A preliminary look at some USTA League statistics for 2023 - Overall participation by Section - The warm weather sections

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.

In this post I'll take a look at the warm weather sections.  One might think that the sections where players can play pretty much year-round would be the most likely to maintain 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 section, Southern.

First, in 2013 there were right at 80K players that played in Southern.  Given the overall number was around 275K, that means nearly 30% of player participation comes from a single section!  That means whatever the trend is in Southern will likely have a significant impact on the overall stats.

And we do see that there is a general decline down to just over 70K in 2018/2019/2022 and so far, 2023 is still several thousand short of that.

Next up, Texas.

Texas had a small drop through 2019, but had the 2-year COVID bump and then back to 2019 levels in 2022.  2023 is behind but still time to make up the gap.

Next up, Northern California.

Northern Cal showed a similar drop from 2013 to 2019, around 12%, but unlike Southern had a significant drop for 2020/2021 even combining the years.  2022 was down even more, although 2023 has already gotten to 2022 levels.

Next, another warm weather section, Florida.

Here we see the decline from 2013 to 2016, but since then an increase, and a large increase in the combined 2020/2021 COVID rating period.  2022 was up significantly from 2019, so it will be interesting to see if 2023 ends up matching it by year end.

Next we go to the rest of California, Southern Cal.

Here we see growth from 2013 and forward!  2020/2021 had a slight dip despite being a 2-year period and 2022 was down a bit more, but 2023 is already up slightly over 2022.

The last three are some of the smallest sections starting with Southwest.

Southwest was pretty flat from 2013 and on with very modest growth in 2017-2019 over 2013 levels.  It did have the bump from the 2-year period then back to about the prior years level in 2022.  2023 is still a bit behind but there is time to make it up.

Next, Hawaii.

Hawaii does show a pretty significant drop over the years, about 17% from 2013 to 2019, and was significantly hit during COVID and 2022 was down a bit more.  Still time for 2023 to match 2022 but right now, it is down more.

Last, Caribbean.

Here we see pretty flat numbers from 2013 to 2017, but then a significant drop, and COVID has a big impact with 2022 down even more.  2023 is looking better though already.

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?

The rest of the sections coming soon.