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Very much this. While tennis has become more accessible and lower cost over time, it has always been an expensive sport.
by giantg2 1y ago
Very much this. While tennis has become more accessible and lower cost over time, it has always been an expensive sport.
- ceejayoz 1y agoHonest question: Why? There's a free court near me, and both balls and racquets can be gotten for peanuts.
- cpursley 1y agoThey're talking from a North American perspective (probably). In most of Europe, there are plenty of outdoor and other free exercise opportunity. Another downside of the incorrect build environment (poor city planning) is that Americans simply don't have built-in ways to move their bodies. When I spent time in Eastern Europe, there was literally a free tennis/basketball court across the street. And a variety of other courts, including outdoor gym. And when house sitting around, there was nearly always an outdoor park with greenspace for strolling, exercise. All free.
- huhkerrf 1y agoWell, while we're talking about anecdotes, my neighborhood in a poor Texas town also had a free tennis court. There were a couple more down the road. My in-laws suburb has walking trails end basketball courts.
- matthewdgreen 1y agoIf you live in a place with inexpensive land, tennis infrastructure is relatively cheap. If you live in a dense city where space is at a premium, that’s when it gets relatively expensive.
- cpursley 1y agoI think the catch is, Americans have to spend so much time driving for ADLs (activities of daily living) that there is no time to walk over to the local court (if there is one, usually there is not). This is due to the sprawl Ponzi scheme (which spreads everything out). It's also the primary cause behind America's mental health crises (lack of 3rd places, everyone is isolated). And yeah, I'm not talking SF or NYC, but 90% of the rest of the country.
- bluGill 1y agoThat is false for every american I know. Driving means less time than transit users in every study I've seen - that time is of course more stressful but we spend less time commuting and thus have more time. Working hours can be longer but for many it isn't much longer. There are a lot of couch potatoes that don't use their time, but they have it.
- ndriscoll 1y agoIt always blows my mind when I see how many subscribers Netflix has. Americans are so busy driving and working that they don't have time to do anything (cook, grocery shop, exercise, etc.). How are 90M households finding the time to watch movies or binge on TV shows?
- firesteelrain 1y agoNo idea. I have Netflix but barely watch it.
- 0_____0 1y agoMaybe they're not actually watching it. I have read that the content guidance recommends that media produced for Netflix et al. have the action described auditorially as well as visually, so people can follow the plot without actually looking at the screen.
- jjav 1y ago> It always blows my mind when I see how many subscribers Netflix has. Not sure how they count, but for example I have a "free" netflix subscription through a tmobile phone plan. So it's easy to pump the numbers. I only watch like one episode of something every other year on netflix, so not exactly a real user of it.
- marcusb 1y agoGrew up in a very poor town in Arkansas. Had a public tennis court literally next door. In the 80s, the tennis court saw frequent use. People would get mad when they lost a match or whatever and hit the balls into our yard. My grandmother would go collect them, and we always had a basket full of balls by the door. By the early 2000s, people stopped using the tennis court very often, and the city tore down the chain link fence around the court to use as overflow parking for the adjacent little league fields.
- giantg2 1y agoAre they used though? The poor town that I spent time in has 4 tennis courts in great condition that are almost never used.
- ndriscoll 1y agoAt least in all of the US suburbs I've lived, there's been free tennis courts and a variety of other courts all over the city. The high school down the street from me has 4 tennis courts. I hear them being used all the time when I'm on a walk (incidentally, along a greenway with a shared use walking/bike trail that wraps around the school grounds and connects via a tunnel under a highway to the rest of the city bike trail system).
- haswell 1y agoChicago has over 100 free tennis courts across the city. https://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/facilities/tennis-courts https://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/facilities/tennis-courts
- 0_____0 1y agoSeriously, tennis courts are one of the most popular facilities to include in an urban/suburban public park.
- impossiblefork 1y agoTennis is very difficult though. One of the highest barrier to entry sports skill-wise. Non-athletic adult people can't step onto a tennis court and consistently get the ball back to you, even if you hit it to them. I thought Padel was easy, but when I organized a Padel after-work I saw that that was not reality, and Padel is much easier than tennis.
