(BRENDAN KERGIN / iNFOnews.ca)

The Pickleball Kelowna Club is the second largest club in B.C., behind Vernon, with 600 members and 12 aging outdoor courts next to the soon to be replaced Parkinson Recreation Centre.

Kelowna city council was told today that nine new courts will be built over the next year, six in Glenmore and three in Okanagan Mission but not at the Parkinson site.

“We don’t need courts scattered all over the place,” Jamie Menzies, president of the Kelowna club, told iNFOnews.ca. “Pickleball is best served by a central hub and we’ve been working with Sport Kelowna (a branch of city government) to get everybody understanding the importance of that.”

That is on the city’s radar. The report to council talked about “Destination Courts” but also the importance of “Satellite Courts” for other areas of the city. No time line for a destination court was given but staff said it will be at the Parkinson Recreation site.

The problem the Kelowna club is facing in multi-faceted.

First of all, its 12 courts are on old, repurposed, tennis courts that, even though they are resurfaced every two years, are showing their age and cracking.

Then there is the need to have a minimum of 20 and, ideally, 24 courts to host major tournaments.

As it is, when the Kelowna club hosts its annual major tournament they have to take over the two nearby Basil Meikle tennis courts that are located about the same place where the new Parkinson Recreation Centre will likely be built.

“Those tennis courts will be the first thing that they would wipe out, which would totally restrict us regarding tournament play,” Menzies said.

As she understands the process, more courts won’t be added at the Parkinson Recreation site until after the new building is open and the old one is torn down, something that could easily take another five years.

“The challenge is the timeline,” Menzies said. “It just can’t come soon enough but now we’re at the mercy of the new building, and whether the city votes on it and how they’re going to borrow the money. Where does this actually leave us time wise? Could we pick a little piece of property that’s not affected by all of this and you could start developing sooner rather than later?”

READ MORE: 'There's nothing like pickleball:' Vernon man's lawsuit to restore club membership thwarted

In terms of space, pickleball is very efficient since 24 courts need only as much land as one soccer field, she said.

“It’s a huge property,” Menzies said. “We would like to find an area on the property that could be redeveloped sooner.

One site that could be considered is in the area of the old lacrosse box. That served as the city’s original pickleball courts in 2009 when two courts were taped off there.

It was in 2012 that the club was established in its current location but there is no room to expand until the old recreation centre is torn down.

The Parkinson Recreation site is also ideal because it is central to members who travel from as far away as Penticton to play regularly.

Also on the horizon are five covered courts that may be built on the site of the Kelowna Springs Golf Course.

Menzies is meeting with the new owner, Denciti Development Corp., later this week to discuss that possibility further.

But that will only happen if the city allows the golf course to be redeveloped as industrial land. Council will look at that question again at a public hearing on June 20. It wants to keep the land for recreation, even though it was designated for industrial last year.

READ MORE: Kelowna decides not to 'rush' decision on controversial golf course redevelopment

“This would allow us to have a year-round facility on a small scale,” Menzies said. “It would allow us to dip our toes into being a year-round club and how that would work and what kind of membership it would allow us to have. It would really be wonderful because it would allow us to develop our players better year-round and run some leagues and probably do some youth programming.”

Vernon has a 12-court indoor facility.

In the meantime, the Kelowna club’s membership is capped at 600 with a 100-person waiting list. That means, if people don’t sign up for leagues within five minutes of them being posted, they miss out.

Moving to another location at Parkinson would also allow more distance from residents. As it is, play is only allowed from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. out of consideration for the neighbours.

Pickleball is one of the fastest growing sports in the country. The report going to council says the provincial association has grown by 600% since its inception in 2017 and now numbers more than 13,000.

“Kelowna could be the pickleball destination of Canada between the tourism here and the quality of the players that we have in the Valley,” Menzies said.

So why is it so popular?

“It’s a quick learning curve,” Menzies said. “It’s really fun. All ages can play and it’s very social.”

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