THNDER BAY – The local tennis community has a plan to restore year-round access to the sport after being frozen out the past two winters.
Thunder Bay Community Tennis Centre officials went before city council on Monday night to provide an update on their indoor tennis project, which would cover existing courts at the club’s Chapples Park location.
The estimated $1.8 million proposal brought forward would have a bubble structure erected around four courts to ensure full-year playability, which Thunder Bay has lacked since the former Confederation College fitness centre was repurposed from court sports to an artificial turf field in the fall of 2017.
Tennis club president Dave McCallum said the hope is that the bubble could be put in place during the fall, allowing for players to remain on the court instead of having to take another winter hiatus.
"The goals of our project obviously are to increase participation rates," McCallum said. "In addition to tennis, we have partnerships with many other groups within the city. Pickleball is one and other racquet sports that we would look at it as a multi-purpose facility, even in the interim."
The club is the largest tennis centre between Winnipeg and Toronto, McCallum said, adding that it had 482 members last year and as many as 1,500 other community users through schools and other programs. The facility, which has nine outdoor hardcourt surfaces, operates seasonally from May to September.
McCallum said the club believes there is room to grow in the community by adding the ability to play all year.
"We would have a full-year membership as well as options for summer. We have a number of players who may not play in Thunder Bay in the summer," McCallum said. "We want to capture everyone in the region who may want to play in the winter."
McCallum said the club has $100,000 in savings and anticipates being able to contribute another $300,000 toward the project through fundraising. Tennis centre leadership requested the city provide $170,000 for engineering and architectural planning, along with drainage and geotechnical assessments. They also asked for permission to seek naming rights sponsorship for the facility to generate additional capital.
Mayor Bill Mauro said although he’s not a tennis player, he supports the project.
“I don’t know why we don’t have an indoor tennis facility in Thunder Bay,” Mauro said.
McCallum said provincial and federal funding streams have been pursued, which has included meeting with FedNor officials.
Long-term city master plans have outlined a vision for a permanent indoor tennis venue with six new courts that would be attached to a multi-use indoor artificial turf facility.
"For us, that is still our ultimate goal," McCallum said, adding the bubble proposal is an interim solution to address the immediate need.
Council policy is that funding requests from outside organizations are not dealt with on the night they are brought forward, with the nature of the ask and information presented analyzed by administration to provide a recommendation.
