Atlanta City Council has faced many tough decisions in recent years, including who should manage tennis in the city of Atlanta. Should the City Council listen to the frenzied tirades of those on the fringes of society? NO. They should just be professional and do their job, like they were hired to do, based on facts and figures.

Two companies, Agape and Universal Tennis Management (UTM), have been involved in a years-long battle. They both want the $25 million contract to manage Atlanta's tennis facilities. It’s difficult to compete with a company that is loved by the public, and in this particular case, UTM has been a fixture in Atlanta for several years. So it seemed like they were a shoe-in, but there was still a bidding process to deal with... and Agape won the bid.

Immediately, UTM filed an appeal to (in the words of their co-founder Tim Noonan) "get the procurement department and the city of Atlanta legal department to take a closer look at the process... it’s basically like we lost the first round of a 10-round fight or we lost the first set of a tennis match.” Agape clearly outbid UTM, and outbid them again later that year.

Not only did UTM continue to fight it, they upped their game by getting public sentiment involved. The Friends of Bitsy Grant Facebook group posted on March 16 of 2019 that a petition was "available on-site at Bitsy in support of UTM if you are interested." Gee, do you think that might be showing a little bias? How can you expect a tennis academy to promote fair play when the academy itself is so determined to win that they will do whatever it takes?

It is true that UTM has been a part of Atlanta for over a decade, and people aren't always so keen on letting go of a company that they feel has been doing a great job. But at some point, we have to consider the facts: Agape's proposal was better, they won fair and square, and by all rights they should be managing Atlanta's tennis courts for the next several years.

But apparently that would be too simple. On September 8 of 2020, Atlanta City Council heard over four hours of public comments, most of which was related to the tennis management contract. While a lot of citizens voiced their support for Agape, the public support for UTM was overwhelming. So the City Council scrapped Agape's proposal once again. 

When it comes to awarding contracts, the City Council needs to follow established protocol. It is crucial that they adhere to the rules and regulations for the bidding process, because the rules exist for a reason. The failure of the government or any government body to establish and follow procurement procedures and conduct a fair procurement process is sad. 

Atlanta City Council should make the right decisions for the city based on in-depth facts, which should not be swayed by the biases of social media and public emotional attachment.