The Windsor Pickleball Club is asking the City of Windsor for help to improve playing conditions and safety for its players following a tragic accident that claimed the life of a member.
Club president Patrick Brown told Monday's council meeting that on June 28, 2024, one of the club's members was trying to make a shot during a game in the gym at the WFCU Centre when he fell backward and hit his head into the cinder block wall.
Brown says the player was knocked unconscious and suffered a brain hemorrhage, and despite two surgeries, doctors were not able to save his life.
The city is working with risk management to examine padding options within all city facilities and how it would impact programming, but Brown is asking the city to speed up the process to add padding to all of the walls in the WFCU gym.
Brown thinks gym-type mats can be installed on all the walls.
"I don't know anything about how they would be adhered to or taken down; that's up to the engineers at the city to determine that. There are currently pads at the WFCU on the opposite walls, so I don't see it as an impossibility," he says.
Administration told council that the city is waiting for quotes on the potential cost of additional padding but indicated it could be substantial and a funding source would be required.
Brown says his members are concerned and that the people who witnessed that accident were in shock.
"Quite distressed over witnessing that type of situation. We don't want to witness it again," he says. "This is a human life we're talking about. Yes, it may impact other sports, but we're talking about a life here."
The association is also proposing that they will purchase better nets and a rollout pickleball court floor that could be placed over the existing gym floor and then pulled up when not in use.
In return, they ask for some sort of discount on their rental fees and that the city help store the equipment when its not in use.
According to Brown, the Windsor Pickleball Club has the fourth largest club in Ontario with around 800 members, who rent the gym at the WFCU Centre 22 times per week.
He estimates that between May 1, 2024, and April 30, 2025, the association's total rent payments to the City of Windsor will be around $70,000.
The issue has been referred to the city's 2025 budget deliberations.