STERN GROVE COURT OPENING (Sept 2024)

ALL THERE IS TO KNOW ABOUT OUR NEWEST COURTS AND MORE….

Stern Grove is ready again!  Most of the trees are gone, but the August, 2021 pre-flood footprint has now been reconstructed and is open for play.

How We Got SG

It was quite a scene that August day in 2021 when the burst water valve on Sloat Blvd. destroyed the courts that had been resurfaced and dual-lined in early 2020 during the pandemic.  The closure resulted in a relocation to the Parkside Square tennis courts that were dual-lined to accommodate the robust Stern Grove play group that reserved the SG courts and played daily. diligently setting up and taking down portable nets they brought in their cars or, later on, stored in a lock box.

The ensuing reconstruction plan for the Concert meadow meant at least a two year outage of the McAteer court venue, and we saw an opportunity to rebuild the courts for dedicated Pickleball play with permanent courts replacing the tennis courts.  But through some difficult negotiations, including a memorable Nov, 2022 Community public meeting involving RPD & the Tennis community, our Pickleball team ended up being out-maneuvered by RPD’s experienced bureaucrats, and later forced to accept a build compromise that targeted Larsen Playground’s single tennis and basketball courts as the new permanent Pickleball court facility.  As SG was originally scheduled to open first, it became the “interim” court plan for PB play until the Larsen construction job was complete in Fall, 2023 .

But fate intervened and the wet winter/spring storms of 2023 caused hillside destruction that delayed any SG rebuild.  Larsen opened first in December, 2023.  This has allowed us to enjoy access for over 9 months earlier than if SG had been designated the permanent court site.  Thank you Pickleball gods!  And now Stern Grove joins the list of Places to Play Pickleball.

Playing At Stern Grove

The aforementioned compromise resulted in the two tennis courts at Stern Grove to be dual-lined with a total of  6 PB courts, which is exactly the same configuration of the pre-flood McAteer Court layout.  All four of the PB courts are bookable on the REC court reservation system.  RPD plans to provide 4 rolling nets, which will need to be pushed off to the sidelines when not in use, and when tennis snags the court reservation.

The middle 2 courts, however, are only available once a quarter when permits are approved for special events (like tournaments).  The new Pickleball lines are a very visible sky blue, a lesson RPD learned from putting down a bad green line color at Moscone.  There will be wind screens hung at a later time.

Please note that SG is Reservation play only – No dedicated OPEN PLAY for Pickleball is offered on the SG schedule.

The Good, The Bad and the Future

Having more courts in SF is a good thing.  However, RPD’s decision to make it reservations-only at ALL times is an inefficient way to maximize access to this public space.  We have pointed out that Larsen is overcrowded and that at least some OPEN PLAY would not only help Larsen, but it allows Pickleball to take DAILY advantage of the center 2 courts for additional Citywide capacity.  In fact this “competitive reservations” approach (where PB players and tennis players must compete for a reservation slot) will lead directly to some creative and time-tested bad behaviors, with group booking schemes and holding of courts, things that messed up Presidio Wall.  And I don’t even want to mention those crazy 30 minute reservation slots that the REC system arbitrarily ends up with.

We will continue to advocate for better court sharing algorithms, such as dedicated “shared time-of-day” windows (e.g. 10 AM – 2 PM) , or “shared day-of-week” scheduling (e.g. M, W, Sa with F split into half-days) where each sport is given dedicated access.  These approaches allow utilization of the middle courts for Pickleball and decreases booking conflict between the sports.  The increases in overall public resource availability can be modeled and proven mathematically, and these differences are quite significant, but RPD refuses to consider these scenarios right now.  Maybe later.

But we are glad to see more capacity added to the public’s portfolio of play spaces.  There will be future efforts to identify more potential sites for the next set of courts, which will be built with permanent nets.  We welcome you to join the effort to advocate for more facilities, fundraise for specific projects that will be identified in the future to add courts, and help sponsor those things that help grow and make this a wonderful community of players and recreational devotees.  Drop us a line and let’s talk about how you can help with our agenda.

Thanks.