Tennis Leagues Lobby For Right To CORP Courts Access

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A war has been waged over the use of local tennis courts on Oahu, and with so many legal hoops to jump through, confusion and frustration are at an all-time high.

Hawaii Pacific Tennis Foundation, a local nonprofit committed to the promotion and development of the growth of tennis on Oahu, claims to have sent numerous requests to the city Department of Parks and Recreation for legal permission and documentation to conduct classes on the Central Oahu Regional Park courts, and alleges it has either been ignored or turned down. The specific concern is that other groups, such as United States Tennis Association-Hawaii Pacific Section, have been granted such concessions while HPTF has continued to be ignored.

“There’s a lot of teaching going on on the courts for financial gain,” said Mark Beede, HPTF executive director.“My understanding is that the city is issuing the permits for USTA, but they’re not issuing permits for the same type of activity to be done by others.

“The city is favoring one group and stonewalling others while turning a blind eye to the illegal activities there as well,” Beede added.

The foundation was in charge of maintaining CORP facilities for a number of years but withdrew in 2006.

“When we left CORP, we requested permits and have done it in subsequent years,” Beede said, “and the city has granted us permits for certain events, but not for instructional programs. It’s been an ongoing issue for more than three years now.”

USTA-HPS executive director Ron Romano, however, insists that USTA’s operations are legally sound.

“USTA runs a number of programs on the public courts, which obviously are under the jurisdiction of the city Department of Parks and Recreation,” he said.“We have a permit for every single program that we do. Everything.

“The city historically has sponsored our Play To Learn Program by saying it provides a service to the community, so they endorse it, but we still have to go through the permit process. I have explained to the people making these allegations that this is a service to the city and we follow the rules and regulations. We do not go on a tennis court unless we have a permit.”

If anything, Romano said, the foundation is the one in need of a look at the court rules of conduct. “I think if you look at the official tennis rules and regs, you’ll see that one rule is that you have to be a nonprofit, and another is that if you have your own tennis facilities, you should run your program on them instead of on the public courts.

“We are a nonprofit, we are the national governing body of tennis here in Hawaii, and we don’t have our own courts. Everything we do we have to get a permit for or work something out with different clubs.

“The foundation has its own courts at Tripler, Schofield and I believe Fort Shafter - but they do have their own. I think the reality is that being that the USTA is the main Hawaii tennis organization, we’re probably the largest user of tennis courts in the state. We sanction about 100 tournaments a year all over the island and run several leagues, so we are without question the largest user. But it’s because we’re serving the largest segment of the tennis population. We are by the book, by the letter following these rules.”

Beede disagrees. “We’d like to see the city legitimize the opportunities for professionals and organizations to teach on public courts instead of just certain groups,” he said. “We just want a solution that benefits all. Let’s recognize what exists out there, rather than turning a blind eye, and make something happen that benefits everyone.”

For more information, contact Beede at 479-6727 or USTA at 585-9530.

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