Why pickleball is becoming Ottawa’s biggest sports story: Opinion

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As Ottawa Senators fans try to determine just how many celebrities can fit into an owners’ box, and where that box should go, another sports soap opera is unfolding throughout the city.

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I speak, of course, of pickleball, reportedly the fastest-growing sport in the world, so much so that Ottawa’s parks, school gyms, community centres, sports facilities and just about any flat surface where you can put up a net are bursting with players, with others desperately searching for venues where they can get their pickle on.

Not everyone is thrilled, however. The increasingly familiar “thwock” of a hard plastic whiffle ball on a graphite paddle — music to many people’s ears — is an incessant staccato nuisance to others.

For those unfamiliar with the game, the briefest of primers: Think of tennis — typically doubles — on a much smaller court and without all the grunting. That’s pickleball.

Numerous factors contribute to the sport’s surge in popularity: it’s easy to learn and accessible to people of all ages and fitness levels. It can be played indoors and out, on a variety of surfaces. It’s inexpensive, social and a good physical workout.

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Gaetan Charette and Céline Renaud were among the 30 pickleballers out on the courts at the Orléans Tennis Club on Tuesday morning. The couple discovered the sport four years ago on a transatlantic cruise ship.

“We used to play golf two or three times a week,” said Charette. “Then we picked up pickleball, and now we golf three times a year, and play pickleball every day.

“It’s very social, and keeps us active at our age.”

The members of their foursome on Tuesday ranged from 55 to 65, but Renaud stressed the sport’s inclusivity in that regard. “Our kids and grandkids are playing now — the grandkids are nine and seven.”

The club, which boasts about 200 adult pickleball members and 150 tennis players, as well as about 50 junior members, has its courts tucked into a corner of Pierre Rocque Park, not far from Place d’Orléans.

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The backyards of four houses, however, directly abut the courts, and the noise, especially from pickleball, can be irksome.

“I wouldn’t want to live in one of those houses,” conceded Pierre Ouelette, another member of the foursome.

Two residents I spoke with were tolerant, if not enthusiastic. “You just close the doors and windows and put on the TV and you’re OK,” said one.

Another, a woman who bought her house three years ago and asked not to be identified, said she’s “resigned” to living with the noise, but not especially happy about it.

“You get used to it, but some players stay up late at night, and that’s the disturbing part. The first year I was here, I was like ‘What am I getting into?’ I couldn’t sleep.”

These days, when she has Teams meetings from her home office, the first thing she does is apologize to others for the noise.

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“I’m not terribly upset,” she added, “But it’s a little disturbing. People are just trying to have some fun. I try my best. I put the TV on and try to forget about them.”

That friction between players and nearby residents was clearly illustrated in March, when the city told the Manotick Tennis Club that pickleball could no longer be played on its outdoor courts in Centennial Park, following complaints about the noise.

That left players in the lurch, with many applying to join Valleystream Pickleball Club, near Bayshore. Inundated with about 400 new applicants, Valleystream held a lottery to fill its roughly 45 vacancies.

In terms of accommodating pickleball’s growth, it remains a bit of a Wild West show, with players, organizers and officials still trying to sort things out.

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“It’s really early days,” said Ann Lindeis, president of the Orléans Tennis Club. “Ottawa just kind of woke up to pickleball a year or two ago.”

The list of concerns and possible fixes, Lindeis added, includes designating playing areas away from homes, erecting sound barriers, limiting playing hours and modifying paddles and court surfaces so that they produce less noise.

Riverside South-Findlay Creek Coun. Steve Desroches recently asked whether parts of undersubscribed OC Transpo Park & Ride lots might be repurposed for recreational programming, including pickleball, similar to how the city closed off roads for recreational activities during the pandemic.

The response he got from the city’s Recreation, Cultural and Facility Services Department, however, was hardly encouraging: OC Transpo would consider programming proposals for the lots on a case-by-case basis, but only for activities that don’t require the installation of equipment or fixtures. (And here I thought OC Transpo could perhaps learn something from seeing properly installed equipment or fixtures up close.)

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“It was a long shot on my part,” admitted Desroches, who said he expected a flat “No.”

But that doesn’t mean all is lost. In the U.S., pickleball courts are filling disused shopping malls, with one-time Saks Off Fifth, Old Navy and Bed Bath & Beyond stores now echoing with pops and thwocks. News reports suggest that not only are pickleballers (I love saying that) benefiting, but so, too, are the malls.

Perhaps we need some similar ingenuity and outside-the-tennis-court thinking. There’s been lots of talk about empty office buildings in the downtown core, which could help solve the court deficit, especially during our seven-month-long winters.

And then there’s the perennial discussion about how to revive the Sparks Street mall. I can already imagine a SoPa (South of Parliament, for those who’ve forgotten that recently minted moniker) Pickleball League facing off against a ByWard Market one, bringing vitality to both areas.

“If they could go anywhere else, that would be good,” said the sleepless-in-Orléans homeowner. “I hope they have a stadium someday.”

Now that’s a good idea. Aren’t they already thinking of building something at LeBreton Flats?