As a three-time Canadian seniors tennis champion and top-eight world championship finisher, Sandra Sutton has seen her share of nice tennis facilities.
Until recently, what Prince George had to offer was nothing much to brag about.
But now that the Prince George Tennis Club has officially opened its eight-court facility next to the Prince George Golf and Curling Club, Sutton is justifiably proud of her club's new home and wants the rest of the city to discover the joy of playing there.
"People don't know how lucky we are, this is wonderful," said Sutton, 84, who joined a large gathering on the courts Saturday for the club's grand opening ceremonies.
"I love having the golf club next door. I think that is a big plus. Even when I was playing at the other club (location) we would come here for lunch. It's wonderful to sit outside in the fresh air and that makes you hang around longer."
Sutton, a Montreal native, remembers when she first arrived in the city 25 years ago from Prince Rupert the tennis scene in Prince George was thriving and tournaments at the original four-court 15th Avenue (now Rotary Soccer Field) location were long drawn-out affairs played on a Second World War-era concrete pad built for marching troops.
"It used to be when they would hold tournaments you played 12 hours a day," she said. "The transition, I think, has hurt the club. You need the young kids to start playing with their parents here too, because they are the next directors of the tennis club. We need to get the schools here at the beginning of May and get the numbers up."
The tennis club, which was created in the 1970s, now has about 150 members and is encouraging members of the public to come and give it a try. Season memberships vary from $160 (adult) to $235 (couple) to $300 (family) to $60 (under-18) or players can pay a $5 drop-in fee at the golf pro shop.
Four years of planning went into the design of the new courts after the city gave notice to the club it wanted to sell to a commercial developer the Highway 16 property which had served as the club's home since 1995. The new courts opened for tennis and pickleball last August, however the club postponed its grand opening, originally planned for last September.
"This is a bit long overdue but we wanted to do it once we had everything in place," said PGTC past-president Rob Prideaux. "There was good attendance today and we were able to recognize a lot of people who were involved in making this project happen.
"We're very pleased to be working with the Golf and Curling Club as one of the stakeholders in this whole facility, it just brings more people to the whole area and we're all not-for-profit so it's open for anyone in the public to come and play. We have gained the use of a facility with washrooms, change rooms, with a restaurant /lounge and a patio too."
The $800,000 construction project was overseen by IDL Projects in a collaborative effort with city staff, Pittman Asphalt, GeoNorth Engineering, Tomko Sports Systems, Bryant Electric, L&M Engineering, Superior Link Contracting and NRS Engineering. The club obtained a $30,000 grant for the project from Northern Development Initiative Trust.
"It's finally nice to see a dream come true," said Rick Barkowski, president of the tennis club from 2002-07. "People are now going to know there's great tennis to be played here in Prince George and I hope to see many more people come. This is a fun game and people should bring their kids out to let them hit the ball, let them feel the ball and let be able to run with a bit of wind in their hair."
Current club president Jim Condon didn't start playing tennis until he was 19. Now he's one of the city's top players, challenging for men's singles and doubles titles in local and provincial tournaments.
Condon said he likes playing on the new courts because they are usually quiet, buffered from traffic noise, and sheltered from wind by the golf clubhouse. The club plans to landscape a berm on the north side of the courts and turn that into an area for spectators.
The eight tennis courts (which include five pickleball courts) are all equipped with lights, an improvement over the former location which had just four lit courts. There is also a spectator area which divides the courts where people can sit and watch while sitting at picnic tables, a vast improvement from the previous configuration.
Condon said the club will continue the effort to establish indoor tennis to keep people playing in the winter months. That cause was championed by Matt Altizer, the former Prince George Citizen information technology specialist who was killed along with his family in a highway accident in 2012. Altizer made his own portable nets he set up at the Northern Sport Centre, which gave players a chance to hit indoors.
"Kids need something to keep them excited about tennis during the winter so we need portable courts in gymnasiums and we actually do have small portable nets but we need somebody to run it," said Condon.
At Saturday's ceremony, the club unveiled a plaque recognizing Altizer's contributions to the club. The plaque will hang on Court 4, which will be used to decide championship matches in the club's tournaments.
