Pickleball paddles won’t be whacking wiffleballs in Midhurst anytime soon.
On Monday night, city councillors referred back to staff a motion for a new $1.3-million facility with 14 professional standard courts at Barrie Community Sports Complex, located just north of the city.
Instead, staff will investigate and report back on the ability to develop eight, 12 or 14 new pickleball courts in Painswick Park at the March 21, 2022 general committee meeting. Painswick Park, which already has four pickleball courts, is located at the corner of Big Bay Point Road and Ashford Drive in the city's south end.
Coun. Mike McCann has said the new courts should be located in Barrie because people are driving outside the city, to Orillia and Newmarket, to play pickleball because Barrie doesn’t have enough courts.
“The sports complex in Midhurst is a non-starter on my watch,” he said. “It’s not accessible by Barrie city transit. The $1.3-million price tag was high for 14 courts and I would not spend this money outside Barrie proper on pickleball courts.
“We are creating a tourism destination,” McCann added. “Barrie has the ability to become one of central Ontario’s competitive pickleball destinations, which will help create lots of revenue spin-offs.”
McCann said Painswick Park already has many players calling it their pickleball destination.
“I have seen 20-plus people waiting to play any day of the week,” he said. “It has an established pickleball culture where people just show up and play.”
McCann said there are no neighbours around to be disturbed with the sound, and there’s already plenty of parking.
Council will consider final approval of this motion at its March 7 meeting.
Only Coun. Ann-Marie Kungl voted against McCann’s motion.
“I am in full support of expanding access to pickleball courts across the city and know that staff have four more courts planned for construction this year,” she said. “Unfortunately, since a referral motion was tabled (Monday), I was not able to speak to the extensive work I am aware staff have already done over the past two years examining locations related to siting and sizing pickleball courts for a dedicated tournament play facility.
“As noted in the staff report, the past motion by council was specific to establishing 13, 14 courts in one location that could be designed in the space to comply with Pickleball Canada's standards for a minimum of 12 courts to support sanctioned regional-level tournaments,” Kungl added. “Exploring a space for less than 12 courts and revisiting a location already investigated does not meet the intention of the original motion to establish a facility to attract competitive play, events and support tourism interests.”
Supporting amenities for a new pickleball facility include, but aren’t limited to, lighting, a shaded seating area, washroom facilities, parking and even a dome.
The city offers drop-in pickleball sessions at various community centres throughout Barrie. There are dedicated courts at Red Path and Painswick parks, shared-use courts at Greenfield, Sandringham and Strabane parks. In all, the city has 11 existing pickleball courts in its parks, with six dedicated pickleball courts, and five shared-use courts.
The city plans to construct an additional four dedicated pickleball courts at Eastview Community Park to get to a total of 15 courts in 2022.
The timeline for a city staff report didn’t permit a formal public consultation process, including a comprehensive community needs and interests survey and assessment for the sport and the proposed pickleball facility in Midhurst. To date, no formal public or user-group consultation has occurred regarding a 14-court tournament facility.
Brad Harris, a director at Barrie Pickleball Club, has said there are about 450 members in and around the city.
Location and associated accessibility are concerns in Midhurst, as Barrie Transit buses don’t travel there. Noise isn’t a problem because Barrie Community Sports Complex is located on the former tree nursery property and not close to many homes. Otherwise the sound of the ball off the paddle could be a concern.
Monday’s original motion asked that $650,000 in funding for future pickleball courts, approved in the capital budget, be increased by $644,000 for a total amount of $1,294,000 to construct a 14-court facility without a dome at the Barrie Community Sports Complex, and be funded from the city’s reinvestment reserve.
The facility’s design phase in 2022 would cost $119,000, the construction phase in 2023 would be $1.175 million.
Staff would proceed with consultant selection for the facility’s design in the second quarter of 2022, with the public tender of the construction project issued at the end of this year or early 2023.
City treasurer Craig Millar has said there is $3.3 million in the city’s reinvestment reserve, but less the $650,000 that leaves $2.65 million. This reserve is funded from the Alectra dividends that come through Barrie Hydro Holdings.
Pickleball combines elements of tennis, badminton and table tennis/ping pong. It’s played with a paddle and a wiffleball, a perforated plastic ball, on a badminton-sized court with a slightly modified tennis net. Pickleball can be played as doubles or singles and by all age and skill levels for both recreation and as a social activity.
City staff say it is growing in popularity in Canada and throughout Ontario communities, notably amongst older adults and seniors, but also young adults.
“Pickleball has its own culture,” McCann said. “It’s a great culture that kids are attracted to all the way up to players over 100 years old. The atmosphere is like no other sporting event I have been a part of.
“Some seniors stay and play for five-plus hours. It’s truly amazing to see everyone getting outside and working out, socializing and having some fun.”
