By Armchair Mayor

ROTHENBURGER: Disc golf, pickleball and other passing sports fads

Feb 2, 2019 | 5:47 AM

AS THE CITY ASKS FOR PUBLIC INPUT into upgrades to Tournament Capital facilities, a review of the process leading to this week’s decision on the old McArthur Island golf course might be instructive.

Community and protective services director Byron McCorkell took the media on a tour of the TCC on Thursday to explain that improvements are needed to parts of the venue and the City wants opinions from the public on any new directions it should take.

It sounds like a bit of minor tweaking but recent events suggest a more expansive review of the Tournament Capital vision is in order.

Two days before McCorkell’s tour, City council made a difficult decision on the McArthur Island property. It was one that doesn’t sit well with those who wanted a nature park there but it represents a million-dollar leap of faith in expanding the tournament capital franchise.

It was more than a little ad hoc, less “how does this fit into our vision” and more “we’ve got this piece of land, now what the hell do we do with it?”

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Or, as Coun. Arjun Singh described the site on Tuesday, “a piece of dirt.” He expressed surprise that the question of what to do with it generated such an emotional reaction.

“Pieces of dirt,” of course, are basic to the development of any civic amenity. Their availability determines location, and where we put things is often as important as what we put there.

Council got so wrapped up in the idea of a disc golf course, and were so taken by the endorsement of it by its own Parks and Recreation Department, that it convinced itself disc golfers and naturalists can live side by side, even if one side says they can’t. Definitions of “passive” and “active” use became muddled.

During an unusually long gestation period, the issue had become very contentious. Opposing viewpoints turned into heated exchanges via social media and emails. Each side accused the other of getting unnecessarily pushy.

Certain things stood out during council’s discussion of the issue on Tuesday. What really struck me was council’s commitment to disc golf despite the lack of information on just how much the proposed course would be used. I’m sure such information is available but it wasn’t in front of them as they made their decision. There was even confusion about the size of the property.

Three council members favoured a nine-hole course but five wanted 18 despite the fact the 18 will be needed for only a couple of tournaments a year. The rest of the time, it will be available for club use.

When asked how many people will use the disc golf course, the answer from Parks and Rec staff was, “I don’t have any numbers for you…. I’m hoping the numbers increase.”

Yes, let’s hope so — disc golf just became a sanctioned Tournament Capital sport.

Investing in certain sports can be a bit chancy, and some just don’t make the cut. There are no City bowling alleys, for example, though there are lots of bowlers out there. The City owns no golf courses.

When tennis was in its heyday here, the City installed asphalt tennis courts in neighbourhoods all over town but over time found that skate boarders were using them more than tennis players. Though the sport waned in local popularity, it found its niche and now thrives at the Kamloops Tennis Club’s modest facility on Lorne Street without the state-of-the art venues enjoyed by other sports.

There are three basic reasons for including certain sports in the Tournament Capital program: sport tourism, spectator entertainment and accessible recreational for residents. They’re either about the economy, lifestyle or both.

The intention from the start of the TC program was always to be agile, to be able to adapt to new trends, to be a work in progress. But when one spends $48 million (in 2001-2005 dollars) on infrastructure for certain sports, one becomes pretty committed to a certain direction. Changing that direction or even embellishing it is expensive.

So, the Tournament Capital was built on the most popular local sports, those that can be enjoyed both by residents and that attract out-of-towners for tournaments. We are the envy of the country when it comes to fields, tracks, pools and arenas.

A lot of sports are bound to get left out. Cricket, for example, has 2.5 billion fans worldwide, second only to soccer in popularity, but none of them is in Kamloops. The sport did make a brief appearance here in the 1880s, as did polo but they didn’t stick; maybe they’ll make a comeback.

It’s unlikely trampoline volleyball, camel wrestling, underwater rugby or the running of bulls will be listed on the Tournament Capital roster any time soon. But then, up until a few years ago, nobody would have thought disc golf and pickleball would have made an appearance, either.

If you’d said a sport named after a dog named Pickles would become a sensation, the men in white suits would have taken you away.

Same thing for disc golf, yet the sport (which is said to have been invented in Canada) has been a late bloomer after incubating for decades.

I was doing a bit of chain yanking with my headline about pickleball and disc golf being passing fads and it won’t make me popular with their adherents. They’ve proven they aren’t passing fads but the point is, sports come and go. Pigeon shooting, solo synchronized swimming and croquet were once Olympic sports.

I’m sure members of City council carefully considered the McArthur Island issue in the context of a broad vision for where the Tournament Capital goes from here. In voting to move forward with a proposal that has quite a few unknowns, they obviously looked into the future and liked what they saw.

So let’s now get behind the disc golfers and wish them well.

What will be next? Though the McArthur Island issue was divisive, it has certainly raised the question of what the vision should be for the Tournament Capital in coming years.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and newspaper editor. He publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.