Local tennis enthusiasts who frequent the Costa Mesa Tennis Center were recently startled to see notices posted at the TeWinkle Park facility indicating the prices for court time at the city-owned facility would soon increase in a major way.
Instead of paying $8 for one-hour of court time, Costa Mesa resident tennis and pickleball players were told they’d have to pay starting costs of $8 per hour, per person, effective Sept. 1. Non-residents would be charged $10.
The notices posted by the center’s operator, Calabasas-based Top Seed Academy, further conveyed that players would be expected to pay annual memberships, ranging from $900 for a junior player from Costa Mesa, to $1,650 for a non-resident couple.
Users of the city-owned Costa Mesa Tennis Centers were startled last month to see steep fee hikes proposed by operator Top Seed Academy.
(Courtesy of Dee Harriman)
One problem with the proposed hikes is they were neither reviewed nor approved by the city, as required by Top Seed’s contract. And members allege instructors who run the center’s daily operations have been holding lessons off site and potentially brokering in cash transactions, another contract violation.
Many players are not opposed to a price bump to create parity with similar facilities in Orange County that charge $12 per hour or $15 for 90 minutes. But the fee and membership charges proposed — when multiplied by up to four players in a match, many of them seniors with modest budgets, for multiple hours — could force some to give up their sport, hobby or passion, according to Costa Mesa resident Dee Harriman.
Costa Mesa Tennis Center user Dee Harriman, third from bottom right, said one-quarter of the women in her teams left for another center after learning of proposed fee hikes.
(Courtesy of Dee Harriman)
A tennis player at the center for more than 30 years, Harriman, 66, recalled supporting Top Seed’s bid for the contract with the city in 2023, after longtime operator Hank Lloyd retired the prior year and Top Seed had been installed as an interim replacement.
Residents rallied around Top Seed Academy owner Steve McAvoy, who’d vowed to retain the instructors who’d worked under Lloyd, including Carsten and Christian Ball — sons of long-tenured and well-respected Tennis Center coach Syd Ball — and let them manage the outfit.
“I actually was in favor of the Ball brothers, only because the Lloyds had said they would be a good family to take over the operations and it would be similar to how the Lloyds operated it,” Harriman said Wednesday. “I was definitely 100% for them. I went to [Costa Mesa City Council] meetings in support of the Ball brothers.”
But that fervor has cooled in light of recent events.
“One-quarter of my team has already left and is playing at Cabrillo [Tennis Center in Santa Ana,] which breaks my heart, because I’ve played with these girls for over 12 years,” she added. “It’s tearing teams apart — it’s really sad.”
The Costa Mesa Tennis Center has come under scrutiny lately, after users were hit with steep fee hikes set to take effect Sept. 1. City officials confirmed the increases were never reviewed by staff.
(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)
Margo Ferris, who’s played for 32 years at the city facility, recently served up her concerns to the City Council in a comment during the Aug. 5 council meeting. Ferris runs a 70-team league and said five teams of ladies accustomed to paying a collective $64 per match would be forced to pay $320 under the new fee structure.
“Over 70% of our ladies are seniors; they cannot afford that. One of them saw the fee change and actually started crying,” said the Huntington Beach resident, adding some members play at the center three to four times a week.
Top Seed’s contract with the city stipulates all fees and charges, including revenue-sharing agreements with private instructors, must be approved by City Hall.
“Any and all adjustments, including new fees, rates, charges and revenue sharing agreements, must be approved by city manager or designee prior to implementing,” the document states.
Hank Lloyd stands with wife Maureen in front of the Costa Mesa Tennis Center in Costa Mesa in 2022, having announced his retirement after 24 years of operating the city-run facility.
(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)
Ferris and other Tennis Center users confirmed the Ball brothers have been holding lessons at Newport Harbor High School, where they also coach tennis, and are telling players at the city-owned facility to come there for instruction.
“They told all the people taking lessons to come to Newport Harbor High and pay them in cash,” Ferris told council members at the meeting. “We would like this issue looked into.”
According to the city contract, all sales are to be recorded by Top Seed Academy in an electronic point-of-sale system with prices that cannot be adjusted, although an allowance is made for cash purchases under $30 at the center’s pro shop.
“Lessee shall provide a POS that the city agrees with and that the city can access to track all financial and attendance information,” the agreement states. “Any transaction that takes place on court or through mobile wallet/payment systems and not through a POS system may result in a breach of contract and termination of contract with the lessee.”
McAvoy, Top Seed’s owner, did not respond to a phone call or an email containing questions about the allegations. Carsten Ball did not respond to a request for comment made to his personal cellphone and was not present at the center when an attempt was made to contact him there on Tuesday.
Responding to Ferris’ comments at the Aug. 5 meeting, Interim City Manager Cecilia Gallardo-Daly indicated that while the city had received a request from Tennis Center operator Top Seed Academy to increase fees, the proposed rate hike had not been reviewed or approved by the city.
“A community asset is not something that is supposed to be profitable for the organization who operates it.”
— Costa Mesa Councilmember Loren Gameros
“We’ll be sure to work with the Tennis Center operators to make sure they are removing any signage related to the fee increases until those fee increases have been approved, and making sure there is plenty of lead time and notice to Tennis Center users of any impending increases before they go into effect,” she added.
A city spokesman contacted Monday by the Daily Pilot said the city declined to comment beyond that. However, two council members at the same meeting spoke unequivocally against profiteering.
“A community asset is not something that is supposed to be profitable for the organization who operates it,” said Councilmember Loren Gameros. “I want to keep that in mind as we propose an increase that is going to affect constituents.”
Mayor Pro Tem Manuel Chavez agreed.
“I do want something more reasonable for the fees. We should not be trying to price gouge our own residents,” he said. “I don’t want us to lose the community we have there.”