The Kits Beach Tennis Club had signed up 20 members despite having no courts to officially call its own. It now has more than 40 additional members who want to sign up and still no courts.
After launching in March, the tennis club has not been able to secure the right to operate officially at the Kitsilano Beach Park tennis courts — hence their name — because the Vancouver park board insists on a public consultation before granting a permit and has yet to set a date.
“They’re holding us back,” said club president Chris Temmerman. He accepts municipal staff are busy through the summer but he is increasingly frustrated with the initial denial and now the delay. If the club goes forward, it would likely be in 2015 on a pilot basis.
In an email to Temmerman, the park board supervisor for health and wellness said there was no contemporary protocol for Kits Beach Tennis Club to follow since a public club hasn’t been formed for several decades. Queen Elizabeth Tennis Club dates back to 1976, for example, and there are also popular clubs that are tied to the courts at Stanley Park and False Creek.
“They’re being overly cautious,” said Temmerman. “Tennis is on a supreme high right now — it’s a win-win.”
The Kitsilano club wants to reserve five of the 10 public courts from 6 to 8 p.m. on two separate weeknights as well as two hours Sunday morning. They will pay to rent the courts at approximately $65 each session. Annual membership costs $75.
“The footprint is minute when you consider the courts are open to the public from dawn to dusk and we are asking to use five of them for four hours during the week,” said Temmerman, noting the club will eventually court novice players as well as children. “I have been pressuring [the park board] because we have current members and would-be members who are dying to be a part of this.”
A competitive player and former tennis instructor, Temmerman was among the organizers who five years ago began lobbying the park board to tear up the rotting, root-snagged asphalt of the busy beach-side courts. In 2013, all 10 courts in addition to the practice court were refurbished with a blue and green acrylic all-weather hard-court surface, new fencing, drainage and landscaping. Five courts were built to tournament-standard size. At a cost of nearly $600,000 the project was funded by the city and a significant contribution from the Canada One Foundation, whose founder Howard Kelsey launched KitsFest in 2009 with Julien Phipps. KitsFest held a tennis tournament in its first year but cancelled it because the courts were in poor condition; the tennis tournament returned for the 2014 festival.
Although the Kits Beach Tennis Club isn’t yet permitted to host social nights, hold camps or host tournaments, several players have taken responsibility for the courts since they were refurbished in the fall. The Kitsilano club empties the branded garbage bins it placed at the courts and also sweeps the hard courts with brooms provided by the city. They also have the support of the Kitsilano Community Centre and Tennis B.C.
“It’s a tremendous opportunity for clubs to be created,” said Tennis BC executive director Sue Griffin. “It provides an opportunity for organized league play or tournaments for anybody who wants to play and meet new people. It’s social [...] and there’s an opportunity for them to bring on a junior program.”
As a teenager, Griffin played on public courts in Toronto. A club isn’t about making money, she said. “It’s facilitation to help grow the sport.”