- firesteelrain 1y agoThat’s why people are gravitating towards Pickleball. It has a lower barrier to entry
- impossiblefork 1y agoIt's very sad though. Much better to practice so you can play tennis or padel.
- firesteelrain 1y agoI am for whatever keeps people moving
- impossiblefork 1y agoI suppose I can't argue with that.
- lapcat 1y agoNon-athletic adults can't do anything consistently. Which sports do you think are easier? Certainly not baseball or American football. Perhaps soccer, but only because soccer is more generous about inconsistency: play doesn't stop if you lose the ball or kick it inaccurately, as long as it doesn't go out of bounds. On the other hand, non-athletic adults are going to tire very quickly constantly running around the field with no stoppage.
- impossiblefork 1y ago
- kqr 1y agoTennis requires a certain proficiency to have fun with. Beginners tend to have trouble getting the ball reliably across the net onto the other player. This proficiency takes time to build. Thus, unless one makes a big up-front time investment, tennis is not particularly good exercise. Up-front time investments are expensive. Also one cannot tennis alone. Anything one must practise with a partner is more expensive due to scheduling requirements.
- lapcat 1y agoThe OP was talking about monetary wealth. Here you're redefining "expensive" to mean something other than wealth, i.e., time. Also, the whole point of the submitted article is that the investment of time into exercise is totally worth it. Yes, there's a learning curve to tennis, as with any sport. You could just go jogging/running by yourself, but the advantage of sports, including tennis, is that they're usually a more fun and less boring form of exercise than jogging/running by yourself. If exercise is fun, then you're more likely to stick to it rather than skipping it.
- YetAnotherNick 1y ago> "expensive" to mean something other than wealth, i.e., time. I don't think they did say that. They just said wealthy people have more freedom on schedule that non wealthy people.
- lapcat 1y ago> They just said wealthy people have more freedom on schedule that non wealthy people. I'm not sure that's true though, unless by "wealthy" you mean trust fund kids. But there are millions of tennis players of various levels of income. A lot of salaried workers in upper income brackets work more than the usual 40 hour week, have less free time. I'm guessing these engineers weren't playing a lot of tennis: https://www.folklore.org/90_Hours_A_Week_And_Loving_It.html https://www.folklore.org/90_Hours_A_Week_And_Loving_It.html
- GuB-42 1y agoTradition, mostly. Tennis is seen as an upper class sport and prices will be set accordingly, it is not the case everywhere though. Another reason is that a tennis court takes significant space for just 2 (or 4) people. So unless it is subsidized, when land is at a premium like in a large city, it is going to be expensive.
- giantg2 1y agoIt depends. In suburban areas there are free courts generally available at parks and schools. Rural areas don't have many options. Urban areas have fewer free options that tend to be crowded. Balls are the next largest cost since they are expendable - get lost, go dead, etc. Historically these were much larger costs due to manufacturing and construction differences. My guess is that a lot of this is generational carryover as the free courts are generally newer (1980s+) and the carryrover where well of players from prior generations mostly inspired their kids to follow suit.
- esperent 1y ago> has always been an expensive sport Since I've been a child, living in multiple countries across Europe and Asia, there's always been either free or cheap tennis courts near me. I don't even play tennis much and I know this, I'm sure if I was searching I'd find way more low cost options. It's more likely that the demographic who play tennis tends to be wealthy, rather than the sport itself being expensive.
- flatb 1y agoThe Williams sisters started playing tennis in Compton. Tennis is cheap, but not so culturally accessible.
- esafak 1y agoI just charge it to the Underhills.
- jjav 1y ago> While tennis has become more accessible and lower cost over time, it has always been an expensive sport. How can tennis be an expensive sport? My kid just bought (a few months ago) a couple of used rackets for $5. Tennis balls can be had for a few dollars. Courts are free. Aside from jogging, tennis seems like one of the cheapest sports possible. I think the only cheaper sport might be swimming, but only if you live near the ocean.