As January 2021 comes to an end, we are far enough into the new year to take a look at how much USTA League is actually being played as various areas of the country deal with the coronavirus pandemic in different ways.
For reference, I'll be using last year, play was not suspended at all in January, and looking at league matches in the 18 & Over, 40 & Over, and 55 & Over divisions, as those schedules year to year are generally the same when there is no pandemic affecting schedules.
Using this criteria, in January 2020, there were 11,461 team matches scheduled and 10,554 played. The difference of around 900, or about 8%, is likely due to matches needing to be rescheduled due to weather or various other reasons and is not to be unexpected in January.
In January 2021, there were 6,389 team matches scheduled, down 44%, and 5,486 played, down 48%. Let's take a look at why these numbers are down.
The obvious answer on the scheduled matches being down is the pandemic and some leagues simply not being played. This is certainly true, play in PNW is postponed until at least March, league play has not started in either California section, and Northern has not started play. But there has been league play in other sections, somewhat to significantly lower than last year in Eastern, Hawaii, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and New England, and near or normal match counts for January in other sections, with a few are even up slightly including Florida, Intermountain, and Texas.
Florida and Texas are both warm weather areas that generally are able to play outdoors in the winter and haven't had the restrictions other states have had, so the play being slightly up in these sections would seem to indicate strong interest in league play, perhaps even a slight bump from folks getting back into tennis last year as it was an allowed activity.
Intermountain is interesting as the main leagues are played outdoors and don't start until Spring in much of the section, but Nevada can play outdoors in January so the modest bump would seem to be attributed to that district and again, may be to be due to increased interest in tennis.
Southern is also a warmer weather area, but much broader area and population so more subject to restrictions or delays in some states and is down about 17%.
But Southern is likely an indicator of another factor in the decreased play, that being areas where leagues are able to play at normal levels, some players are choosing not to play. This may be because they didn't play much last year and feel they are rusty and don't want to spend league fees to play yet, or they may be cautious and don't want to play until the COVID numbers drop more or the vaccinations are more widely available and administered. The long term question for USTA League is if these players will come back or not.
A good way to look at this factor is to look at the number of teams and players registered for a league. An area that started later than normal in January will still have teams and players registered even if matches scheduled/played are down. And teams/players in a league isn't affected by leagues not being played.
Here is a chart by section showing the percent increase/decrease in the teams per league and players per league. Note, just 12 of the sections have played in January so that is why only they are shown. I've also included the percentage increase/decrease in scheduled team matches and leagues as well.
Here we can see some pretty dramatic changes between 2020 and 2021.
Just four sections have shown any growth in the teams/players registered in a league, just Southwest and Intermountain showing significant growth, and Intermountain is represented by a single league in Las Vegas where play is up.
However, there are a full eight sections showing a significant decrease in the teams and players per league. The greatest decrease is in Mid-Atlantic where participation is down over 75% for each metric, and Middle States, Eastern, and Texas are also significantly down.
Middle States is also interesting in that the number of leagues is up a bit, but matches and teams/players per league are down.
I should note that while comparing the same month from 2020 to 2021 does mean that generally the same leagues are being compared, but they aren't necessarily exactly the same, and that can be seen in the chart above with the leagues played in January increasing or decreasing so some differences can be attributed to differences in the leagues being played in January.
Does this mean USTA League play in several sections is dying, while a few sections are growing? One certainly shouldn't make that leap based on comparing a single month from 2020 to 2021, but it reveals some trends that it is worthwhile following the remainder of the year.
What are you observing in your are?
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