multi-use tennis courts?

thoffnagle

New User
I live in the tennis wasteland of the world and am trying to get tennis going here. A fair number of people play recreationally in the summer but there are no indoor courts within 50 miles - the closest are over a mountain pass that can be treacherous in the winter. So, I have thought about building some indoor courts. One way to make them profitable (or at least break even) would be to make them useable for other activities - volleyball, soccer and basketball come to mind. Does anyone have any suggestions about court surfaces that would work?

I remember back in my early days of playing (the 1970s), many indoor clubs had a carpet surface. It was really fast but I could see it being useable for soccer, basketball and volleyball. Does anyone know of a source for that surface?
 

hrstrat57

Hall of Fame
Both my local university and my daughter's college have rubber surfaces.

When weather is inclement my daughter's D 3 matches move indoors....a huge advantage for the home team. Generally rubber court plays very fast in my experience but of course fair and consistent...

I haven't seen carpet locally here for at least 20 yrs.....I don't think carpet would work for basketball.

Welcome to TT and good luck with your project.
 

thoffnagle

New User
Both my local university and my daughter's college have rubber surfaces.

When weather is inclement my daughter's D 3 matches move indoors....a huge advantage for the home team. Generally rubber court plays very fast in my experience but of course fair and consistent...

I haven't seen carpet locally here for at least 20 yrs.....I don't think carpet would work for basketball.

Welcome to TT and good luck with your project.

Thanks for the input. We had a rough rubber surface at the University of Idaho indoor courts - they played very slow until they get worn down. I have actually played basketball on a rough carpet surface - you really have to push the ball forward when dribbling, otherwise, it works ok. Yeah, the old indoor carpet surfaces seem to be a thing of the past - it was great for us serve and volley players!
 

Fifth Set

Professional
Sounds like a noble plan. If you haven't already, spend a few minutes on the Sport Court web-site. They seem to do alot of work with multi-use scenarios.

Unfortunately, my sense is that the ideal indoor tennis surface is pretty different from that for basketball/volleyball/soccer. But it wouldn't hurt to call them and see if they will give you some ideas.

http://www.sportcourt.com/residential/sport/indoor-multi-use.php
 
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