Pickleball’s skyrocketing popularity is undeniable. The new sport, a combination of ping pong, badminton and tennis, has become a favorite pastime for those looking to stay social, active and competitive.
Valerie Fischer has regularly played pickleball since 2021 and says she truly enjoys the sport.
“I like everything about pickleball,” Fischer said. “I like playing it with my friends, the friendship.”
She added that the sport is affordable, with paddles costing $30 and balls $10 for a pack of four.
In response to the sport’s surge, Essex County has set up pickleball courts in Branch Brook Park, Verona Park, Grover Cleveland Park and Brookdale Park.
To manage the Brookdale Park tennis courts, Essex County hired Elite Tennis as subcontractors. Elite Tennis has overseen Brookdale Park’s tennis courts since 2005. They now manage the pickleball courts as well.
Elite Tennis charges players $8 per person per hour. For frequent pickleballers, Elite Tennis offers season passes for $275. The courts in Brookdale Park are the only ones in Essex County where players have to pay.
“We pay for it,” Fischer said. “Why? I don’t understand that. But, then, I don’t work for the Essex County Parks Department either.”
She said she would like to have an explanation from County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo “on why Elite Tennis comes in here and takes over.”
Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill explained that Essex County uses subcontractors in Brookdale Park. Gill is one of nine county commissioners who establish and shape policies for the county, but they do not actually enforce the rules. The county administration is in charge of enforcing Essex County’s policies.
“There’s certain operations in the county that it’s more efficient to use outside vendors to run,” Gill said. “We just don’t have either the manpower or the expertise. It just makes more sense to do that through vendors that have specific experience around those certain issues.”
Lately, Elite Tennis’ business practices have come into question. It recently announced a program offering private lessons to individuals during peak hours, which restricts the utility of the season pass. The courts are less accessible than they used to be.
Nicole Eriksen has been playing pickleball at Brookdale Park since 2020. She commented on the issues with time distribution at the courts.
“You pay for a membership and the pickleball groups come at prime times that I want to play,” Eriksen said. “I am okay paying for the season pass. I just think that they can’t take all the prime times or they need to let the pass holders know ahead of time when they are going to have all the courts. If they want three courts, that’s fine, but I don’t think they need to have all six at the prime times. We ideally don’t want to be here at 8 a.m. just because we have kids.”
In a June 9 email sent to season pass holders, Elite Tennis defended its decision to limit the accessibility of the courts.
“We are expanding our offering of pickleball programs as a direct response to the many requests we have had from players who are looking to enhance their skills or learn how to play pickleball,” Elite Tennis wrote. “This is no different to the programs we offer for tennis.”
The access to the pickleball courts is already more scarce than the access to the tennis courts at Brookdale Park. There are only six pickleball courts total, while there are nine tennis courts. The pickleball courts are in higher demand.
Conflicts with outside vendors are uncommon, Gill said. Pickleball’s popularity creates limitations on Essex County’s facilities.
“The situation is somewhat unique,” Gill said. “Any time you’re dealing with scheduling of our facilities, there’s always a need. We want to try to accommodate as many of the different organizations, groups and individuals who utilize our facilities as possible. Scheduling can be a potential challenge sometimes, especially when we have facilities that are in great demand.”
Gill acknowledged that the country’s subcontractors are helpful because they create extra income for Essex County, but he feels Elite Tennis still has a responsibility to treat season pass holders fairly.
“Our nonprofits and for-profit businesses are opportunities for the counties to generate more revenue, but that’s supposed to be equitable,” Gill said.
In the June 9 email, Elite Tennis pushed back against the idea that they could be regulated by the county.
“One of the other misconceptions we would like to address is the perception that the courts at Brookdale Park Tennis and Pickleball Center are public courts,” Elite Tennis wrote. “These are not public courts. They are county courts which are put out for bid by Essex County. We were awarded the bid after going through a rigorous bidding and vetting process.”
Gill offered a differing perspective from Elite Tennis. He said that Elite Tennis should place the demands of the public first.
“The primary responsibility is to be responsive to the public,” Gill said. “The fact that you might have an entity that’s compensated doesn’t mean that there’s any less obligation to the public.”
Gill said the county administration was the direct authority but that he believed the county should be able to find a solution about time distribution of the courts.
“I would have to defer to the county administration on what those options are,” Gill said. “My hope would be that, but we have this level of outreach from the community that we can come together to figure out and identify what the issue is and see we’ve come up with solutions to solve it. Nothing should bind us to the point that we can’t come up with common-sense and practical solutions to issues that are presented to us by our constituents.”
— Hank Greenberg/Montclair Local
I think there’s an erroneous idea that courts (any type of court – tennis or pickleball) are free. There’s no free ride with any type of court – that’s a misconception. The public courts in the town of Montclair and other towns require that you pay the town to use them. There is a seasonal pass/fee. They are not “free” to residents. People play on the courts without paying but if push comes to shove and someone wants the court, they can ask you to produce a pass from the town that you paid and have the right to use them over someone who hasn’t paid the town fee. The same goes for the county courts and that is why outside vendors manage them and bid to get the management contract. They are within their right to ask a reasonable amount for use. Other towns probably have similar programs where you pay the town for use of public facilities seasonally. And with the popularity of pickleball, this makes sense since there is high demand for the courts at certain times.
Tennis players get out of the way. Pickelball must come first! And we don’t want to pay! 🙄
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If I’m reading the RFP correctly, the winner had to pay at least 22,500 dollars to the county for the privilege. Of course they’re going to charge money for things, and of course they’re going to use prime hours to do so
Using this logic (JRWIT), the kids who use the skate park, that used to be a tennis court, should schedule and pay a fee. Don’t believe that’s happening. “Defer to county administration”. lol, figures.
A skatepark for kids, located in town, is related to an Essex County park, exactly how? Adults playing tennis or pickelball are related to a kid’s skatepark, exactly how? What exactly is your solution? To pay more town and county taxes so the privileged and entitled are able to play for free? I don’t think any of the working class from Montclair or the surrounding towns are wiling away their days playing pickelball. More taxes or higher rent so wealthier people get free court time? Lol.
I think Elite is doing a good job managing both the tennis courts and the Pickleball courts. The court fees are reasonable and the programs they offer are very good. I think the bigger issue is that Pickleball is more in demand than tennis right now so why not convert some of the tennis courts to pickleball courts during peak hours? It’s easy enough to do and could be a viable solution for all.