Updates 2010
September 20, 2010: Park Board Meeting, 7:00 pm. Danica Djurkovic made her report to our Park Board Commissioners, including the proposal for the shared cost research and report on indoor tennis outlined in the update below (September 16). The Park Board Commissioners in attendance, Aaron Jasper (chair), Constance Barnes, Raj Hundal, Stuart MacKinnon, Ian Robertson, and Loretta Woodcock, generally expressed support for indoor tennis and the proposition that had been put forward. At the end of the meeting, the Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution calling for a feasibility study for indoor tennis, particularly examining demand, possible business models, and opportunities for partnership. The study is to be conducted in 2010-2011 and report back to the Commissioners in time to inform the inclusion of indoor tennis in the Capital Plan for 2012-2014.
As they have always done in their meetings, our Park Board Commissioners again voted to endorse indoor public tennis. Vancouver Public Tennis wishes to thank them, one and all, for that. And many thanks to Tennis BC and Tennis Canada for bringing some cash to the table.
September 16, 2010: Members of the VIPTP Steering committee met at the Kitsilano Community Centre to discuss how to approach the Park Board meeting of Monday, September 20. The agenda of that meeting included Park Board staff recommendations for the commissioning of feasibility studies for several community centres scheduled for renewal. Those recommendations were to include the opinion that there was not enough money in the budget for the community centre studies to enable more than a cursory look at indoor tennis, and that the City of Vancouver was too strapped for cash to countenance funding of new services like indoor tennis. Staff would be recommending that consideration of indoor tennis be integrated into a proposed Major Recreation Facility Study, to be undertaken some time in the future. That was the information most of us had immediately prior to our steering committee meeting.
Once we had convened, Peter Jackson reported that he and Ryan Clark of Tennis BC had that afternoon met with Park Board General Manager, Malcolm Bromley and the acting Director, Danica Djurkovic. They discussed Tennis Canada’s search for a municipal partner to establish a Western Canadian National Training Centre in the Vancouver Metro area. They also spoke about the matter of public indoor tennis for Vancouver. Peter and Ryan presented the possibility of Park Board partnering with Tennis BC and Tennis Canada to do basic research that would inform decision making on indoor tennis, be it possible development of a large scale National Training Centre having a public recreational component, or a more modest civic indoor facility. After some discussion they all agreed that more knowledge was needed regarding demand and need, business models, possible partnership models, as well as facility models (large or small scale). To that end they undertook to share the expense of a feasibilty study addressing those issues. Tennis BC and Tennis Canada would contribute $20,000 and Park Board would contribute another $20,000, to hire an independant consultant to do the research and produce a report. Danica Djurkovic would present this proposition to the Commissioners on Monday night, as an addendum to her report on Major Recreation Facility Priorities. We were to hear confirmation of this the following day. As it happens, confirmation was not received until the day of the Park Board Meeting.
June 16, 2010: This update has been slow to be written, simply because there is little of real significance to report. But in June a small delegation of VIPTP Steering Committee members, Peter Jackson, Christine Eaves, and myself, met with the Board of Directors for the Dunbar Community Association to extol the benefits of a public indoor tennis facility. The group heard our presentation with interest, and asked a few questions. Nothing of great consequence happened. We hope that the Community Association will give serious consideration to including an indoor tennis facility, of whatever size that may be suitable for that location, in their plans for new construction.
March 9, 2010: Members the VIPTP Steering Committee met at the Kits Community Centre to discuss how best to proceed, given our lack of success at getting Park Board to seriously consider a site for the VIPTP, and the vague resolution from the Commissioners (Planning and Environment Committee Meeting, 12 Nov 09 ) to perhaps piggy back a look at indoor tennis onto feasibility studies planned for upcoming community centre refurbishments. A few Steering Committee members lamented the passage of so much time to achieve so little. They were reminded that we had only been at this for some eighteen months, and that construction of the Net Shed at the Steveston Community Centre was preceded by over a decade of lobbying by the proponent group involved. Likewise the Grant Connell Tennis Centre in North Van. After digesting those titbits of local tennis lore, there were a few heavy sighs to be heard around the room, but all resolved to soldier on. To that end it was agreed to make efforts to to win friends to VIPTP in the community associations of the three community centres in line for renewal: Hastings, Marpole Oakridge, and Dunbar. We will also maintain communication with Park Board staff to explore other possibilities for siting.
