From Staff Reports

UNC Asheville Director of Athletics Janet R. Cone announced on July 18 that a $4 million outdoor tennis facility will be built on the school's campus.

The project is part of the ALL IN Comprehensive Campaign and will be funded through donors’ gifts, alumni, grants and also corporate partners, a UNCA news release dated July 18 stated.

 What's more, the courts won’t be only for the players at UNCA, but, instead, ommunity members will be able to reserve court time for lessons and play, the release said.

 The new facility will replace the hardcourts the Bulldogs have been using on the property of the Asheville Racquet Club. According to the release, those courts will be demolished due to the Interstate 26 connector project.

“Coming on the heels of two Big South Conference tennis championships in men’s and women’s tennis this past spring, along with alum Henry Patten winning the Gentlemen’s Doubles Championship at Wimbledon, this is the perfect opportunity to kick off this campaign,” Cone said in the release.

Cone said contingent upon securing the funding, they hope to have the facility completed within the next 18-24 month, adding that the university also expects to bid on hosting the Big South Conference and other tennis championships, such as USTA Adaptive Tennis, and to create tennis programs for youth and adults, including camps and clinics.

The facility will be located on the site of an existing parking lot at the corner of Broadway and Campus Drive, and will feature six competition courts with viewing stands. Plans also include a dedicated tennis building that will house coaches’ offices, team locker rooms, storage, a sports medicine room and public bathrooms, the release said.

 “The new tennis facility will allow us to grow our programs by offering our student-athletes top-notch training facilities,” said UNC Asheville women’s tennis coach Lise Gregory in the release. “The teams will finally have their own locker rooms and other amenities that will help them in their daily lives as students first and athletes second.”

Bulldogs men’s tennis coach Matt Frost said in the release that having the facility will enhance the student-athlete experience and could also be a big asset for recruiting.

 “It will greatly improve our recruiting and retention of student-athletes as we set out on our journey to become a dominant force in the Big South,” Frost said in the release.

Meanwhile, in a "comment bubble" appearing after Asheville television station WLOS' (News 13) story on the UNCA tennis project, the following were the opinions were featured:

• JudaC1 day ago — "Smart move for UNCA to focus on programs or areas that can bring donors to the table and engage the local community. Sounds like a top notch tennis program. The academic programs that were recently shut down were a huge drag on the whole system due to low enrollments and inactivity by tenured faculty who had become accustomed to leaning on the shovel without any consequences. It’s obvious that this should have been done 25 years ago. UNCA should do another round of cuts and focus on programs of the future that are relevant to our region and modern world, to maximize state appropriations (SCH model) and donor prospects."

• NotSure88 — "The value of education? So, a university where financials are drowning in red ink to the tune of eliminating staff and educational programs is now going to drop $4 million into a heavily non-revenue sport? Try not to close your eyes or your minds as to what this represents. "

• OBwonknob —  "Some alum may have donated heavily with strings attached that wants to see tennis program fully funded. That and $4 million as not what it used to be."

Rep

• NotSure88 — "Not really sure who you are trying to convince with that equivocation. There is an academic institution that cannot balnce its own budget or support itself and the resolve is to take donor money and (as you would have us believe) acquiesce to money for demands. Simply stated, an academic  institution that announces it cannot sustain its employees or academic programs is in no rational place to expand their sports facilities. Perhaps, if we were discussing a sport which generated significant revenues an argument could be proffered, but this? It is just mismanagement followed by donors running a poorly structured institution. I guess we now know why there was never any type of finance or accounting degrees offered at UNC Asheville. "

• sui.generis1 day — "You didn’t read the story. 🙄"

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• NotSure88 — "It appears that you don’t get the point. It doesn’t matter where the funding came from. It is an inappropriate look for an inept educational institution to 'can' employees and academic programs and then announce a significant addition to an arbitrary athletic program. Truthfully, the donors don’t don't appear to be very bright, because as poorly run as UNC Asheville is from a fiscal perspective... That isn't going to be money well spent. If you are just going to wander into the comment section and make spamming crass rejections without taking any effort to understand the underlying issues, then we can all question your sincerity and intelligence."

• WindRIdge — "I hope I never get on your bad side."

• OneDayAtATime — "Parlaying on the success of former UNC-Asheville tennis player Henry Patten with Harri Heliovaara winning the Gentlemens Doubles title at Wimbledon. Good timing to slip it in. Probably think public outcry will be low at this time. "

• IreneB2 days ago — "What?  A new 4 million dollar tennis facility when basic college courses and teachers are being cut?"

• sui.generis1 day ago  "Read the story, Irene."

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• WLB292 — "WHUT????? Are they not laying off? Cancelling woke programs?" 

• sui.generis— "Yet another who didn’t read the whole story. Duh."

• OldManPearson — "Tennis? Do people care about tennis? Is it the '70s again? Seems wasteful."