Out of blue, two days ago some family member of the players from Beijing Chaoyang tennis club contacted me:
Subject: Sunday in NY
Hi Irene,
Please don’t mind if I ask who paid for the tennis court that day, I need to know this because I was told that I need to pay for my share of the fee, and I am not even part of the tennis team.
Thanks,
Weird .. was my first reaction.
What’s going on? Why would anyone ask the family member to chip in to share the court cost? We all knew USTA paid for the two courts for two hours 10-12 noon. Since we had about two dozen players from both sides, soon we played on the next two courts. Four courts in total. In any sense, we, as the host, should pay for the court cost, if there were any, just like the lunch.
Who actually asked you to pay for it, and how much? I questioned the sender.
No reply.
(On that Sunday 8/30, as we were leaving the tennis club, one of my buddies mentioned that Sandy went to the front desk at the club and negoated the additional two courts and paid for it.)
To be sure, I forwarded the e-mail to Andy and one of the organizers for clarification. The organizer replied two days later:
Subject: Re: court fee for BJ club
Hey Irene,
When you raise questions, you have to be specific. I have no clue what you or your someone are referring to.
What court, which court, where, when ???
Sorry .. for being not clear and specific. I thought the initial e-mail/subject is self-explanatory.
From reading the e-mail I forwarded to you, I think the inquirer is asking about Sunday 8/30 at Roosevelt Island tennis club. Have any of catsny member asked the Chaoyang tennis club to share the court fees (original two and the addition two ??) in any way?
It sounds very odd.Best regards
Irene
From the organizer:
C’mon, Irene, that was history and whatever happened, happened. It’s water under the bridge.
Just to clear your doubtful mind,
USTA paid 2 courts for Chaoyang Tennis Club as courtesy and we were arranged to play the friendly games with them.
Then, Tom the club manager came later and told me that we can use balance 2 courts for free as the courts were paid for by seasonal players who did not show up.
As such, we got to use balance 2 courts that day. No fees were paid to no one.
To my knowledge, no one asked anyone for money in any form. I, for one, did not pay out any fee to Tennis club for additional courts.
There might have been conversation among our players to suggest that we rent the 2 empty courts and everyone chip in for the cost. That’s my guessing.
Both your neighbor HL and PZ were there. If anyone asking for money, I should have know about it.
So, here you go. I hope this will satisfy the sender.
Now, I have a question for the Inquisitor that wasn’t being answered:
– Who asked for payment? More importantly, was the request made after the 8/30 event – That’s the root of the problem.
Will the Instigator share this info that started this flurry of e-mails exchanges?
I won’t be surprised to see that Chaoyang has as much politics as the catsny although I sincerely hope not. But .. coming to NY/USA isn’t a small deal, especially when China makes tennis/golf so out of reach for the masses.
It’s just a game. People. Lets KISS. Let’s forge friendship and promote sportsmanship.
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