We, the tennis players of San Francisco, demand that SF Rec and Parks pause its online tennis court booking expansion AND institute a no-show policy.

SF Rec and Parks is expanding the city's online tennis court booking system (aka Spotery) starting July 10, 2020. This system has been running in a limited pilot phase for several months, and while it has its benefits, it has clear problems as well. The city is expanding Spotery to all courts/parks currently on its system, which will affect 23 parks and create/exacerbate major issues.

1. Expanding all courts in a park to booking-only, as opposed to the current 1/2 booking, 1/2 walk-on, will effectively eliminate walk-up tennis in 23 parks. Sometimes plans change and it's important to have the flexibility of being able to walk up, wait, and play. A booking-only system also creates a barrier to entry, dissuading more casual rec players from playing and picking up the game.

2. The city and Spotery currently have no way of tracking no-shows. In the current system, because half the courts are walk-on, an unused court can be taken by someone waiting in line if no one shows up after 15 minutes. This works really well at a place like Mission Dolores Park. But if all the courts are booking-only, this will eliminate the walk-up line. No-shows will create wasted court time.

A better cancelation policy would also address this—a user can currently cancel without any penalty. If I booked a 9am court but canceled at 8:55am in an all-booking world, that's just as bad as a no-show. We need a way to keep bookings accountable.

3. A booking-only system at existing parks will create longer wait times at walk-up only parks. The current system makes walk-up tennis still an option at many parks. But if 23 parks transition to booking-only, people will only be able to walk-up at the limited number of other parks that aren't booking. This means a higher concentration of players at walk-up parks and longer wait times.

We have tried emailing SF Rec and Parks with this feedback, but have largely been ignored "thank you for your feedback". Please help us get at least 100 signatures and share it with friends to move the city into action!