The Boulder Colorado Pickleball Club (or BOCO) is a nonprofit pickleball community in northern Colorado. The city of Boulder currently has no dedicated pickleball courts, and BOCO has to share spaces with tennis clubs and various fitness organizations. The folks at BOCO are teaming up with their local tennis club to convince the local Parks and Recreation Department to fund and build new pickleball and tennis courts.
Grace Thomson and Clifford Moss are the founding members of BOCO. A few years ago, the two of them took a road trip through the West Coast and were shocked by all of the amazing pickleball facilities and communities that they found. They soon found themselves hoping for similar courts back in Boulder. Both realized that the first step to getting courts had to be building interest and starting a club, and they did just that. Thus, BOCO was born.
Currently, there are no dedicated pickleball courts in the Boulder area, and BOCO has to share courts with other athletic communities. Grace says, “Within Boulder, our main source of courts right now shared with tennis are the three Rec centers that we have.” Yet, huge steps have been taken over the past 2 years to make pickleball courts in Boulder a reality.
One of the first big steps that Grace, Clifford, and the rest of the BOCO members took was to hold a kickoff meeting at the local Rec center. Only about 75 attendees were expected, but the actual turnout blew away prior expectations as about 350 people showed up to the meeting. Linda Chilson, the Secretary and social co-director, says, “That told us that there really was a community interest and people wanting to have an organized club in Boulder.”
Some might find the next step that BOCO took to be surprising. BOCO joined up with the local Boulder tennis club to bring racket sports needs to the city with a unified voice. Pickleball and tennis groups often experience conflict because of clashing interests, but the folks at BOCO were able to fund common ground with their local tennis club. Grace comments, “Both groups realized that we were getting nowhere butting heads. The common ground was that we both want designated courts.” Pickleball players want dedicated courts so that they can enjoy their own space, and tennis players want dedicated pickleball courts so that they no longer have to share their space with the pickleball players.
Communication with the tennis club wasn’t always easy. When BOCO first started, many of the club leaders had meetings with leadership from the tennis club, but after a while, the two groups stopped meeting. However, after a whole year of silence, the two clubs got together again and started to build a plan for obtaining new courts over coffee.
The alliance between the Boulder Pickleball and Tennis clubs has proved to be an influential force: “Collectively we’re almost 2,000 people.”
After hearing the case, the Boulder Parks and Recreation Department decided to run a court study to determine whether building new courts would be advantageous. Once the test results came in, the city ruled in favor of building new courts and currently plans on adding 22 pickleball courts and 22 tennis courts in the next 5 years. Moreover, the city plans to fund the entire project. The folks at BOCO see this as an unqualified success.
Because of their experience in garnering courts from local government, the leaders at BOCO have a couple of pieces of advice for clubs in a similar situation. First, make sure to gauge how much interest you have in the community. Linda says, “First of all, there is power in collecting information so you can really define the scope of interest in your community. If it’s really strong, your going to have a big voice in your community.” Second, be patient. Grace remarks, “Working with a city or a county or any kind of government goes really slow.” Finally, try to build friendly, working relationships with the local government officers: “Get an amicable channel connected to your city.”
BOCO’s recent success shows that teamwork and a willingness to work with people both inside and outside of the pickleball community are powerful tools for building courts and expanding pickleball as a whole.
