THUNDER BAY — Next summer, pickleball players in Thunder Bay will have four courts at Boulevard Lake dedicated exclusively to their sport.
The City of Thunder Bay is fixing up and reconfiguring four existing tennis courts across from St. Ignatius High School, so that two will be earmarked for tennis, and two for pickleball.
Since pickleball requires a smaller area, there's room for four pickleball courts.
It's a paddleball sport that's grown in popularity in North America in recent years, especially among seniors.
Pickleball combines aspects of tennis, badminton and ping pong.
Although COVID-19 restrictions impacted play this year, local enthusiasts have used locations such as the Oliver Road Community Centre and the West Thunder Community Centre.
Werner Schwar, the supervisor of Parks & Open Space Planning for the city, says pickleball players can use tennis courts by "putting tape down for their lines, or we've been using dual markings," but it's not an ideal solution.
"Nobody's happy with that, because when you start to get all the lines on the tennis court, it can be confusing for everybody," Schwar told Tbnewswatch.
The city knew that improvements were already needed at the Boulevard Lake tennis facility, where Schwar said the surface had deteriorated so much that tennis players were staying away.
Poor drainage below the courts caused heaving over the years.
Schwar explained that when the courts were built different construction standards were in place,
"They were in really poor shape. We did borehole samples, and basically there wasn't a whole lot of gravel underneath them, so we budgeted for a total re-do rather than just paving over the poor sub-base."
A contractor hired for the $350,000 project has already removed the old asphalt in preparation for installing a proper base, new asphalt and fences.
That will be completed in the coming weeks, but lines won't be painted on the courts until next season.
A sitting area will also be created just to the north of the courts next year.
