When Leonard Finkel heads to the pickleball courts at Morris K. Udall Park, he knows he’s headed for home.

Sure, he has a house — a nice house in fact — but it’s the court where he meets his extended family, something he does every single day.

“I spend more waking hours at Udall then I do at home,” he said.

This is why when Tucson City Council made a memorandum of understanding with the organization, Tucson Area Pickleball (TAP), that the city would not charge court fees, he was overjoyed.

“I literally jumped for joy and shot my fist in the air when the motion unanimously passed,” he said.

Of course, for their part, TAP has taken over the care and upkeep of what’s inside the courts’ tall chain-link fences. This means TAP will pay for surface cleaning and court resurfacing. They will pay for new nets and whatever else is needed to keep things in tip-top shape. This is no small investment; TAP has already put in $55,000 with plans for other costly improvements.

For the city’s part, the benches, shade structure and water fountain will be maintained and the grounds and plant life will be cared for. 

For more than a month TAP members have been working to keep the city from charging $3.50 per 90-minute play. The problem here is the fee disrupts what up to now has been a relatively democratic way of doing business. With the current system, everyone, whether they come as a team or by themselves, has an opportunity to play and that’s the way they like it. 

What TAP members have discovered is that when a fee is imposed — a seemingly small fee — no one wants to play there anymore. Finkel cites Kino Sports Complex, where the courts are often empty.

On the other hand, Udall’s free courts are always busy. Players love it there.

Take, for example, Dainah Graham and Vanessa Sargent. Both have been playing at Udall for about four years. They come knowing that a game is in their future; they need only hang their paddle on a rack attached to a chain link fence and when their turn comes up, someone will call them.

“I learned how to play pickleball in my neighborhood, but we always had trouble getting four people to play,” Graham said. “On the day I handed in my retirement paperwork, I came up here by myself and someone told me about the paddle racking system. I put my paddle up there and I was able to play and I’ve been coming ever since. … I have so many friends that I’ve met since coming here. It’s like my home away from home basically.”

Sargent had a similar experience.

“I just fell in love with the atmosphere here,” she said. “I just started making so many friends. I got so addicted coming here in the morning and in the evening. I’ve met a lot, a lot of people and I’ve gotten to be a better player and had so much fun. I’m telling you, these people are now such a community, they’re like my family.”

This is not a closed community nor is it restricted by age. When someone new comes, “we welcome them,” Graham and Sargent said together.

Because the players consider themselves a family, they celebrate birthdays, rally behind those who get sick and celebrate the lives of those players and friends they have lost.

Although in the morning there seems to be a lot of gray hair, not all are of retirement age. Chloe Fuchser comes a few times a week. The 13-year-old is homeschooled, and this is where she gets her physical education. On this day she was upset about losing.

“I get upset if I miss shots that I should get most of the time,” she said. “But if I lose to better players I’m not that upset all the time.”

However, Chloe also gets some pretty good coaching from Hank Greenberg, a retired teacher who is fairly highly ranked. 

“There’s nothing wrong with the emotional part of the game,” he said. “One of the reasons why I’m one of the best players out here is because I don’t mind losing. I have as much fun losing as I do winning.”

Chloe’s mother, Lorrie Fuchser, likes the interaction Chloe gets with those around her.

“I feel like in today’s society things are so technological that I think we miss the face-to-face interaction that we can have with other people,” she said. “Doing something like this, you get the face-to-face interaction, and you also get the physical activity, which is paramount to mental and physical health.”

Jake Rubelt lives close to Himmel Park, where he learned to play pickleball and was teaching his young son. They showed up and they played but when they came back another day, it wasn’t so easy. 

“Now, all of a sudden there’s a man there and he’s like, ‘Hey, you’ve got to pay to play.’” Rubelt said. The man was part of a management company the city hired to keep watch over the courts and make sure players have made a reservation online and paid the fee.

Rubelt wasn’t happy. He pays city taxes. “Why am I paying twice for (this)?”

Then he found Udall.

“Udall is a special place in the fact that you can always come here, there are always games and it’s for free,” he said.