Pickleball players want more access

The Pickleball Marathon last month at the MARC. The Park City Pickleball Club currently has over 600 members. Photo: Park City Pickleball Club

PARK CITY, Utah — During public input at Thursday’s Park City Council meeting, members of the Park City Pickleball Club called for the City to do more to accommodate the sport’s growing rise in the area.

Jim Jones, a member of the club who spoke, said that the group that was once merely 30 members has now grown to over 600. He said he expects the club will be 1000 members strong by next year.

“What we’re concerned about is that the MARC is giving priority to tennis players, such that in the indoor courts, there’s no pickleball allowed inside the MARC building,” said Jody Whitesides, another member of the club.

“What essentially we’re asking for is the ability to reserve court time in the bubble during the wintertime just like tennis players can.”

While the MARC currently has certain time segments marked for pickleball, Whitesides said less than 9% of the bubble court reservations are made available to the sport.

“We were hoping that maybe we could get a little bit of help in changing that so that pickleball players could also reserve court time to play in the bubble. We’re not asking for the courts on the inside of the building.”

Jones said they want to see the courts used more efficiently. He referenced situations in which the bubble courts were empty, but pickleball players were unable to use them because it was “tennis time.”

He said the MARC is missing out on money the Pickleball Club can generate.

He added that they would like to see all courts marked with pickleball lines. “I have never heard one pickleball player complain and say — “we don’t like tennis lines” — yet, when we try to convert a tennis court… the tennis community come out and raise havoc and say no, no, no — those lines are distracting.”