Platform tennis facility nears completion in Cleveland’s Flats

By Marc Bona, cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio – In the dip of the Flats between two curves of the Cuyahoga River, a sleepy section of the industrial flatland is soon going to gain a bit of energy, thanks to the vision of a non-profit that is promoting platform tennis.

With a backdrop of bridges, trains, the federal building and Terminal Tower, the Flats Platform Tennis Center is in the final funding stages for four platform - or paddle - tennis courts. Organizers said they hope to have the year-round courts operational this year.

Officially it’s platform tennis, because heating elements will be tucked underneath to melt snow, and it’s mostly played at night. The four-court project has been three years in planning. Between the courts will be a warming hut.

“It’s like tennis but shrunk down to about half the size,” said Hank Stewart, who sits on the board of the Cleveland Platform Tennis Foundation. “The court’s marked off the same way, the net is there. The big difference is you can play off the screen.”

Foundation members scouted several locations with the goal of keeping costs down while being in the best place geographically. The courts are at 1003 British St.

“This was just such a great opportunity with all the new people living downtown,” board member Karen Nejedlik said.

So far the organization has spent $600,000 on the infrastructure, and as of last month needed about $150,000. Money has been raised through donations and with some corporate backing. The Pittsburgh-based American Platform Tennis Association, the national governing body, helped with the largest grant in APTA history, Stewart and Nejedlik said.

“They said, ‘You guys are the blueprint for how we hope to grow paddle in the inner cities across the country’,” Nejedlik said.

Platform tennis is its unique entity but combines various sports, a bouillabaisse of tennis, racquetball, squash and ping pong, mixed with the coordination of handball and – of all things – chess.

“It is a strategic game,” Nejedlik said.

In tennis, she said, if you’re more powerful than your opponent, you can smash shots across the net to a weaker competitor. But in platform tennis, she said, other elements have to be considered: The court is much smaller and doubles are often played. In hot weather the ball heats up and gets bouncier while in wintertime, it deadens.

“You almost have to think ahead, like three shots down the road,” she said.

“You change your strategy on how you are hitting because you want to try to just barely get it to the screens and have people dig it out … make it harder on them.” If someone is fielding hard shots, they can simply say " ‘Fine, let it hit the court, bounce off the screen,’ and they are going to take it in the air and hit it right back at you.”

Primarily a doubles game, scoring is the same as tennis. Lets don’t exist. Only one serve is given. Usually a doubles game, its origins date to the 1920s when a couple of pals invented it in New York. It was developed as a winter sport but has evolved to being year-round.

“If you have any type of racquet acumen, it will be very easy to pick up this game,” Stewart said.

All four Flats courts are repurposed from an East Coast club. The aluminum surface is purposefully rough, so footing is not an issue. Players wear tennis shoes, but they might last only a few months because of the gritty surface.

“You don’t dive for the ball in this game,” Stewart said. “You don’t lay out.”

The ball is similar in size to a tennis ball but slightly heavier. The paddle is light with a gripped surface. Paddles can run $100 and can last several seasons, and there is no restringing. Goggles are optional to protect against wayward ricochets.

The Flats facility will have used paddles and balls available for first-timers, Stewart and Nejedlik said.

The non-profit is structuring the operation akin to a YMCA.

“That’s how we are going to keep the lights on, by selling memberships,” Stewart said. Both said it will be competitively priced, and discounted for folks under 30 and families. Annually, membership might run about $800.

“We don’t want to have a financial impediment for playing,” Nejedlik said. If that is too steep for a young person just out of college, for example, monthly payments might be an option, she said.

“The thought is to get people interested in the game - never tried it, never seen it - to get out there. We all believe it’s pretty addictive; it has been for us. A lot of people, once they try it, they fall in love and then we hope they convert to members,” Stewart said.

Camaraderie plays a big part, Stewart said. The Flats location has that covered, with Brick and Barrel, Merwin’s, Forest City Brewery and the planned BrewDog – not to mention established bars in the area - all standing to benefit from post-match crowds.

Pending finishing infrastructure touches and permits, target date for balls to start flying is October or November, though the warming hut probably will take longer to complete.

The Greater Cleveland Platform Tennis Association runs leagues October to March. Age range can run into the 80s.

“We’re democratizing the game,” Stewart said.

In addition, an all-volunteer-run, youth-mentoring program is in the works, for middle and high-school students to learn the game. The plan is to have half the group on the court while the other half will be in the hut working with life skills and homework. Stewart and Nejedlik described it as similar in efforts to First Tee and Urban Squash.

“Our strategy has never been to pluck people from the east side clubs,” Stewart said. “They’re going to do their thing. Our strategy has always been to bring new people into the game, from downtown to the west side, especially young people, and have them playing for life.”

I am on cleveland.com’s life and culture team and cover food, beer, wine and sports-related topics. If you want to see my stories, here’s a directory on cleveland.com. Bill Wills of WTAM-1100 and I talk food and drink usually at 8:20 a.m. Thursday morning. And tune in at 7 a.m. Wednesdays for “Beer with Bona and Much, Much More” with Munch Bishop on 1350-AM The Gambler. Twitter: @mbona30.

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