Goldman Tennis Center – TCAC Q & A

Playing Tennis or Pickleball at Golden Gate Park’s Goldman Tennis Center (GTC) is great – beautiful courts, a classic clubhouse, great amenities, well-run operations plus opportunities to improve your game with lessons from solid instructors.  Truly a first-class public recreational facility.

It’s also no secret that getting a court reservation can be more challenging than serving an ace against Serena or Rafa.  Particularly so for the Pickleball courts, as there are only 5 of them rather than the 16 courts available for Tennis.  So, unless you click, click, click at precisely 12:30 PM eight days in advance of your desire AND you’re very lucky, you are most likely going to be a disappointed customer.  You’re a victim of demand and GTC’s great popularity.

Do folks complain?  They do.  And they also speak up about other issues at GTC including “empty” courts, no-shows, class registration issues, and other topics they would like to ask either SF Rec & Park and Lifetime Activities, the “operator” of the Center.  Fortunately, there is a conduit for your questions and comments beyond the front desk at GTC.  It is the Tennis Center Advisory Committee (TCAC), comprised of 11 members who are regular users of the GTC facility.

TCAC, led by the Tennis Coalition in partnership with the SF Parks Alliance, is an open and transparent committee independent of Rec & Park and Lifetime that collects and provides periodic feedback on Center operations.  Members represent different constituencies, such as seniors, youth, high schools and Pickleball activities.  To learn more, including membership information detail, see https://www.tenniscoalitionsf.org/tcac/

In the last feedback meeting in May, many Pickleball-related comments were submitted, including the issues previously mentioned, and TCAC was provided written responses from Lifetime, along with additional meeting discussion.  Here is a brief summary of the feedback:

• Lifetime said “GTC is the most active and utilized facility in the Bay Area.”
• The most common Pickleball community request was “more pickleball courts”.  Unfortunately, this will NOT happen at GTC.  This includes no dual-lining of tennis courts 15-18 in the near future.
• There are reservation and class registration system improvements being implemented.  However, do not expect any short-term solutions to the booking bottleneck that occurs when daily reservations are open on the website.
• Do not expect any change to Tennis/PB class or youth programming court use scheduling during the day.
• The ability to allow on-line cancellations is being planned. (HAS BEEN IMPLEMENTED)
• Stronger penalties, including fee-loss, will be considered to address late court cancellations and “no shows”.
• Lifetime said they would consider offering and sponsoring tournament-style play for Pickleball sometime later this year.

To view more detail on the pickleball-related user comments and responses, please click drive.google.com/file/d/1mMpioGsb78V1xJ5fa-2sJYF0ZO4dUUZV/view?usp=sharing

To view the complete feedback/response meeting text, which includes tennis related and miscellaneous items like the GTC court music policy, please click drive.google.com/file/d/16ZaVbL0r9OS4lSV_BratcS_vxQxzM-3W/view?usp=sharing

If you have further questions or comments about GTC or TCAC and its feedback role or membership, please go to www.pickleballsf.com  and fill in the feedback form at the bottom of the page.  Thank you.