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Bayview Park tennis pro commits unforced errors

BY RICK BOETTGER

     The taxpayer-paid tennis pro at Bayview Park, Paul Findlay, recently ignited a firestorm with his unilateral decision to ban plastic chairs there. Tennis players and fans used them in late afternoon to avoid the sun blasting the only other seating, the aptly-named “bleachers,” moving the chairs to find pockets of shade.

      Numerous players sent emails complaining to city staff and commissioners; dozens more signed petitions demanding the chairs be returned, vowing not to support tournaments until they were. Findlay responded with a written charge that people wanting the chairs were just a few troublemakers who never supported his tournaments — a bald-faced lie.

     Findlay and his bosses’ main defense is that he has, until now, received so much local support, “without a single complaint.” Evidence comes from 10 letters of support in his application for the tennis concession two years ago, when it was quite properly put out for bid for the first time after Findlay had held it for 30 years, without anyone else having a shot at it. If you hold a monopoly position that long, you can likely get 10 fans — that’s one every three years.

     As for complaints, the players are an overwhelmingly friendly bunch, happy to be living in Key West and playing tennis through the winter. They hadn’t complained. I will.

    I know tennis, especially at Bayview. In fact, Findlay once asked me to coach the high school men’s team. I have played tennis five days a week for 40 years on public courts, been a tournament-winning amateur, helped my daughter achieve national ranking at 12, and supported a promising college player on the pro tour. In short, I know what to expect from a tennis pro.

     But Findlay has done things no other pro does. He’s harmed tournament participation by having, in the past, his pro friend from Miami come down to kick our asses and proudly claim trophies. Lately it’s been his own son (who shares Findlay’s teaching business) taking home the trophies. Local tournaments are supposed to be for the players, not the pro. Further, Findlay plays in with the best players less than any other pro I’ve known. In my 16 years here, he’s played with me only when he knocked me out of a tournament.

     I formerly bought all my rackets and string jobs from him, until one string job broke the second day, indicating a defective string. Any pro would fix it for free. Findlay said, “Tough luck.”

     People praise him for teaching the kids. Well, that’s his job, and it pays well. But I know some who have taken their kids out of his care for his “sucking the love of the game” from their kids through harsh competitiveness. I have witnessed him pressuring beginner children to “win” some game he devised while they were just trying to hit the ball.

     At one tournament a spectator asked Findlay about a new player. In front of two dozen players, including, unbeknownst to Findlay, the new guy’s wife. Findlay called him “an asshole with an attitude.” Despite that, the “asshole” went on to spend thousands of dollars on Bayview players and causes over the years.

     Findlay claims the chairs are a new issue. Not true. Eight years ago, after the bleachers were fixed and painted (paid for and performed by players, not Findlay or the city), I found six plastic chairs, cleaned them and put them on the top row of the bleachers, giving us a few comfortable seats with backrests. The next morning, Findlay threw them away.

     Once, I found an old, official “Welcome to Bayview Park Tennis Courts” sign at a local restaurant, reclaimed it, and installed it at the courts. We loved it. Then one day I found it in Findlay’s trash. It now hangs in my garden.

      I asked two of Findlay’s supporters about the chair dispute. One said they were a “distraction.” The other said, “I almost ran into one.” Findlay claims chairs are a “legal liability” (Baloney! Ask any municipal attorney) and lead to bad behavior.

      So I went through the last six months of Bayview tennis police reports to document that bad behavior. They contained only reports of homeless sleeping in the bleachers, except for a complaint about three people driving “scooters through the park everyday…poss the tennis pro’s son is one….”

      City leaders, please give us back our chairs!

 

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