Donations
Now that the dust has settled, wanted to take a moment to talk about the future. The selection of McCarren for the Fresh Courts grant resulted from a lot of hard work and effort from our volunteers, but it also was plain old lucky -- there are a lot of worthy tennis facilities out there. But now that the courts are beautiful, the question is how to keep them that way. We live in a time when city budgets are particularly lean, and while corporate donations may occasionally take up the slack, we will not be able to count on large donors to keep this facility in tip-top shape.
There's simply no substitute for donations by those who care the most -- that's you, the people who actually use these courts. If you can spare some money, your donations are fully tax deductible and will go 100% towards these courts (just click the DONATE button [top of site, left side]). If you can spare some time, please email us at info@mccarrentennis.org and we'll find ways for you to help. If you have other ideas how to help, we'd love to hear them. But make sure you sign up to our mailing list right now -- just enter your email address under Email Updates to the right. By growing our community, we'll make this easier on everyone.
We're thrilled at what we've been able to accomplish in the last year and a half, but there are a great many more things we can do together. Thanks -
The McCarren Tennis Association
We Are Open!
Play has begun on our newly refurbished courts. We still have a few small net adjustments and the fencing on the Quickstart courts needs to be put up, but everything else is good to go. Thanks for your patience -- hope the results speak for themselves!
Next up, windscreens. We just received another large donation ($10,000) yesterday -- more details on this shortly -- so we have enough money to screen the courts. We will have these up by the spring at the latest, and perhaps this fall.
Lighting will take a bit longer and will require additional fundraising, but we have a plan in the works there, too.
The blue & the green...
Striping has begun!
We still can't promise any courts will be available for play tomorrow, but for you diehards who don't mind coming down, there could be a few that are dry.
UPDATE 6:13 pm: Three courts are striped, but all three are missing one of the service lines. Assuming they did this to keep us from playing on the courts tomorrow. Barring rain (10% chance, according to weather report), all 6 courts and 2 quickstart courts will be 100% done tomorrow. That means we'll be playing Friday!
Article & Video in the Wall St. Journal
The WSJ is not normally known for its sports coverage, but they did a great job with this piece. Check out the video here:
Courts Ready for Play on …
This just in from Thomas Hinding, who's doing the resurfacing work on our courts:
"We are working the weekend to make up for the rain last week. Looks like we will be putting the blue and green down by Monday, striping on Tuesday, and ready to play on Wednesday."
Other key news: the courts will be US Open blue, just in time for the kickoff of the tournament.
UPDATE: looks like the date has slipped to Thursday, folks. They didn't get as much resurfacer down today as they would have liked, so will need to finish tomorrow. Then blue & green Mon/Tues and lines Wed. All dry on Thurs.
UPDATE #2: Tom says that they ran into a few additional areas that needed to be patched, so they will be finishing the color tomorrow and adding lines on Wednesday. There may be some courts ready on Thursday, but most likely it will be Friday. Look how pretty the courts are in blue...
NY1 coverage of the press conference
Just saw this and recorded it off the TV. It's different than the NY1 piece linked to below and features our own Sean Hoess.
Public, Pros, Officials Celebrate Renovation
This morning's press conference brought a roster of heavy hitters (sorry, couldn't resist) to McCarren's tennis courts which are mid-way through renovations due to be completed next week. There were too many to name here but representatives from American Express, the USTA, City Council, NYC Parks & Recreation, OSA, and The McCarren Tennis Association were present, and even US Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez stopped by to say a few kind words. Tennis pros Sam Querrey and Melanie Oudin spoke, volleyed briefly with the youngsters on some quick-start style mini-courts, and autographed a few balls. Many many thanks are in order for everyone who had a hand in helping to make this dream come true. We're looking forward to seeing you all on the new courts soon!
Photos of the event have been posted here.
Coverage on NY1 can be seen here.
Coverage on News12 Brooklyn can be seen here.
Press conference on the courts this Thursday at 10AM
This Thursday, August 26th at 10AM Tennis stars Sam Querry and Melanie Oudin will be at McCarren Park for a press conference to announce the AMEX/USTA "Fresh Courts" grant. All are welcome to attend!
Also in attendance will be Julius Spiegel, Brooklyn Borough Commissioner for New York City Department of Parks & Recreation; Stephen Levin, District 33 City Council Member; Stephanie Thayer, Executive Director of Open Space Alliance for North Brooklyn; Tennis Stars Sam Querrey and Melanie Oudin; Sean Hoess, President of McCarren Tennis Association; D.A. Abrams, USTA Eastern, Inc. Executive Director & CAE; and Jessica Igoe - American Express, Director of Global Sponsorship and Experiential Marketing.
Say goodbye to this, folks:
Resurfacing has begun!
While it's painful to see the court we resurfaced ourselves get worked on in the photo below, I'm sure we will forget all about it when the new, US Open-style blue courts are finished.
UPDATE: Click here to see some photos of the progress taken Saturday morning, August 21st.
