Brighton Park getting new Tennis Program

By Randy Bell

After a two-year hiatus, the City of Clinton has hired a new tennis services contractor for Brighton Park.  The Board of Aldermen voted July 1 to approve an agreement with NR Tennis LLC to develop and manage all tennis leagues, programming, instruction, and tennis needs at the park.  

Brighton has been without such services since EKS Management notified the City in July of 2023 that it was opting out of its contract. 

“First and foremost, when this company comes in here, they’re just going to focus on providing camps, clinics, leagues, and tournaments for the City and things like that,” says Parks and Recreation Director Courtney Nunn.  She notes that, at least initially, there won’t be a tennis pro shop at Brighton.  

The agreement gives NR Tennis the responsibility of organizing, managing, and vetting any independent contract tennis instructors, as well as standardizing a fee structure and enforcing court reservations.  The company will be expected to organize and host a minimum of eight tournaments. 

For its part, the City will provide court and facility maintenance, while paying NR Tennis $3,750 monthly.  The City will receive one hundred percent of court and league fees and fifty percent of tournament revenue.  NR Tennis will get one hundred percent of all lessons and programming revenue.

Nunn says it’s been difficult for Parks and Recreation to manage the tennis courts without having someone at Brighton to do the job.  

“I think the biggest challenge is when people are trying to make court reservations, and they have to come to [Parks and Rec headquarters at Traceway Park] across town just to pay for their rental,” she says.  “Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with rentals, making sure nobody’s getting on those [reserved] courts, without somebody actually being over there.”

According to Nunn, with NR Tennis overseeing operations, it should be a much better situation.  

“We’ll be able to put some different things in place as it pertains to court policies and rules and how [players] can go about doing rentals and reservations.  I feel like it’s going to run a lot smoother out there.”