Forget about housing bubbles. Tennis and pickleball are where it’s at.
The District of West Vancouver may soon be home to an inflated dome containing six tennis courts along with new covered pickleball courts in the southeast corner of Hugo Ray Park.
District council and Tennis BC have signed a memorandum of understanding that would see the sporting organization build and run the facilities, which would be open to the public 85 per cent of the time.
“We are absolutely thrilled, ladies and gentlemen, to have a fantastic facility. It will be a training ground for young athletes,” Mayor Mark Sager said at Monday’s council meeting “It’s a perfect location and it’ll be a great amenity to the community and to the neighbourhood and we’re really excited.…We’re going to put West Vancouver on the map as a place for all sports and all people.”
As the MOU is still fresh, most of the details have not yet been sorted out. Tennis BC president Rick Hastings said they aim to model the new tennis bubble after their very successful Tennis BC Hub @ Richmond facility, where the non-profit sport organization rents courts out for about $28-35 per hour.
“Within its DNA, it’s all about making it accessible. You don’t have to be a member of a fancy club to get indoor court access,” Hastings said.
Hastings said they have done a walkaround of the mostly treed site with district staff and tennis officials and it appears to be at least notionally feasible. With the MOU signed, they can now get down to more detailed planning and council approvals before going to tender for construction.
“It’s going be beautiful,” he said. “All parties involved are hoping that we can go as quickly as possible and get people playing tennis as soon as possible.”
District staff were already doing planning work on building new pickleball courts at Hugo Ray.
There has been tension between tennis players and pickleballers in the past as the two must compete for limited public court space, Hastings acknowledged. Tennis B.C. was happy to accommodate the upstart sport into the plans, he said.
“Well, we love pickleball, absolutely. How much fun would that be? I think that’s terrific and I think that was something that, as a board, we thought would be really fun,” he said. “It’s so popular, and there’s really so much demand.”
The pickleball courts wouldn’t be under the same bubble as tennis, but Hastings said it’s their intention to provide six covered all-weather courts. The design of the courts would be done in consultation with the local pickleball community, he added.
The North Shore Tennis Society issued a release Tuesday morning “enthusiastically welcoming” the announcement.
“This is great day for tennis in West Vancouver. We are very pleased that our advocacy efforts have borne fruit with the announcement of this new tennis centre in Hugo Ray Park,” society president Duncan Brown said, adding thanks to Sager and council as well as those funding the proposal.
Society vice-president Marcus Shapiro welcomed the inclusion of their racket-wielding court rivals.
“Having worked closely with the West Vancouver picklers, we are delighted that Tennis BC’s plans encompass new pickleball courts as well as new indoor tennis courts,” he said.
