Indoor courts are a hot commodity for tennis and pickleball players once snow starts to fall.
The Park City recreation department has made changes to accommodate the growing wave of pickleballers in recent years. This winter it plans to offer more court time for pickleball in a variety of ways.
Pickleball players will now get more advanced notice to reserve unbooked tennis courts at the PC MARC.
Additionally, if all courts are open in the bubble during tennis time, they will automatically be allowed to host pickleball. Other scheduling changes also ensure additional hours of pickleball court access.
Park City Manager Matt Dias said the new plan is another attempt to find the right balance.
“We are never going to please everyone here,” Dias said. “There’s always going to be folks that are upset that pickleball is allowed at all, and there’s always going to be folks that are upset that pickleball isn’t just allowed at all times, at any time.”
The MARC does not plan to offer tennis and pickleball side-by-side play this winter.
That decision follows a pilot program last spring allowing simultaneous pickleball and tennis play in the bubble. Players were asked to fill out a survey about their experience.
Pickleballers unanimously said they would support more side-by-side play, whereas a majority of tennis players said they would not participate in mixed use play in the future.
In written responses, tennis players complained about the loud noise of pickleball, amplified by the acoustics of the bubble.
Several survey respondents also commented on the social element of pickleball and the level of players’ voices.
Pickleball survey responses:
"Although the tennis players were doing a lot of yelling and laughing, I'm OK playing with them."
"Mixed use play is equally enjoyable."
"There were no issues."
"So much more flexibility."
Tennis survey responses:
"No way would I pay to play in bubble next to pickleball. Can't believe I did today."
"It was honestly the worst tennis experience I've ever had."
"Pickleball hitting is too noisy. Being more of a social sport, the players are very loud."
"We couldn't hear the scores during tennis. We couldn't hear our opponents make line calls. We couldn't even chat between games. Not fun."
Full details on pickleball access at the PC MARC this winter:
