While talk continues in the Town of Collingwood and The Blue Mountains about a potential multi-use recreational facility, another sports and recreation group is lobbing a related request for an indoor facility specific to racquet sports.
Called the Georgian Bay Racquets Initiative, a group of tennis, pickleball, squash and other racquet sport players have teamed up to petition Collingwood for a year-round place to play their sports.
"When it comes to racquet sports, we're leaving opportunity on the table," said Kev Rostami, a tennis player, certified coach, and the spokesperson for the racquets group. "It's time to change that."
The current plan is to survey as many residents as possible to find out what interest there is in racquet sports, and to approach Collingwood and neighbouring municipalities with the request that the town build an indoor facility.
"We're open to anything, but we really see that there's a need for this, and a growing need," said Rostami, noting the group would like to see courts for tennis, pickleball, padel and squash.
Part of the need, according to Tom Kern, a local tennis pro and member of the Georgian Bay Racquets Initiative, is training opportunities for local youth and a place to host tournaments.
"We face challenges in nurturing young talent. Ontario currently lacks year-round facilities for young athletes to train and compete, but our area possesses all the elements needed to significantly transform that landscape," said Kern in a news release from the Racquets Initiative. "This initiative could truly be a win-win for everyone involved.”
Rostami hopes to hear from 1,000 people through the Georgian Bay Racquets Initiative survey, which will be live on the group's website until February 2025. The survey responses will help the group form a proposal for a potential future build.
"We know that there's a lot of people across different sports that are all taking the same thing, so we're just trying to bring everyone together and get a clear idea of numbers," said Rostami in an interview with CollingwoodToday. "From there, we hopefully would have a bit of ammunition, a bit of leverage to then go to the town and say, look, here are the numbers of people who really want this."
Though it's early days, Rostami expects the facility would be a bubble, and perhaps the dome would come down in the summer to have outdoor courts when there's no snow on the ground.
The initiative does have a grand vision, acknolwedged Rostami, but he said it's important to start the process, which could take a couple of years, and work toward a facility that meets the community's needs.
He also said there are existing indoor facilities like Swing (for pickleball) and Monterra (for tennis, though the space is shared as conference space), and so a proposal from the initiative would also take into account what facilities are available and what types and amount of space is needed.
"Once we get the survey results in February, we'll look at what the current landscape is, what has already been built or has been authorized to be built, and then come up with plans and approach the town," said Rostami.
Visit georgianbayracquets.ca for the survey and more information on the local initiative.
