Pickleball “exploded” during the pandemic, but it doesn’t seem like the city’s facilities are keeping up with the popularity of the game.
This was the opinion of some pickleball players who recently met with the Richmond News at the South Arm Community Park where there are three courts dedicated to pickleball.
The courts were busy with players lobbing the white wiffleball used in the game across the court.
Other players mingled and socialized as they waited for a court to free up.
All three players, ranging in age from 15 to 75, agreed pickleball is a great game from a social perspective – but that might be because courts are in such high demand that players spend a lot of time chatting while waiting to play.
Doug Ng, a retired teacher who’s been playing pickleball for 12 years along with his wife – they even plan holidays around the sport – would like to see the City of Richmond create an “expedited long-term plan” to build dedicated courts to keep up with the growth of the sport.
A temporary solution, however, would be simply painting pickleball lines at underused tennis courts throughout the city.
Ng pointed out that Delta, with half the population of Richmond, has double the number of dedicated pickleball courts – and 26 shared courts to Richmond’s one shared court.
Many Lower Mainland municipalities might not have a lot of dedicated pickleball courts, but they have dozens of shared courts that pickleball users can use part of the time. Burnaby has 87 such shared courts.
In Richmond, in addition to the South Arm courts, there are nine at Hugh Boyd secondary.
Last December, Richmond city council approved $800,000 in its capital budget to add four new courts at South Arm Community Park, but even this has been delayed to next year.
Ng wondered at the high cost of these four courts, and he noted Langley built 11 new courts with lighting for about $1.2 million at Willoughby Community Park near the Langley Events Centre.
“Maybe our city should be consulting them to see how they did it,” Ng said.
'Huge future' in pickleball: 15-year-old player
Mackonner Dy, 15, has played a lot of sports growing up, but pickleball is the one he enjoys the most.
And he, too, loves the social aspect.
“Everyone says that, but I think it’s true – half my friends are 60 years old,” he told the News.
Ng calls Mackonner a “rising star” in the pickleball scene.
In fact, he recently brought home a gold and silver from the Kelowna Open and silver medal in the singles 5.0 level – the highest level in pickleball – at provincials.
McKonner said there a “huge future” in pickleball and a lot of opportunities for young people to take part.
Brett Peters, who’s 65 and a retired chiropractor from Steveston, said there’s a lot of nuance to the game, with technical focus on grips and spins.
Pickleball is “easy to play, hard to master,” Peters said.
“I really like the tactical aspect of (pickleball),” he added. “(You have to) capitalize on your strengths to win the game.”
Richmond could be a “leader” in pickleball with more facilities, Peters said, for example, if they spent $50,000 to build bleachers. With such a facility, the city could become a pickleball destination for hosting competitions, he added.
“Richmond could become the hub for pickleball if we had the facilities,” Ng added.
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