The Saga of Pickleball at Robb Field Continues at Mission Bay Park Committee

By Geoff Page

The saga of pickleball’s attempt to find a home at Robb Field continued Tuesday, November 1, with an appearance before the Mission Bay Park Committee, at the Santa Clara Recreation Center in Mission Beach.

Stephan Boyland and Mike Shinzaki made the pitch on behalf of the Pickleball Association of San Diego. The pitch involved three possible options to have pickleball at Robb Field.

#1 – Share the existing 12 tennis courts. There are six courts in one fenced-in enclosure and six in another. Pickleball would like to have six of the 12 courts.

#2 – Take 6 of the 12 courts while building new, replacement tennis courts somewhere nearby.

#3 – Construct new pickleball courts somewhere in Robb Field.

The pickleballers prefer option #1 because they could have people playing the game quickly. Converting the tennis courts to pickleball courts mainly involves restriping and new nets. Option #2 was a close second because it would also enable them to get people playing quickly.

Option #3 was the least favorable option because it would take a number of years to accomplish design, permitting, and construction.

Boyland and Shinzaki have been making the rounds promoting pickleball for some time. The OB Planning Board voted to support a motion to let pickleball have four of the 12 courts for a one-year trial period at their March 2 meeting this year. The first motion to give them six courts failed with a tie vote of 6 to 6.

The OBPB vote would require the pickleballers to build a fence within the existing enclosure to fence off two tennis courts, which seemed impractical. The board stressed that it had no jurisdiction over Robb Field because it is part of the Mission Bay Park. This was just a recommendation.

Regardless of the practicality, Boyland brought it up to show there was some support for pickleball in OB. OBPB chair Andrea Schlageter attended the meeting and affirmed that the board voted to recommend the four courts. Schlageter said their motion only passed by a vote of 7 to 5 vote, indicating ambivalence about the idea.

There is a major development in the pickleball story people may not be aware of. When they came before the OBPB they were a for-profit venture. This caused them problems because the Point Loma Tennis Club, that has managed the courts for years, is a non-profit organization.

For-profit versus non-profit was not a good optic for the pickleballers. They solved that problem by becoming a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit, The Pickleball Association of San Diego, a Public Benefits Corporation. The initial filing date was September 13, 2022. This change will mute a lot of the previous opposition.

Even with the switch to a non-profit status, Boyland and Shinzaki said they are still committed to a number of improvements they would fund, without public money, such as a new clubhouse. The existing facility is a very old mobile modular building that could use improvement or replacement.

The presentation included a lot of information that most people know by now such as the exploding popularity of pickleball. There are few places to play anywhere in the county and only one place in the city. The demand is there now for pickleball courts.

Robb field has number of advantages for having pickleball including plenty of parking and isolation. Pickleball is a very noisy sport and complaints about it across the country can be found when these courts are near homes. The courts at Robb Field are not anywhere near residences.

It seems that the effort to get some of the existing courts away from tennis may have lighted the proverbial fire under the tennis group. It was mentioned that the tennis group had come before the park committee in October with a presentation.

In the committee’s October 4 meeting minutes, under “Information Items” was this:

Peninsula Tennis Club Conceptual Plan – Todd Sprague Peninsula Tennis Club, President San Diego District Tennis Association provide a concept of expanding the footprint of the 12 tennis courts at the Peninsula Tennis club (PTC) with private funding to allow for normal spacing between courts, adding Padel courts to PTC and updating the current clubhouse.

Sprague also generously allowed that there should be a standalone pickleball facility somewhere else in Robb Field constructed with private money. It was not only no to pickleball, it was hell no. That seemed to be exemplified by the PTC plan’s inclusion of new facilities for a different paddle-type sport “Patel.”

Here is a description of “Padel” from Wikipedia:

Padel is a racket sport typically played in doubles on an enclosed court slightly smaller than a doubles tennis court. Scoring is the same as normal tennis, and the balls used are similar but with a little less pressure. The main differences are that the court has walls and the balls can be played off them in a similar way as in the game of squash and that solid, stringless bats are used.

So, instead of some pickleball courts, the tennis club wants to build something for a sport this writer had to look up.

The tennis club’s plans are depicted and described in an October 17, 2022, press release by Sprague.

Oddly, there was no public opposition to the pickleball proposals. Six people spoke and all were for pickleball. Considering the controversy about tennis giving up facilities for pickleball, some opposition would be expected.

Committee member comments varied. Gio Ingolia characterized it as a “land grab.” Others were concerned about the process of deciding who should be given the right to manage the existing facilities. There was not any enthusiasm for supporting taking over existing facilities at Robb Field.

In the end, the committee was sympathetic to the pickleballers’ cause but believed that a process needed to be followed for the facilities including opening them up for proposals from other interested parties. The committee did not feel it was appropriate for them to support one entity over other possible aspirants.

The motion that finally passed was non-committal, to say the least. The committee voted to support accommodating pickleball “somewhere in Mission Bay Park” and to have the city make the decision on who would be chosen to operate it and where it would be located. It was not anything that would help the pickleball proponents any time soon.

For more information on the pickleball organization, go here

Dusty Rhodes Park

During the park committee meeting, there was a budget item of interest to OB. The Mission Bay Park Improvement Fund Oversight Committee requested approval of allocating $10,807,066.53 to fund a series of projects.

Dusty Rhodes Park was slated to get 20% of the total allocation or $2,215,000. Three items are listed in the budget. The first was $444,000 for the restrooms, that have been euphemistically renamed “comfort stations” in recent years. The second item was $327,000 for parking lot improvements. The third item was $1,444,000 for a playground.

For more information contact Gio Ingolia at gingolia@hotmail.com.