You Must Pay-To-Play in Upper Moreland

I recently stumbled on a troubling situation at one of our Township Parks. I have been reading about the popularity of pickleball and thought I’d give the sport a try. Learning that we have a great facility here in Upper Moreland at Masons Mill Park, I ventured out looking forward to learning and playing a new sport. What I walked into was a group of folks, many from outside the township, led by a guy from Philadelphia, who have managed to turn our public pickleball courts into a quasi-private club where you have to pay an extra fee if you want to play pickleball during any of the six prime-time slots during the week (every day except Sunday). Yes, somehow with the blessing of our township officials, they have managed to lock out township residents from playing pickleball at any of the following times: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday mornings from 9AM to noon; and on Monday and Wednesday evenings from 6PM – 9PM. According to these outsider’s rules, during these times, the pickleball courts are RESERVED for those enrolled in the fee-only UMPR Pickleball program.

Why the pickleball courts are any different than the tennis courts is beyond me. If I want to play tennis, I show up at the courts and take an available court, or wait my turn until one becomes available. Simple enough, seems fair, and no fees required. However, if I want to play pickleball, I must first check the calendar and clock to see if I am allowed to play on my own public township courts at that day/time (and please note that the fee-only group has secured many of the prime playing times of each and every week).

Without prior knowledge of the fee-required pickleball group, I recently showed up for a fun game of pickleball on a Monday night. With only one court of the six available being utilized, I chose the court on the extreme opposite end of the facility from those who were already playing. Even with four other completely empty courts I was approached by the so-called ‘ambassador of pickleball’ (a guy from Philadelphia), who told me that the courts were reserved for fee-paying members and I should leave. So, this Philadelphia guy who acts like he owns our public Upper Moreland Township pickleball courts wants to throw me off my own township courts. I hope that you agree that something is very wrong with this picture…

How did this happen? How were our township officials duped into allowing this ‘Meetup’ group composed of many out-of-township-residents to take over our township courts and force township residents to pay a fee to play on our own courts during six prime time slots each and every week from April to October? Haven’t we already paid enough in taxes to build and maintain our township parks so that we can use them whenever we want to? Where is the boundary line? Should we have to pay-to-play tennis, basketball, volleyball or any other sport in our parks. Maybe I could understand a minimal use of our courts/facilities for lessons at one or two non-primetimes during a week (maybe 1-3 PM a couple of days during the work week), but even at that, they should only be ‘reserving’ the number of courts that are being used for lessons, not the entire mostly empty facility which I found on a recent Monday evening.

I find this reality of having to pay-to-play on our own township courts troubling. And, why did we hand over the keys to ‘our’ courts to a guy from Philadelphia? Upper Moreland residents, like it or not, you have a Philadelphian running your township pickleball courts for 18 primetime hours each and every week. Try to enjoy a game of pickleball during the ‘Meetup’ group’s reserved time and you will be run off the courts, or pressured to pay the extra fee to play. If you ask me, we should send the Philly-guy back to the city and open the pickleball courts up to the tax paying township residents whenever they’d like to use them, free of charge.