What You Need To Know About the Survey

⚠️ Understanding the Bias in Richmond Hill’s Tennis & Pickleball Survey

The City’s new Tennis & Pickleball Strategy Survey appears to guide participants toward predetermined outcomes — especially around the 12-court pickleball hub at Richmond Green and the ongoing focus on tennis-first infrastructure.
The structure, wording, and limitations of the survey suggest it may be designed to confirm existing decisions rather than gather genuine community input.

🧩 1. Predetermined Outcome

Question 13 begins with:

“Council has directed for the provision of a 12-court permanent, year-round pickleball hub in north Richmond Green.”

This statement signals that the decision is already made, not up for discussion.
Immediately afterward, the survey pivots to a tennis-focused question — “The City should establish a community tennis club” — shifting attention away from pickleball priorities and reinforcing tennis as the dominant sport.

📌 Impact: The framing implies 12 courts is “enough” and tennis remains the planning priority.

🔢 2. Limited Response Options

Several questions allow only three choices, even when more are clearly needed (lighting, shade, fencing, benches, surfacing).
This restriction forces participants to leave out valid preferences, creating incomplete data.

📌 Impact: Results can be used to suggest residents prioritized fewer amenities than they actually did.

🎯 3. Favouring Multi-Lined Courts

Statements like:

“Multi-lined courts that allow both tennis and pickleball to be played are acceptable to me.”

…offer no way to express a preference for dedicated pickleball courts, which players overwhelmingly support for safety and quality reasons.

📌 Impact: Responses could be used to claim broad support for shared courts when most players disagree.

🧠 4. Misleading “Agreement” Questions

Questions such as:

“The City should continue to use arena floors for pickleball during the summer.”

…make temporary solutions sound like long-term plans, without offering the option to support permanent facilities.

📌 Impact: Normalizes stopgap measures instead of real investment.

🏗️ 5. Unequal Weight Between Sports

Although the survey is titled “Tennis & Pickleball,” tennis receives more detailed questions and a dedicated “community club” concept.
Pickleball’s questions are fewer, often combined with tennis, and framed as secondary.

📌 Impact: Reinforces the idea that pickleball is an add-on, not a core sport deserving equal infrastructure.

🧾 6. Leading Language

Phrases like “Council has directed…” or “Ongoing Richmond Green revitalization includes a pickleball hub…” make the survey sound more like a press release than an open consultation.

📌 Impact: Conditions respondents to view certain outcomes as final.

💡 In Summary

The survey’s structure and language make it more of a confirmation exercise than an opportunity for real feedback.
Given Richmond Hill’s projected 30% population growth and the city’s rapidly expanding pickleball community, 12 courts are insufficient even today.

Residents are encouraged to complete the survey — but to use the comment sections to express their thoughts on :

Dedicated pickleball courts (not lined tennis courts)
Large centrally located year-round multi-court facility (16-20)
Pickleball is not tennis - the two should not be a combined strategy, unless you are re-purposing underutilized tennis courts for pickleball courts. Applying the tennis model to pickleball is a non-starter.
Long wait times at King's College Park (2 courts) and Bayview Hill Park (4 Courts), which, for some reason, the City thought permitting/reserving one court was a good idea. It has led to disputes and further frustration.
Playing in a parking lot at Richmond Green and on concrete floors in arenas in the summer is not a solution.
Rethinking Parks - Acknowledging the growing demand for pickleball courts and doing very little to accommodate this emerging game is not a solution.
Lack of investment in recreational infrastructure, with a growing demand for pickleball courts, combined with a growing population, is a much bigger problem. Read how Richmond Hill Council delayed all discussions on pickleball for 5 years.
Richmond Hill Council has acknowledged a lack of parklands but has not given any thought to acquiring land or re-purposing underutilized parkland that sits empty for 9 months of the year, and on weekdays in the summer. The baseball diamonds at Richmond Green - kids' participation in baseball has been declining for decades - Adult participation is not growing either, and how many adults using these facilities are non-residents?
Richmond Hill is falling behind and failing residents when it comes to investing in much-needed recreational infrastructure, yet it has almost $100M in park reserve funds. They cancelled the 16 dedicated courts at DDOP but just started construction on the $10M bridge over the CN tracks to provide access to the DDOP for residents on the other side of the tracks.
Rouge Woods - the only safe and suitable indoor courts for pickleball are permitted to individuals with long-standing permits that the City renews every year. Why?

🗓️ Survey closes November 2, 2025

👉 www.RichmondHill.ca/Pickleball

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