If you ever travel to play tennis or have a child who travels to play, you’ve likely experienced a modern racquet sports center with lots of courts (20+ is not uncommon). It’s eye-opening! Many of these facilities are public, so in addition to being large enough to host events and tournaments, they grow racquet sports by making them accessible and affordable.
With so many resort, club, and gated community courts, it’s easy to think of the Hilton Head/Bluffton area as having more courts than it needs. The thing is, most of these courts are private or restricted. Their main focus is members and guests. Clubs are not affordable by all. And, disconnected one- or two-court neighborhood facilities peppered through our County are inefficient and limited to neighborhood play – they do not invite ongoing programs, and they’re too small for team competition, events, and tournaments. Currently, we are limited in the programs we are able to offer in Bluffton by the lack of public courts.
Tennis is a great fitness activity. It’s social and fun, it has both team and individual dimensions, and it’s one of the few sports people play lifelong! In the early 2000’s, the founders of Public Tennis Inc. (PTI) recognized that despite hundreds of private courts, the public had next to no places to play, particularly on Hilton Head. Chaplin Park was the result of our founders’ hard work, vision, planning, and fund raising, partnering with the Town of Hilton Head, and the town’s support and follow-through. Today, PTI sees both need and opportunity to serve the public county-wide. We are advocating for a large-scale regional facility, focusing on Bluffton as the location. We’ve proposed a conceptual facility plan (see our conceptual animation video) to Beaufort County Parks & Rec, and we’re working on a business plan proposal including an initial funding plan and longer term budget.
We can’t speak for the County short/long term plans and priority list. But we are determined to advocate for the major tennis facility outlined in the County’s Master Plan. We’ve been learning from successful facilities elsewhere. We’ve engaged the expertise of the USTA National Facility Assistance Program. We continue to advocate for a state-of-the-art public tennis facility in Bluffton.
If you have contacts and/or expertise in this area and would like to get involved, please reach out to us at xxxxx@publictennis.org.
