The State of Florida Tennis: Growing, Diverse, and in Need of Coaches & Courts

I started my career 26 years ago as a writer and editor in the real estate and finance industry. As a staff reporter at the Mortgage Bankers Association of America, I found it almost overwhelming the amount of data and information available on almost every aspect of the market and the business I covered. When I joined the tennis industry in 2011, I was surprised to find how little our markets and business were researched, analyzed and reported on. We were often making decisions based on opinion or limited information that could not be cross-referenced or compared. 

Since 2019, USTA Florida has been working diligently to collect data on our programs and eco-system in a centralized space and analyze it for real business insights. While we don’t have as much information as we would like on facilities and community programs, we have enough quality information to release our first-ever State of Florida Tennis Report. The findings in this initial report are worthwhile in our efforts to advocate for tennis, and they set an important baseline for us to build upon in future years.

Unprecedented Population Growth

First and foremost, the census data in the report tells us that Florida’s population is growing at an unprecedented rate. According to recently recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Florida has four of the nation’s top five fastest-growing metropolitan statistical areas and three of the top 10 that gained the largest number of people from 2022 to 2023.

A deeper look at county growth between 2020 and 2023 shows where municipalities are likely feeling pressure to improve or add infrastructure. It’s important to consider both percentage change and total population change. While the panhandle of Florida is often overlooked, Escambia has both high population density and growth. Okaloosa-Walton-Bay counties are also seeing rapid growth as a percentage of population.

All counties and cities are NOT THE SAME

The Villages and Ocala are driving incredible increases in population across Lake, Sumter and Marion counties. That growth is largely among adults, and that’s also the case with Southwest Florida, from Manatee to Collier counties. When it comes to population growth among youth, the western panhandle, most of central Florida and Jacksonville area (Duval, Clay, Baker, Putnam) are leading the charge.

From central Florida south to Miami, you see a high percentage of Hispanic persons. Conversely, the Black/African-America population tends to be more predominant in Noth Florida (Tallahassee), as well as in Palm Beach, Broward and Hillsborough.

In looking at the trends here, it’s important to note what is driving population growth in each area, and where there may be a convergence of many different demographics in a single market. Florida is a wildly diverse state and it requires a broad range of programs, facilities and services to meet different customer needs. There is no “one-size-fits-all” when it comes to Florida.

Tennis Is Booming… But Differently Among Markets and Demographics.

When it comes to demand for tennis play, we see from the Tennis Participation (PAC) Study that Florida has about the same number of people who want to play tennis – 1.7 million – as are currently playing. That finding seems to be verified by sustainable interest in the beginner programs we track and the facilities we manage. How those players shift into programs varies widely by market and program type.

Junior play, which was hit hardest during the pandemic in 2020, has rebounded nicely, with consistent growth in team tennis and tournament play in 2023.

With more than 1,029 junior tournaments in 2023, Florida continues to be tournament dominant in most areas when it comes to junior play. South Florida and Central Florida dominate this space. Team tennis is making a strong push in areas where we have staff coordinators and when facilities can accommodate it on their courts. Unsurprisingly Escambia/Fort Walton, which is not strong in tournament play, topped all areas for junior team tennis in 2023 with 447 players in that area alone.

Adult tennis programs continue to see steady growth – driven by strong participation in entry level programs and adult leagues. Flexible League formats appear to be attracting more players, along with Tri-Level and Ault 18 and Over Leagues.

Hillsborough County has the most participation of any county in the state, followed by Collier and Duval. Broward and Escambia Counties are seeing impressive percentage growth in participation. Roger Scott Tennis Center in Pensacola has more adult league teams playing at their facility than other facility in the state.

Adaptive Tennis Programs, which are run largely through our partners at Love Serving Autism, Special Olympic Florida, and other adaptive organizations also have experienced steady growth in the last few years. In 2023, LSA had programs in 24 locations across the state of Florida and 435 total program participants. Special Olympics programs continue to expand in counties throughout the state. We welcomed more than 150 SOFL participants to the State Games in 2023. We continue to receive requests to start new adaptive tennis programs and we are seeing healthy growth in both participants and volunteer coaches.

We Can Recruit New Coaches. We Need More of Them On Tennis Courts.

The landscape for coaching in Florida is much more difficult to assess. Tracking certified coaches in the state of Florida requires data from two tennis teaching organizations, and it is not readily available. While there is no centralized data available on the number of non-certified coaches in the state, we know from simple population and program data that we don’t have nearly enough coaches on court to meet current or future demand for play. This is a problem that we noted in detail in our Call for Coaches last year.

Thanks to our USTA FL Community Coach Program, which was launched in 2022, we do have insights into who may want to coach and how we can bring them in through half-day training sessions. In 2023, we trained 270 unique coaches to run community-based programs. Of that total, 144 were women and 126 were men, and very few were already certified. Red/Orange/Green ball, Summer Camps, and Wheelchair programs were the most popular curriculums offered.

In 2022 and 2023 combined, we trained more than 500 community coaches. In the future, we hope to be able to track how many of these coaches are running programs and do a better job of following their pathway to the courts and to certification. We also need more information shared across the industry on coach demographics, employment and other insights that can help us do a better job of recruiting, training and developing coaches at all levels of the game.

Courts and Infrastructure Remain Our Biggest Challenge

Perhaps the biggest (and most surprising) takeaway from our work developing this report is the lack of available, accurate data on the number and type of courts in the Sunshine State. There are several different methods for collecting court information in the U.S. and all have their deficiencies. It took some time and effort to comb through the data and analyze the number of courts and facilities in the State of Florida.

A current analysis shows we have nearly 11,000 tennis courts in the state at roughly 1600 facilities. Palm Beach County leads the way by a large margin, with Miami-Dade and Broward claiming the next highest counts. Comparing the court data by county with the population growth, we can identify areas where pressure is likely high for court availability. Pasco, Lake, Manatee, Osceola and Polk Counties all fall into this high-pressure category, and it’s no surprise that development is high in all of these areas – making them prime locations for future investment.

To fully assess our infrastructure needs, we need a more detailed inventory of our facilities by type, courts, programs and condition. This is something we will be working on in the coming months, along with a separate economic impact report that will help us better demonstrate the financial impact of tennis events and facilities on the State and individual communities.

The State of Florida Tennis is Strong, Diverse and Growing

In looking at all of the information in our report, one thing is consistently clear: Florida remains a driving force in tennis play in America. Population growth, the ability to play year-round, and our many program offerings are strengths that we have compared to other states. At the same time, population growth is putting pressure on our existing infrastructure and we lack coaches. To serve our growing and diverse population, we will need to add courts, add coaches and add programs that meet the needs of specific communities. And we will need to do a better job of facilitating play in some areas and advocating in others.

To download the full report and learn more about how you can access information that can help you become an advocate for tennis in your community, visit USTAFlorida.com/state-of-fl-tennis-2023.

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Written by: Laura Bowen, Executive Director of USTA Florida. Be sure to check out USTA Florida, the governing body of amateur tennis in Florida, offering tennis programs for all ages and ability levels. Photos courtesy of   USTA Florida. Top Photo: Christian Tenguan / Unsplash.