Summary
Jim Westhall, entrepreneur and philosopher, thought he was walking into a sun-kissed marriage of tennis and town when he arrived in New Haven from tiny Stratton Mountain, Vt., in 1990. Promised a stadium as large as his vision would allow, Westhall reckoned that if he could draw 11,000 people in Green Mountain National Forest, all roads to the posh Connecticut Tennis Center ought to be paved with gold. Today, as preparations are being finalized for the 20th season of international tennis in New Haven, Westhall occasionally wonders, in hindsight, what he was thinking when he left stately upper New England.
"I do ask myself that question sometimes," said Westhall, now a bystander to the Pilot Pen tennis operation (nee Volvo) he brought to New Haven. "The rear view mirror sometimes gives you some information that you don't have going forward. That's what happened with me. But I think if you measured the success we had overall in New Haven, it probably was a success for the most part ... although when the court came up, that certainly twisted my knickers a little bit. That was the perfect storm."See the full content of this document
Extract
Westhall Had the Big-Time Vision
That very well may be the most infamous day (Aug. 19, 1992) in New Haven sports history. Stadium court was so saturated with rain from the previous day and night that it peeled the court...
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