The MARC has consistently favored tennis over pickleball, and this disparate treatment has not only continued, but gotten worse. While the MARC may have given pickleball a few additional hours, it is not the 84 hours they claim. In fact, we were given just 14 additional hours, and the MARC then multiplies that by 6 (because the bubble has 6 PB courts), and that is how they get to 84. It’s accounting sleight of hand. In addition, most of the weekday hours PB gets are from 6-9 a.m. Monday through Friday. The MARC counts that as giving us 90 hours of court time. They are horrible hours that nobody wants.
To give you a sense of how unfair and arbitrary the MARC’s accounting of hours is, consider this:
Suppose for the sake of argument that PB was permitted to use the bubble from 6 to 11 a.m. (a 5 hour window when we’re allowed to play), and tennis was permitted to use the bubble from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. (a 10-hour window). The MARC considers that “equal time.” In their bogus accounting scam, our five hours are the same as the 10 hours allotted to tennis (because the bubble has three tennis courts which equals six PB courts). This is obviously unfair. Tennis has a total monopoly on the use of the 4 tennis courts in the main building, and considerably more time in the bubble than PB players get.
This is a particularly indefensible public policy. Usually, the guiding rule in policymaking is the greatest good for the greatest number. For instance, in planning bus service, the first thing you’d do is research how many people use each possible route. The routes with the most riders would get more buses scheduled. Good data informs sound decision making.
But the MARC has steadfastly refused to ascertain how many of its users are playing PB and how many are playing tennis. How can you possibly allocate court time rationally and fairly without knowing what the demand is for each sport? Anyone with eyes who visits Willow Creek or City Park or Trailside will immediately see that PB players vastly outnumber tennis players — and those numbers grow exponentially each year. And yet, the MARC continues to allocate every court in the main building to tennis, and more bubble hours to tennis than to PB. Why?
Last summer, the RAB actually did something rational and alternated tennis and PB days at City Park. Kudos for implementing a reasonable policy. Why was that model not followed for allocating indoor court time?
Even worse, and completely irrational, the cost for PB players to use the bubble has doubled.
Ken Fisher says we are no longer getting a “discount.” That is utter nonsense. If roast beef at the deli costs $16 a pound, someone who buys a half pound is charged $8. That is not a discount. You’re paying half as much because you’re getting half as much.
By charging PB players the same as tennis for half a court, we are actually being cheated. We’re paying for a full tennis court but we’re getting only half. In effect, the MARC has charged us full price ($36 per hour) for half the court space. It’s utterly unfair.
This is especially egregious given that the MARC uses the bogus time scam I pointed out earlier. When it suits their purposes to compute how many hours we get, they count PB hours double how they count tennis hours. But when they decide how much to charge, they treat us exactly like tennis. That means the MARC makes twice as much revenue on PB court rentals as they do on tennis court rentals. They are cheating us.
It’s especially perverse for a public facility to discriminate against a far more popular sport in favor of a sport fewer people participate in. That’s how private clubs are run, not taxpayer-funded public spaces. The MARC was once a private tennis facility — and it continues to operate as if it still were. Tennis players get priority and are subsidized, while PB players get less time, crappy hours, and pay twice as much.
In fact, the PC MARC is the only taxpayer supported public facility I’ve ever seen that charges more to play PB than private, for-profit clubs like Kelsey’s or the Pickler and so on. How is that justified?
It’s crystal clear the MARC does not want PB players to use its space. For years they discouraged us by offering far more limited and unpopular hours, and now they have added a new deterrent: double the cost.
So, like hundreds of other PB players, my wife and I will drive to Kelsey’s or the Pickler. We will add to the traffic and the smog. And the MARC can continue catering to tennis players. Well done! You have accomplished what you set out to do. You got rid of the pickleball players.
Gene DeSantis
Kamas