Update on today's breaking news - More details on USTA League Nationals and PNW information for 2020 and 2021

I wrote earlier today about the USTA announcing the extension of the suspension of play through May 31 and also the canceling of USTA League Nationals.

I have since received an e-mail, with basically the same text as the PDF I linked to earlier, but it did have a few new pieces of information.

First, there is an FAQ on the canceling of Nationals, a few items from it being:

• Canceling Nationals may provide more opportunity for local league play, presumably by allowing districts and sections to extend their local leagues into the late Summer and Fall, rather than canceling leagues and/or squeezing them into small windows on the calendar to try to meet the schedule required for Nationals.
• For teams that may have already qualified for 2020 Nationals, they are not given an invitation to 2021 Nationals, instead teams must qualify during 2021 league play.  These teams will not be subject to move-up/split-up in 2021 though.
• Move-up/split-up does not carry over.  2019 Nationals teams are able to reform for 2021.
• National Invitationals that take place in early 2021 (Adult 65 & Over and Mixed 55 & Over) are not part of this cancellation.
• Sections may choose to still hold Sectionals.
• Ratings continue to be calculated, discussions taking place on how the lack of Nationals will impact year-end ratings.

Regarding membership and league fees, the USTA is not deciding at this point to refund membership fees, but will continue to evaluate it.  Regarding league fees, decisions are up to each section.

My e-mail appears to have been tailored for my section (PNW) as it has a paragraph stating 2020 Sectionals have been canceled (so there is at least one section not planning to still hold them).  Here are all the pertinent points from the FAQ:

• All Sectionals canceled for 2020.
• All advancing local leagues scheduled for the Spring and Summer have been canceled.
• A "Welcome Back to Tennis" league will be hosted by the section free of charge tentatively planned for mid-June thru August.
• The 2021 Early Start Leagues that normally begin play in September 2020 are still planned and schedules for those are forthcoming.
• Those that registered for leagues that were canceled will have the registration transferred to an advancing Fall (Early Start) league.  If the player does not play in said league, they will receive a refund less processing fees.
• Tournaments scheduled after May 31 are still tentatively planned.

There you have it from PNW at least.  We'll see what other sections do.

The free league in the summer is certainly a nice olive branch to get players playing again, good move by PNW IMHO.  The rest of it is largely as you might expect.

Thoughts on what PNW is doing?  What is your section doing?  What do you think should be done?