The Canmore Tennis Association and Town of Canmore will charge a set hourly court rate as of July 27.
Tennis players will pay $7.50 an hour for use of Town courts, with payment available through the association’s website or by cash at the courts.
“We just started a trial reservation system and the reason we have implemented that in cooperation with the Town is to try and get better utilization of our existing facilities,” Canmore Tennis Association board member Greg Kletke said. “If you come here (Lions Park) on a Saturday afternoon, or sometimes in the evenings after work, there’s a whole bunch of people waiting around trying to get on the courts.
“The feedback so far has been quite positive. We’re going to have two weeks of free booking, so you can go online and book a court and there’s no charge for it until July 27. Then we will start charging $7.50 per court, per hour and you can pay for that online or come down to the court. If you haven’t booked online before you came down and there’s a court available, there will be someone here who can take your fee.”
Prior to the decision to charge an hourly rate, an honour system was in place, with a public understanding of allowing waiting players court use after 45 minutes of play.
“Some people abide by that rule and some people don’t and it’s very frustrating,” Kletke said. “What really bothers me sometimes is on a Saturday I’ll come down and there will be a mother and her young daughter at the courts to play, and maybe it’s her first time to come and try out tennis and they have to wait around for a court.
“They may have to wait around for a couple of hours … well the young person’s not going to want to wait around. They’re going to say, ‘No, let’s go do something else.’ We just lost a future, potential tennis player.”
Town of Canmore recreation manager Jim Younker agreed with Kletke and pointed out a booking option was available previously for the community. “The Town has always had an hourly charge and rentals available, but it was a pretty cumbersome program,” Younker said. “You had to call the facility scheduler and we only had about $300 in rentals. The idea is to improve the level of service to the residents so you can book a court and know if you want to play at 3 p.m., you don’t have to show up at 1 p.m. and wait in line.”
The new rate and reservation system will run 3-8 p.m. during the week and noon to 8 p.m. on weekends.
Visit, www.canmoretennis.ca for further information and for court bookings.
