduled?
• Or will adapting to the leagues currently mid-season cause the to be played leagues to have their dates affected?

And what about playoffs?  These dates may be affected depending on how league dates are affected.  Can they be played as scheduled or are reschedules possible?

And what about refunds for leagues that end up being canceled?

The answers to these questions are all "depends", although I'm guessing there is nothing stopping results from being entered on TennisLink.

In any case, the various playoff dates progressing to States, Districts, and Sectionals are all driven by the dates for Nationals.  Sections work backwards from those dates to arrive at when they need to hold Sectionals and so on.  While there may be some flexibility in these dates, at some point a suspension of play will affect the ability for seasons to be completed and playoff teams identified.

Keep in mind that we don't know that play will resume after April 20th.  Should this suspension go on even longer, it becomes even more difficult to adapt and it isn't out of the question that Nationals could be canceled, or very creative ways of determining the participants identified.

So what will happen is I'm sure section and even district dependent.  Some will have more flexibility with schedules and facilities, but others are facility constrained and may have to be creative to come up with solutions, or at some point not be able to.  If there still are playoffs and teams to advance be identified, let's hope they come up with equitable ways of doing so.

As interesting as it is to speculate on what might happen, with this news of the suspension just breaking, it is far too soon to expect your section or league coordinators to have all the answers, so I'm sure they'd appreciate not being bombarded with questions.  Give them time to plan and figure out what is possible and communicate it when the time is right.

Should I hear anything, I will continue to write and update, and if you hear anything please let me know with comments or an e-mail to ratings@teravation.net.

Stay safe, stay healthy, play some tennis if you are so inclined, and stay tuned.