Why a pickleball hub can't come soon enough for Kelowna

Kelowna city planners are formally earmarking the Parkinson Recreation Centre for a large pickleball hub, possibly with up to 24 courts.

And it can’t come quickly enough for lovers of the hugely popular racquet sport.

Pickleball participation is off the charts in Kelowna, but the Pickleball Kelowna Club membership is capped because of the lack of court facilities and demand is increasing.

City council has approved a long-term strategy that will see more pickleball courts going to so-called satellite hubs distributed across various neighborhoods.

But Parkinson Rec - which currently has 12 of the city’s total allocation of 16 dedicated pickleball courts - will be the venue for what they’re calling ‘feature destination courts’. However, there is no specific timeframe for their construction.

“We’re already behind the eight ball for the number of courts we have in the city,” Pickleball Kelowna president Jamie Menzies told Kelowna10. “We’re very excited by this report, because, for the first time, it puts on paper that we will probably get 24 new courts at Parkinson.”

However, the city has not yet confirmed how big the Parkinson Rec pickleball hub will be but at least 20 courts are required to host official tournaments.

She said the club sold out its 600 memberships for this year in a matter of days, has a wait list of over 125, and gets multiple new requests each day.

“It’s astronomical, and we can’t accommodate everyone unfortunately. Those 24 courts can’t come soon enough,” she explained, noting the club has some resources and is ready to partner with the city on future construction.

But Menzies added there is some frustration and concern that other areas in the city are set to get new pickleball courts while the proposed Parkinson hub is still up in the air. Six pickleball courts will go in at the new Glenmore Recreation Park, along with three tennis courts, and three pickleball courts are set for the new DeHart Community Park, in 2024.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen overall with the redevelopment if this area so we may not even get [the hub] for two or three years … we’re desperate for the courts,” she said, while supporting the new courts going elsewhere across the city ‘to help relieve the pressure’ on the sport as she put it.

Meanwhile, Robert Parlane, the city’s parks and buildings planner, acknowledged pickleball’s huge following in Kelowna as the second biggest club in BC.

“One in 12, that’s eight per cent of households, are playing pickleball at least once a month and we’re definitely responding to that, looking to create a large increase in pickleball courts,” he said.

But he also made it clear there are a lot of other parks and recreation demands across the city.

“There’s a lot of demand for, you know, waterfront access, for disc golf, dog parks, etc,” he said. “So, it’s always going to be a balance in terms of resources and the physical space.”

While pickleball is by far the biggest growing court sport in the city, tennis demand is also up. The city plans on making Mission Recreation Park a destination hub for that.