BOOT HEADQUARTERS DENVER Next to REI at 15th & Platte Blundstone, Lems, Merrell, Keen & Many More! comfortableshoes.com BOULDER On the Pearl St. Mall & In The Village PARK HILL SUPERMARKET High Quality! Huge Variety! Wholesale Prices! Fresh fruit, vegetables, meat & seafood Gates Tennis Center offers eight courts, and could have more. Denver is not the only city having trouble OPEN HOURS THURSDAY-SUNDAY 9AM-6PM. CLOSED WEDNESDAY MONDAY-TUESDAY 9AM-6PM, 3770 E 40TH AVE. DENVER, CO 80205 Tel: 303-823-3088 FACE MASKS AND HAND SANITIZER NOW AVAILABLE! adapting. When the Lavender Pickleball Club was planning its tournament, Cope- land reached out to parks departments in Superior and Westminster, without any luck. “Those folks are underpaid and overworked, and they have strict rules because of public safety and liability issues,” she explains, noting that she previously worked in parks and recreation. “They move really slow.” When the club contacted the Apex Park Gilmore says that he thinks the department could fi nd a location in another park that needs similar activation but would be better suited to pickleball expansion. Nelson likens the need for more courts to highway construction projects. “They redo I-25, it’s immediately full. They’re redoing I-70, it’s immediately full,” he says. “They’re going to put four courts over there, and they’re going to wish they had put in sixteen.” Hitman jokes that he knew pickleball MUNICIPALITIES IN ARIZONA, THEY’RE BUILDING HUGE FACILITIES.” and Recreation District in Arvada, it fi nally got a yes. Copeland thinks it would be a smart business move for local governments in Colorado to invest more in pickleball. “If you look at some of the municipalities in Arizona, they’re building huge facilities,” she says. “It’s a revenue producer the local governments are totally missing the boat on.” In its attempt to stay on board, Denver 16 Parks and Recreation will open courts at Sloan’s Lake and Rosamond parks next year. Gilmore says that Sloan’s Lake was a priority because the department wanted to build the courts ahead of the ongoing redevelopment had made it when he and his wife saw a pharmaceutical commercial featuring pick- leball on TV, indicating that the sport is fully integrated into mainstream American life. “I believe pickleball is here to stay, and I believe pickleball will be an Olympic sport in the near future,” he says. “I do feel the pickleball trend is a little more than a trend. It’s a tidal wave.” But if Denver Parks and Recreation doesn’t start riding that wave, picklers warn, the city could wind up swamped. Email the author at catie.cheshire@westword. com. “IF YOU LOOK AT SOME OF THE Pickleball continued from page 15 pickleball services more quickly than the city because it doesn’t have as many consid- erations to juggle. Besides, the reason Gates has so much land is because the city leases it to the tennis center. “So any of our successes, we share that compliment with the City of Denver, because they helped make it happen,” he adds. Gilmore says the city does the best it can to adapt to recreational trends, but it will never move fast enough to satisfy everyone. “People want to see things, especially nowa- days with technology...they want an answer immediately,” he adds. “They want things to change yesterday.” in the area. “Then people, when they move in, it’s like [the courts] were there,” he says. That way, he hopes the department will avoid the complaining neighbors it’s encountered at Congress and Eisenhower parks. Active neighbors help explain why one of the city’s most popular parks won’t get pickleball courts anytime soon. Washington Park has space and extra tennis courts, so while there “could be a discussion” about adding pickleball, “I would think that we wouldn’t do that, just because it would end up causing some noise issues,” Gilmore says. “Wash Park being the park it is, there would have to be a pretty signifi cant amount of public outreach and public support for any kind of pickleball courts there,” he continues. DECEMBER 2-8, 2021 WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | westword.com GATES TENNIS CENTER
