People living near Sargent Park in Winnipeg’s West End are rejoicing now that the community will be able to play free tennis in the park’s courts, though the person who ran them says the move is a huge blow for the organized sport.
On Thursday, a city committee voted against renewing the lease for the tennis courts at the Cindy Klassen Recreation Complex to George Kylar, who’s been running the non-profit Sargent Park Tennis Gardens for a decade.
That’s after members of the community campaigned to get the six tennis courts back in the hands of the city. Now that that’s happened, they’re taking the time to celebrate.
“All of us are happy,” Jerry Laforteza, who led a group that petitioned the city, told CBC News on Sunday. “It’s been a long time coming.”
He and about a dozen others gathered at Valour Community Centre on Sunday.
“We worked hard on this,” he said. “Now it’s our turn to shine.”
The courts used to be a place all residents would have access to, says Leila Castro, a community advocate who also helped local residents in their campaign.
“Little by little, they started losing access to the facility,” she said, primarily citing the hours the courts would be open.
“There were also times when a group of people who are in that community are playing and occupying some of the courts, and then all of a sudden a group of people … from another part of the city [would] request them to vacate the court.”
Rico Villarin said he became involved in the campaign because of his children, who are in their early 20s. They wanted to play tennis, but Villarin said they didn’t think it was fair to pay a $10 membership fee to use the facility when other city-owned courts are free.
“Other tennis courts would …be far, then instead of playing tennis, [people] will try to find a different sport,” Villarin said.
Villarin said the hours were also too limited, particularly for working people.
About half of the people who will likely use the facility are Filipino or from other immigrant communities, Castro said.
‘All you need is a racket’
Coun. Cindy Gilroy, who represents the area, pushed for the decision amid residents’ concerns.
“They used to play here before it was taken over by a business, and they want it back,” Gilroy told the committee Thursday.
“I stayed out of trouble in these courts, I made friends on these courts, and we have a new generation of youth that currently do not have the same access.”
Mark Arndt, executive director of Tennis Manitoba, said he’s worried about potential vandalism, but he mostly welcomed the decision.
“Tennis has that stigma attached to it that you have to have a lot of money to play tennis, and that’s simply not the case,” he said.
“To be able to play tennis, all you need is a racket, three tennis balls I guess … and if the courts are free, I mean, there goes a huge chunk of investment into playing a sport.”
A city administrative report found the leaseholder had not installed any permanent improvements to the site. The report said that court maintenance would be a minor cost to the parks department, amounting to less than $5,000 a year.
Arndt said courts deteriorate quickly, and that if they’re not properly maintained they can become unusable in three years. He said he hopes the city does set money aside for maintenance.
A ‘huge loss’
Kylar, a big name in the province’s tennis community and a Tennis Manitoba Hall of Fame inductee, said the quality of the venue — which has hosted professional tournaments in the past — will only decline.
“There’s a lot of public courts,” Kylar said. “You arrive, you see they’re busy. You see on one court dad with the sandals playing, in the next court you got two serious guys that want to play, and then third court you got pickleball people.
“That should depreciate an established facility which ironically 10 years ago … that was the city’s dream.”
Kylar said the fees were meant to cover services that make tennis clubs “click and be better,” including matching people without partners, or making it so that people who didn’t have rackets had access to one.
“I took it upon to make sure that there’s a proper balance that somebody who wants to learn the game or who has no means of paying can go there and play,” he said.
“In order to do that, I visualized the facility — even though it isn’t … as if I’m in a French Open or a U.S. Open. So I treated them, cleaned them every single day almost.”
Kylar said the decision will “kill” one of the few remaining places where people can play quality tennis in the province.
“It’s a win-win situation for … for the community,” he said. “But it’s a huge, huge loss for a little bit more organized set-up of tennis.”
Castro said the community itself can take care of the courts. She said the decision is a “win-win outcome for the entire community, and the entire city.”
Laforteza said people have volunteered to make sure the courts are maintained.
The lease expires on April 30.