Scott Radley: The great pickleball debate: Should you have to pay to play in Hamilton?
Should pickleball be available to play for free or should those wanting to pick up a racquet and try the fast-growing sport have to pay for court time? Should courts be left open for anyone's use any time or managed by an interested group?
Welcome to the great pickleball debate of 2021.
OK, that's a slight overstatement. But there is a strong difference of opinion out there among local players about how the city's handling its courts.
There a lot of passionate people in terms of pickleball," says the city's manager of sport services, Steve Sevor.
The story goes like this.
There are 12 fresh, centrally-located courts behind the Hill Park Recreation Centre near Upper Wentworth Street and Mohawk Road East. This summer, six were operated by Pickleball Hamilton for members and six were open to the public for free play.
Recognizing the growth of the racquet sport that uses a smaller court than tennis, city staff recently asked the organization - with whom it's worked for years and which raised $25,000 to help pay for the new courts - to manage all the courts there because it simply doesn't have the manpower to do it properly.
A facility of this nature really needs some operation and we at the city, at this point, do not have that resource to provide," Sevor says.
This means those who want to use them will now have to become a member of the not-for-profit group for $150 a year or pay a daily user fee to cover costs.
Because we have to have insurance for them to play, otherwise, if they're our courts, we're liable if anything happens," says club director-at-large John Sharp.
It's more than a fair price when you consider all the programming the group offers to grow the game including that insurance, outreach to schools, seniors, lessons and even having a club pro, he says. Not to mention doing things like contact tracing this summer during COVID.
Enter the Hamilton Association of Recreational Pickleball. The 150-or-so members of this group don't desire leagues or tournaments or lessons or coaching or spreadsheets to book courts. They just want a place to play at their leisure.
Until now, they could go onto six of the Hill Park courts pretty much any time at no cost. Now they say they're going to be forced to join Pickleball Hamilton and pay that fee. Or go all the way to Confederation Park or other distant courts, which would be a long, long bus ride for some members.
We've had people send notes to us to say, I'm on a fixed income. I just enjoy going over to (Hill Park) in the morning and playing there,'" HARP executive member Bill Stewart says.
Several tennis courts around town have had pickleball lines taped down. However, Stewart says many of those have been torn up, presumably by tennis players who didn't want to share their space.
Speaking of those public tennis courts, he says they aren't managed by a particular group and are available to anyone for free. There's no need to handle the pickleball courts differently.
On top of everything else, his group wants to know how a private group got control of a public facility and is interested in the details of the licence agreement between Pickleball Hamilton and the city.
Sharp says Pickleball Hamilton doesn't even know what that deal says yet. The previous one expired and the new one is still in the works.
As for that $10-per-day insurance fee that's currently being charged to guests, it could soon be changed, he says. A plan is being pitched to the city that would make it $5 a day or even $5 a year.
Why would anyone pay for a $150 membership if they could play for just $5? Because, he explains, the club offers plenty of events and rents indoor courts during the winter (for members only, no guests) at a couple local schools where the fees are high. Plus, during the outdoor season members would have the first chance to book court time.
That last bit doesn't thrill the HARP people.
Stewart says he's been at Hill Park when the Pickleball Hamilton courts were empty and the fence was locked up. If there were no official bookings at a particular time, he expects recreational players wouldn't be able to simply show up and have access.
Sevor says talks are still ongoing with Pickleball Hamilton about how everything will work in an attempt to make everyone happy.
I'm not concerned about the perceived fighting," he says. I'm working to help everyone in terms of the advancement of that sport."
Scott Radley is a Hamilton-based columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sradley@thespec.com