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Bibb County looking to hire tennis consultant to get more tournaments in Macon

Bibb County commissioners plan to vote on hiring former tennis pro Jaime Kaplan for eight weeks to get more tournaments.

Jaime Kaplan, former tennis professiona and current coach for Stratford's tennis team, has a new opportunity as a tennis consultant for Macon-Bibb County.

“Twenty or 25 years ago everything was played here and everybody was fine with that around the state,” said Kaplan.

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She says now cities like Rome, Augusta, and Atlanta realized how much money the tournaments brought in and started stealing them away.

“All of a sudden these other towns around the state started saying there is a pretty big economic impact for these events,” said Kaplan.

She's had enough.

She plans on using her contacts, giving the courts some tender love and care, and getting Macon back one of the tournaments we lost- like the Peachtree State Tournament.

“I'm not a hundred percent sure why we lost that even, but there are about 600 kids that would come to that. We lost that to Atlanta. I'd love to get that one back,” said Kaplan.

Valerie Bradley with Visit Macon says Macon holds 10-12 tournaments a year. She says they each bring in anywhere form half a million to over a million dollars in sales tax and hotel tax money.

“The bigger ones are the district league champions we have the southern 14's tournament and also the junior team tennis tournament,” said Bradley.

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Bibb County just agreed to spend over  $4 million for 24 more courts at South Bibb Recreation Center, which Kaplan says makes Macon more desirable for the US Tennis Association.

“We feel the additional courts which are a great positive to attract the bigger tournaments,” said Bradley.

“We have a lot going for us here and we have to make sure we stay on our game. We have to play our best match,” Kaplan.

Now, the county hopes the money to hire Kaplan will help them smash their next tournament bid.

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