Park City Recreation to reconsider winter court time allocation after tennis community backlash

The inside of the new bubble at the PC MARC. Photo: TownLift

PARK CITY, Utah — Park City’s Recreation Advisory Board (RAB), guided by the Park City Council, will reconsider its winter court allocation plan for the Park City Municipal Athletic & Recreation Center (PC MARC) bubble. The bubble, home to both tennis and pickleball courts, is a key battleground in the competition for court time during the winter.

According to Cole Johnston, the MARC’s racquet sports division manager, the latest court reallocation plan added 72 additional hours per week for pickleball. This increase would pull 36 hours a week from tennis, since there are two pickleball courts per one tennis court. The debate over court allocation has been ongoing, with the local pickleball community creating a change.org petition for equal booking access nearly a year ago.

The RAB formed a subcommittee that met five times over the summer to evaluate court allocation. “We tried to strike the right balance due to extremely high demand for both sports,” said Clayton Scrivner, Park City’s communications manager.

What players are saying: “The recent reallocation was more than unfair to the tennis community,” said Park City tennis player Phoebe Hailey. “Pickleball capacity in the Wasatch Back has expanded dramatically over the past few years,” she added, “yet pickleball continues to mandate more and more space, threatening tennis programming and open play.”

“For goodness sake, the boys’ tennis team is forced to practice from 8 to 10 p.m. Let’s get them to bed on time,” Hailey said.

Tennis players also feel blindsided by the latest reallocation plan and argue that it was made without their input. “The tennis community, for many years now, has been very accommodating because we all feel fortunate that Park City has great facilities,” said Tom Klein, a longtime Park City tennis player who previously managed tennis facilities on the East Coast. Klein, however, emphasized the need for more balanced court allocation. He said that adding more dedicated pickleball court time is “… overcorrecting for a problem that’s already being addressed by the private community.” The city put out an RFP for a public/private partnership for a potential pickleball facility in Quinn’s Junction. The project is still in its early stages.

Klein emphasized that the issue isn’t just about allocation but the compatibility between tennis and pickleball: “Think of e-bikes and bicycles. They may look similar, but they are not compatible on the same trail networks.” He later explains, “Pickleball is a lot louder, both in terms of socially and the sound of hitting the ball. And indoors, everything echoes are ready. So now, you can’t hear the tennis ball—and that’s part of the allure of tennis—is that incredible sound of acoustics you have when you strike a tennis ball versus the sound you have when you hit a pickleball. It’s fine, but not together. You can’t play these things together. They’re not compatible.”

The bottom line: With a limited number of courts at the MARC, both tennis and pickleball communities face challenges securing court time during the winter. “We simply don’t have enough facilities,” said Scrivner.

What’s next: The subcommittee will meet again in the coming weeks to reevaluate the plan, with an updated recommendation expected by Nov. 5. Public input is encouraged during RAB and City Council meetings.