The Burlington pickleball problem is 'one wrong choice after the next'

Pickleball is no longer a small, niche sport.

Played similarly to tennis, the sport has exploded in popularity over the last decade both globally and locally. The Burlington Pickleball Association (BPA) has roughly 300 members and players can regularly be seen around the city.

In fact, the sport has become so popular that the local court infrastructure is now widely considered inadequate and Burlington pickleballers have become frustrated with the city's handling of their facilities. According to BPA representatives, courts have been closed down, scheduling has been problematic and the development of new spaces has been far too slow.

Paul Lejkowski, President of the (BPA), said the string of court issues could have been prevented with better collaboration and planning.

From day one it's just been one wrong choice after the next, and decisions made that could have been easily avoided. I don't even want to know how much this is costing us," Lejkowski said.

Burlington currently lists five outdoor pickleball court locations.

At Ireland Park, there are currently lines for four pickleball courts on top of the two tennis courts. That means if four games of pickleball are being played, it takes up the entirety of the available tennis playing space. Because of pickleball's popularity, the lack of space for both tennis players and pickleballers regularly creates a space issue.

Representatives with the BPA say this could have been prevented if the city had listened to their suggestion and drawn the lines as four courts on a single tennis court. The city said the contractor hired to do the lines at Ireland Park indicated the BPA's proposal was not safe.

Don Moseley-Williams is a board member with the BPA, who has worked with the Town of Oakville on the development of recreational facilities. He said the BPA is very open to working with the city and that having an active partnership between the two organizations would save everyone time and money.

Any municipality should be able to give us the documents ahead of time - before they put the tender out," said Moseley-Williams.

At the Palmer Park courts, a surface issue resulted in the city locking that gate. The BPA said they offered to cover the cost of the repair but their offer was declined.

In August, the city removed the pickleball lines at the Brant Hills courts following noise concerns. The BPA representative said the noise issue was predictable and could have been avoided if the courts were placed at a better location that was further away from homes. Noise issues as a result of pickleball matches are not unheard of and a case of a noise complaint this spring in Niagara-on-the-Lake resulted in a court battle and ultimately, fines to both the pickleball club and the town.

These issues have been particularly frustrating for local pickleballers when they compare how the sport has been supported in Burlington against what's been seen in other communities.

There are cities of like 10,000 people that are getting several dedicated courts. There's something like 50 players in Grimsby and they went to the city and said we want dedicated pickleball courts and they're playing on them as of mid-June - they asked last November. It's a hard thing to look at. Everywhere except Burlington, things are happening. I just don't understand what it is," said Lejkowski.

The City of Burlington said it is open to working with local pickleballers on future facilities. An idea has been discussed to create pickleball courts run by the local association and operated similarly to the many tennis clubs currently existing.

Denise Beard, Burlington's manager of community development services, said the city will absolutely be taking input on future pickleball projects from local users.

We will be consulting with them. But we do preface that they're not the only pickleball players in Burlington. So we consult with lots of pickleball players; they just are one formalized group that we can work with. And we will work with other pickleball players or people who have interest in pickleball as well, who are not part of the association," said Beard.

STORY BEHIND THE STORY: When Burlington announced it had closed pickleball courts at Brant Hills due to noise issues we wanted to learn more about how this could happen with a sport that doesn't have a reputation for rowdiness.