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Tennis players set to triumph over pickleballers at one Brookline park
By adamg on Wed, 05/29/2024 - 9:14am
Brookline.News reports town officials are thinking they'll keep clay courts at Amory Park clay for tennis players rather than paving them over so pickleball players could use them as well. Clay courts allow tennis play in the rain and are more forgiving on aging player's joints than paved surfaces, tennis players said in their apparently winning volley. Plus, more tennis players wrote in support of clay than pickleball players wrote to back a hard surface.
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Comments
Pickleball
Pickleball is tennis for fat people. Not a fan.
If you don't like fat people
If you don't like fat people shouldn't you support exercise that's accessible for them?
My only issue with pickleball
My only issue with pickleball is the noise. It's annoying for blocks.
Would it be possible to redesign the paddles or balls to be quieter without significantly affecting the game?
Mob mentality among pickle ballers
The tennis courts at South and Carolina are not longer tennis courts. Pickleball players monopolize them throughout the day.
Worse, pickleball players also take over the basketball courts preventing adolescents from playing basketball. Some of the pickleball players will exit the space. But that puts the responsibility of asking the to move instead of their acting responsibly by leaving basketball courts open.
And of course pickleball players add to the noise pollution.
Obviously it's a lot fun for some folks. But the mob mentality that has grown where the players now take over, monopolize and ignore the well being of neighbors (i.e., creating absurd levels of noise) is disrespectful, irresponsible, arrogant and when forcing others to ask for using courts designed for other than pickleball, is shameful.
Maybe they should build more pickleball courts
Obviously there's a lot of interest in sport and the courts are fairly cheap as public amenities go.
Maybe they should
There is now. It remains to be seen if there will be this level of interest in, say, five years.
I guess that's more or less kind of true, if by "fairly cheap" you mean "can be played on any flat surface of any quality" (I have no idea if this is true of pickleball) or "can always take over an existing public amenity i.e., tennis court". There isn't any great surplus of tennis courts, though. I guess if you just drive by at night you might think that nobody ever uses them, but in my experience, tennis courts tend to be oversubscribed at times when people can actually play (not raining, not at night, not during work hours). I would guess that that's the reason for a lot of the tennis player ire towards pickleball. When pickleballers take over a court, besides not allowing tennis players to use it, they can do damage to the court if they mark it or use improper footgear or equipment. So, yeah, I'm all in favor of building more pickleball courts for pickleball, and leaving the tennis courts for tennis.
There used to be a clay court
There used to be a clay court at the George H. Walker Playground AKA Norfolk Park back when I was a kid. That was replaced by an exercise court with those bars and things which was in turn replaced by just a regular park with benches. All in all, I prefer the regular sitting park.
By all means start building public pickleball courts and give the pickleballers something new to mess up. While we're at it how about some badminton courts and volleyball? Boston obviously has an unlimited budget for these type of things. /s
How does a pickleball player
How does a pickleball player monopolize a tennis court any differently than a tennis player would? Does the court have a rule that it has to change over on the hour? Then anyone who stays for an hour and leaves is utilizing the resource the same way.
The noise is annoying though.
Meh, Pickleball
The MAGA of net sports.
Pickleball
The DJ Khaled of sports
Pickleball
The so loud it has to be good for you sport.
I don’t play either game.
But I do think that the clay courts are worth keeping. For the good drainage and less stress on the players joints, if anything. If something isn’t broke, why fix it?
This is the closest Clay
This is the closest Clay Aiken has ever come to winning the vote.
What kills me
Is that you have to pay to use these courts. About $60/month (for 6 months) if you’re a resident. They have a pro shop, trainers and round robins etc. I guess that’s what you’re paying for. But I’m not used to this for a publicly-owned court — is there any other outdoor court that also charges?
Clay costs more to maintain?
Maybe they charge because clay is very high maintenance compared to an asphalt court.
That has to be it
I saw that Newton has clay courts, and they too charge a fee to use them. And Brookline does have other free municipal courts. I will retire my rage and walk the 20 minutes to Devotion Playground instead.
Can't speak to tennis courts
but as an ice hockey player, paying for use of a publicly owned facility that has high maintenance and upkeep costs is pretty expected.
makes sense
I thought if there was an indoor tennis version of the same that might make sense too (the one in Winchester is commercial, not municipal though). But I think it's because of the clay.