A pickleball fiasco has developed in Peterborough after the municipality proposed a large project that would make the open green space of Bonnerworth park into a pavement oasis. This story is literally the lines of Joni Mitchell’s “If it ain’t paradise put up a parking lot”. This pavement oasis would be completed with 16 pickleball courts and more parking. Peterborough locals were devastated with the news and upset that the municipality did not do more to consult locals on the changes to be made to Bonnerworth Park, further local’s aired their concerns of these 16 courts on noise levels, and environmentally the consequences of the removal of green space that helps against flooding (Anselmi, 2024). Moreover, locals are upset that the City Council thought it appropriate to take up vital green space and destroy it in the name of ‘communal well-being’ when the top priority of many Peterborough locals is keeping and growing the community’s green space. Members even suggested why not, instead of ridding Bonnerworth Park of green space, that the pickleball courts be built in an area that is already pavement. The former president of the Peterborough Pickleball association Bruce Bozec, who oversaw asking for more courts even said in an interview that he, “didn’t want the courts in a residential area” (Ma from Global News, 2024).

Pickleball is a sport played by a predominantly older age group; this matches the predominantly senior population of Peterborough as the community is known as a retirement community. Pickleball is narrativized as a sport for the older population and they are playing the game the most, with the USA Pickleball Association saying that in 2021 half their platers were 55 or older (DeMelo, 2022). A reason for this might be the sports accessibility; it is not as hard on joints or as cardio intense as tennis, but more active than ping pong, leading to a safe but challenging work out. A common problem discussed in Pickleball is older players feeling underestimated and younger players feeling shut out from the sport (Shields, 2023). This sets up pickleball to be a sport that does interact with ageist narratives.

Locally, Peterborough’s mayor Jeff Leal’s discussions of the sport holds ageist ideals. He says the need for the courts is because of the sports ability to get more people active, that he is concerned and working toward community well-being, and that he wants to prioritize space that will facilitate elderly citizens to be more ‘productive’ (Anselmi, 2024). This is the typical neo-liberal agenda seen in action, that he would defend the removal of open green space for the use of everyone to put in pickleball courts for senior demographics to be more ‘productive’ spend more money, live longer and more able-bodied so they can participate in the Peterborough economy for longer (Hansan, 2023).