DEERFIELD OMNICOURT AND PARKS
MAKE PERFECT MATCH

In municipal parks, sand has been normally associated with beaches and baseball diamonds. Now, more and more municipal recreational administrators are finding that sand particles are helping to serve the community's tennis needs from all standpoints — affordability, quality of play and safety.

Omnicourt, a grass-like carpet of durable polypropylene fibers filtered with a special formulated sand dressing, is a premium tennis surface that has been installed at some of the most prestigious tennis clubs and resorts worldwide, from the All-England Tennis Club, Wimbledon to Turnberry Isle, Miami. Now, parks and recreation departments, concerned with long-term budgets and the safety of the public, are also recognizing the product as being right for them.

"We'd experience wide cracks in our asphalt surface about every three years and always resigned ourselves to expensive ($3,000-$4,000 per court) re-surfacing until we learned about Omnicourt," said Cotton Jackson, recreation administrator for Knoxville, Tenn.

Tyson Park had 12 Omnicourts installed in the spring of last year, with construction work finishing two days before a major 600-player tournament. "There was a heavy rain the night before the event and the director was certain we'd have to cancel, but the surface was fine. The sand particles help percolate water down to the carpet base where subtle sloping drains it off the court quickly," said Jackson.

Powell, Wy. is known for its vast softball program. In the spring of 1983, the city gained the added distinction of having the first Omnicourts for a public facility in the Rocky Mountain region. Since then, numerous other parks have installed Omnicourt in the area, including three in Cody just 22 miles away.

"We have three other tennis sites in town yet more is played on the three Omnicourts than all the others combined," viewed John Grover, Powell's superintendent of parks. "We've experienced a flood of executives from local companies playing on Omnicourt in the early mornings. The school system holds interscholastic competitions there. This increased traffic provided the impetus for us to improve our lighting for night play."

"Positive responses to the surface have been universal, especially among the older players. The surface seems to save their knees," added Grover, crediting the cushioning nature of the fiber-and-particle composition. He also cited the low maintenance requirements as a favorable feature of Omnicourts, which only need a periodic brushing. This eliminates the crack repair of concrete and asphalt surfaces, relaminating of rubber-topped surfaces, smoothening of clay surfaces, watering and re-sodding of grass courts and re-painting or re-striping lines of all other surfaces.

Deerfield, Ill. broke new ground when the city had the first public Omnicourts installed in the region in the spring of 1983.

Two of the city's four municipal courts are located over a reservoir, which historically led to moisture seeping into blacktop surfacing and cracking. "We've had no problems with the Omnicourts," said Gene Ryshkus, superintendent of the Deerfield Park District. "Youngsters play more on the faster blacktop courts while adults enjoy the Omnicourts' ease on the body."

Along with echoing the benefits of low maintenance and excellent drainage capabilities, ("No bird baths with the surface"), he noted other positive characteristics: "Players believe Omnicourt is much cooler than hard surfaces and there is less glare, improving quality of play on sunny days." Minute air pockets in the fiber and particle composition effects ventilation plus fibers are ultraviolet-ray resistant.

Omnicourt takes only a few days to install and is covered by a comprehensive five-year warranty. It is manufactured and marketed by Sportec International, Kenmore, NY.

Some of the other municipalities that have had Omnicourts installed are Billings, Montana; Munroe Falls, OH; W. Palm Beach, FL; Ft. Worth, TX; Youngstown, OH; Powell, NY; Augusta, GA; Brookfield, IL; Maryville, TN and Ocean City, NJ. •

September 1986 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 13