Dear Members,
Summer has finally arrived and this means that the game will be at the forefront of players and spectators alike during the next 5 weeks culminating in the Australian Open, one of four grand slams on the regular tennis calendar.
It’s an exciting time of the year to watch the very best tennis players in the world compete, and it also a great time for tennis locally with 3 major tournaments being played – GDTA Gosford Mentor Gold Junior Pro (27/12/15 to 31/12/15), Gosford Open AMT Gold (21/1/16 to 24/1/16), Gosford Junior Open Junior Pro (24/1/16 to 27/1/16), and many of our senior players heading off to the Australian Seniors Tournament commencing 10 January in Shepparton Victoria. If you want to see the stars of tomorrow come over to the Gosford Tennis Centre and watch some very exciting tennis.
Speaking about future stars, there has been some great results over the past month with the International Tennis School winning the NSW Primary Schools and Secondary Schools Tournament in Sydney, and Rhys Sealant and Teodora Jovic qualifying for the 18 & under National Titles. In showing her future potential, Teodora also qualified for the 14 & under National titles, whilst another local young gun Max Purcell is likely to play at the Australian Open Junior titles in January. We wish all our local players competing in these events the very best of luck!
On the local administration front a lot has been happening behind the scenes, commencing with a meeting on December 7th between Gosford City Council, Tennis Australia & NSW, and local representatives of each tennis centre within the LGA to discuss the new council community licence agreements. Whilst it was a very vocal meeting in the end we received further clarifications as outlined:
- Council would not target 50% of the revenue from 100% pure community tennis uses, which includes court hire, membership, raffles, fundraisers etc.
- Council will require prior permission and 50% of any sub-lease or licence agreement such as, hiring of premises for any other use then tennis, special club memberships, etc.
- If a tennis centre requires to be relocated by council, the council will find an alternative site at their cost.
- The requirement that tennis buildings are for non exclusive use, Council may ask for shared use of these facilities.
- Revenue received from tennis players using an onsite coach would not attract a 50% hiring fee to council should the coach be an expense of the club and the income is directed to the club.
On the last point there requires further work to be done and Tennis Australia will help the GDTA committee, centres and coaches to work with Council as leases fall due. A copy of both the GCC and TNSW presentations will be placed on the www.gdta.com.au website shortly for your viewing.
Given Avoca, Kariong and Terrigal’s current leases are now due for renewal, and, Kincumber, Umina and Woy Woy due in June 2016, the GDTA committee, TNSW and TA are working hard to resolve these agreement issues as soon a possible. In the meantime the GDTA has submitted an Expression of Interest to manage the Saratoga Tennis Club Recreation Facility and we should know the outcome in early January 2016.
As a final note for 2015, the GDTA committee would like to wish all our members, their families and friends a safe and healthy Christmas and we look forward to seeing you out on the court in 2016!
Enjoy your tennis!
2015/2016 Committee
