
A Colorado man is in a legal pickle after he drew lines for a pickleball court on a local rec centerās gym floor.
The Central Park resident, who was only referred to as āthe Mayor of Pickleballā in the Denveriteās reporting on the incident, has been banned from all of Denverās rec centers after he used permanent black marker to draw boxes and Xās on the floor to mark the makeshift pickleball court.
The rec centerās court is usually marked with temporary yellow cloth lines for pickleball.
The local parks department estimates the damage will cost $10,000 to fix. The rec center said that it is required to report all vandalism to the police.
āAnytime thereās any type of vandalism at any of our city-owned facilities, we do file a police report,ā Parks and Rec spokeswoman Cynthia Karvaski said. āItās protocol to file a report. A person took a permanent marker, came into the gym and marked the floor. That would be considered vandalism. Similar to if we walked into the City and County Building and drew on the floor.ā
The man had previously approached rec center employees about creating permanent pickleball boundaries on the Central Parks court, and he discussion has been ongoing.
āItās something weāve looked into, but itās not something weāve committed to,ā Karvaski said. āThere are other recreation centers nearby that have permanent courts.ā
Pickleball players have now taken to social media to defend the man.
āItās a way overreaction,ā said one user. āI donāt think this qualifies as vandalism. Weāre not talking about a teenager carving their girlfriend or boyfriendās name into the floor. Itās not spray paint. Heās the leader of all of these older people [who play pickleball]. Youāre basically giving an older person a death sentence when youāre telling them they canāt exercise and do social activities.ā