For many months now our mayor has been working behind the scenes to come up with a renovation plan for the OKC Tennis Center at Will Rogers Park. This used to be a champinship caliber tennis center, but over recent years, the city has allowed the center to deteriorate, and many pro events have left for bigger and better venues. There has obviously been a need to renovate the center to try to attract championship caliber events back to the center. Thus, Mick Cornett assembled a task force to come up with a plan. Fortunately, the money was already in place from the last bond issue.

Mr. Cornett revealed the plans today:

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"Mayor unveils renovation plans for city's tennis center

By Bob Colon
Senior Staff Writer

Things will be brighter at the Oklahoma City Tennis Center when the $1.8 million in renovations are completed by March 2006.

Mayor Mick Cornett unveiled the master plan for improvements for the Will Rogers Park facility, 3400 N Portland, during a public meeting this week. The money comes from bonds voted in 2000 and will fund an overhaul of the tennis center.

There's a chance OKC Tennis Inc. a task force assembled by Cornett to enhance the future of the sport in the city, could harken the return of pro tennis events.

"We have a great geographic location for hosting events and we have very high standards," Cornett said. "I think we will see a pro tournament here. The next step would be to build an outdoor stadium court similar to what they have at Springfield, Mo."

City officials and members of OKC Tennis Inc. toured the Cooper Tennis complex in Springfield, Mo., before starting on the improvement project at Will Rogers Park.

The Springfield complex hosted women's Fed Cup matches in 2002 and is home of the Springfield Lasers of World Team Tennis. It's considered one of the premier municipal tennis facilities with 17 outdoor courts including a stadium with seating for 2,500. It also has six indoor courts with four more coming by July of 2006.

OKC Tennis Inc. is a privately funded non-profit organization. Brad Lund, CEO of Express Sports, is chairman. Tommy English, director of tennis at The Greens, and businessman Marshall Snipes are also on the three-member executive committee.

Oklahoma City hasn't had a pro tennis event since Davis Cup matches in February 2002. A women's pro indoor tournament was here for 16 years and was sold to a promoter in Memphis, Tenn., in 2001.

"We had three hard looks at Fed Cup," Lund said, "and in each situation, Fed Cup opted to go to an outdoor venue. Davis Cup knows we desperately want to get that back, and I think we will get it back. An indoor hard court would be our only option there.

"We had no intentions of a tour stop with the renovations, but that would be a natural direction to go. The top priority is getting the tennis center back on top in the Missouri Valley and improving the quality of life. A stadium would be icing on the cake."

The tennis center, which has 24 lighted courts, opened in 1969, but few improvements have been made in recent years. The center has lost some major youth tournaments to other cities in the Missouri Valley area.

"Our No. 1 complaint is about how bad our lights are out here," said Vikki Williams, head pro and manager of the tennis center. "They are the same lights we've had since the 1970s. They are outdated and not very bright."

New lights have already been installed on seven courts and the other 17 will be taken care of after the state high school tournaments in May.

"We would love to have an indoor facility," Williams said. "My predecessor (Dick Gilkey) tried to get that done. This is potentially something that could be done later. Covering three or four courts would help."

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Tennis Center planned improvements

Reshape berms, adding tiered areas for seating.

New lighting for 17 courts (completes upgrades on all 24 courts).

Resurface courts.

New restrooms and locker rooms.

Redo entryway, adding wrought iron gate and outside plazas.

Landscaping with improved drainage.

Update electrical and pro shop roof.

The next goal needs to be to build a state of the art tennis stadium to attract larger cups to the center.

This was a good move by the mayor. It's good to remember that Oklahoma City exists as "far out" as 36th and Portland. We've all come to think of our city (at least I have too often) to be downtown, bricktown, etc. Good move here I think.

Personally, I have not played tennis since I was in my 20's, during the tennis fad. I will watch it, but I never really enjoyed playing it.

A remodel of the tennis center could be a good thing. More well known tournamants... And maybe a professional league franchise, if there is a league.

Bring back the "Virginia Slims"