Resurfacing begins this Friday!
We finally got the last permit required! Resurfacing is set to begin this Friday the 20th and last for 9 days. Obviously the courts will not be usable during this time. Please help us spread the word, tell your regular partners, take a little break and get ready to hit the new McCarren tennis courts in September!
Congrats to McCarren Tennis, runners-up of the first annual King’s Cup!
Over the weekend, McCarren Tennis became the runners-up of the first annual King's Cup, sponsored by USTA Eastern and endorsed by Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. The team featured Grace Blakely, Caitlin Thompson, Le Yang, Robin Chu, David Senior, Daniel Moss, and was captained by our own Meng Ai. On the way to the finals, McCarren Tennis defeated Prospect Park, Ft. Greene Park, and Lincoln Terrace, but eventually lost to Heights Casino Tennis Club in the finals.
UPDATE: Click here to see more photos of the event.
New York Post coverage
Click the photo below to see the New York Post coverage of the American Express/USTA grant.
News 12 Long Island picks up on the story
Our own Meng Ai, along with a bunch of regulars, were interviewed this morning for News 12 Long Island. Click the picture below to watch the piece.
We are getting new courts!
Yes, you read that correctly. The courts at McCarren Park were one of only 3 sets of public courts to be part of the "Fresh Courts" initiative sponsored by American Express and the USTA.
From the press release: "For New York, American Express’ Fresh Courts program will work with tennis courts located in Brooklyn’s McCarren Park. The 35-acre park services the Greenpoint and Williamsburg neighborhoods and currently contains seven full-sized tennis courts, one of which was recently resurfaced through the efforts of the McCarren Tennis Association and park volunteers. As part of the Fresh Courts program, the remaining courts will be completely resurfaced and renovated, and upon project completion, McCarren Park will contain six full-sized, 78-foot courts, and two permanent 36-foot courts for the QuickStart play format."
Read the full press release here.
We will post more details as we get them.
King’s Cup
We are currently looking for three 4.0-4.5 women to round out our McCarren tennis team for the first annual King's Cup. This is going to be a really fun (and FREE) yearly event organized by the USTA to promote Brooklyn Parks and Recreation. If you would like to participate, please contact Meng.
First annual Kings Cup in Brooklyn
Looking to represent McCarren Park in the upcoming Kings Cup tournament? If so, check out the info below and register a team to show the rest of the borough how we do it on the northside! They are looking for a mix of players in the 3.5 - 5.0 range, with one team representing each park. There is even free lunch!
Date: July 31, 2010, 9:00AM (rain date August 1)
*Register with Sonia by July 17, 2010.
Where: Prospect Park Tennis Center
Format: World Team Tennis Format
*Minimum 2 men and 2 women; Maximum 4 men and 4 women. M, W Singles, M, W Doubles, and a Mixed Doubles set.
Invited: One team from each Brooklyn site
Endorsed by: Marty Markowitz, Borough President
*King’s Cup Trophy will be engraved yearly with winning Parks & Recreation name.
Prizes: individual trophies for the winning team; All participants receive a t-shirt
Contact: Sonia Sader
4 West Red Oak Lane, Suite 300
White Plains, NY 10604
914-980-8163
Our TV Debut – News 12
Apart from a certain McTennis member's strange dance/seizure during his brief time on camera, this News 12 piece came out very well. It would probably have driven some donations if they had included our pitch and web URL, but we'll take it.
What’s Next?
Now that you all can see exactly how beautiful our otherwise sad little courts can be, we hope you will be inspired to help the cause. The honest truth is that, while we pulled off the resurfacing -- in style, we'd say! -- it was over 200 hours of work and our little crew was beyond exhausted. Worth it? Yes. Something we want to repeat without a lot more volunteers? Probably not.
Ideally, we would raise the money to do all of the other 6 courts at once. Best path would be to hire a professional company and just let them do their thing -- but that would cost more money ($50k) and would require a bid process through the Parks department, which in turn would take a lot more time.
The other option is DIY. If we do not do the fancy two-tone (light/dark green) paint job that we did on Court 7, a very large team of volunteers could actually resurface courts 1-6 in a long weekend. We'd take down the nets, scrape off the loose paint, power wash, and patch cracks on Friday, then we'd put down resurfacer on saturday, and two coats of dark green on sunday. Lines could go up Monday evening. I estimate we'd need 30-40 volunteers on Friday, 12 on Saturday and Sunday, and 24 on Monday evening. The cost of this option would be half of the "pro" cost -- probably about $25k in supplies.
So what do you think? Would you be down to help? Job too big? Sound off in the comments below.
McTennis on 1010WINS
A bunch of media outlets have picked up the story of our court restoration, including NYC's #1 talk radio station, 1010WINS. Let's hope it leads to donations & political support. Listen to the 1010WINS broadcast here.