I’d like to thank you for coming to our end of an era party at Bally Total Fitness on Dec. 8.

I hope it left you with an understanding of how deeply passionate our tennis players are. People of all ages and walks of life played on those courts. For some, who have lost spouses, it was the center of their social life. Many of us suffer injuries that would stop most people from playing, but we grit out teeth returning to the courts to play the game that makes us feel alive, happy and vital.

As we played until the very last minute, most of us were still numb after the crushing blow that left us bereft of a tennis home. Corporations hoping to corner the fitness market by creating a monopoly should be held accountable under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, which makes it illegal to have a monopoly.

Their real accountability should be to the nearly 1,000 members and all other teams in the South Washington USTA league who are now affected because the league has vanished.

I can promise you that the people you saw today will not be victims of corporate greed for long. We will find a way to play together again. Yes, we will do it for the love of the game, but the underlying reality is we do it for the love of each other. As for LA Fitness, their clubs are cold buildings with workout equipment. They have no heart and to that I say “no thanks.”

Annie Horn, Federal Way