Indoor and Outdoor Sports Court Usage Survey

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Consultation has concluded

Project Update, June 2022: The Summer 2022 indoor courts schedule is now available! See below.

Parks & Recreation staff will continue to review and incorporate the survey input as they develop the fall indoor courts schedule. As well, staff are planning some changes at the City's outdoor courts, including a pilot for dedicated outdoor court use times. Look for changes on the outdoor courts this summer!



Project Update, April 19: Many thanks to all who took the time to share their input through our survey. We heard from over 250 community members on how they use these City facilities. Scroll down to view a visual summary of results from this engagement, or click here to view the full survey report.


What is happening?

The City of New Westminster is reviewing current usage of City-operated sports courts, both indoors and outdoors.

An indoor sports court is a designated, flexible gymnasium space within a City recreation centre or facility that’s used for multi-sport play. These spaces include opportunities for a variety of sports, including tennis, pickleball, basketball, ball hockey, lacrosse, volleyball, badminton, and soccer.

There has been a growing demand for sports court space from different user groups. To support sports groups and respond to these competing requests previously, additional indoor court drop-in timeslots have been added. Additional lines on outdoor court spaces have also been added to accommodate multi-sport uses.

However, there remains a limited number of courts and hours available. In an effort to continue to support all user groups and offer a range of sport court programming within New Westminster, we are reviewing existing drop-ins days, times and courts with the intent to better match community needs.

How can I engage?

Complete our survey and have your say on how you think sports courts should be used. Your answers will help us in understanding the needs of our community and guide our planning processes. Survey input will be used to support building a schedule that can work towards satisfying users’ needs, better utilize and maximize available court space, and improve court experiences and enjoyment of sports play for all user groups.

We need the community’s input to guide our planning processes to prepare the indoor court facilities, staff and program schedules for summer 2022. The survey was open through March 22, 2022 - and here is What We Heard!


Sports Courts Survey Visual Summary. Please click the image for a larger, screen reader friendly version of the summary. 



How can I book a sports court?

For information on booking a court, contact 604-527-4567 between the hours of 8:30 am – 4:30 pm, Monday to Friday, or complete the Sports Fields, Courts and Track Request form.

Project Update, June 2022: The Summer 2022 indoor courts schedule is now available! See below.

Parks & Recreation staff will continue to review and incorporate the survey input as they develop the fall indoor courts schedule. As well, staff are planning some changes at the City's outdoor courts, including a pilot for dedicated outdoor court use times. Look for changes on the outdoor courts this summer!



Project Update, April 19: Many thanks to all who took the time to share their input through our survey. We heard from over 250 community members on how they use these City facilities. Scroll down to view a visual summary of results from this engagement, or click here to view the full survey report.


What is happening?

The City of New Westminster is reviewing current usage of City-operated sports courts, both indoors and outdoors.

An indoor sports court is a designated, flexible gymnasium space within a City recreation centre or facility that’s used for multi-sport play. These spaces include opportunities for a variety of sports, including tennis, pickleball, basketball, ball hockey, lacrosse, volleyball, badminton, and soccer.

There has been a growing demand for sports court space from different user groups. To support sports groups and respond to these competing requests previously, additional indoor court drop-in timeslots have been added. Additional lines on outdoor court spaces have also been added to accommodate multi-sport uses.

However, there remains a limited number of courts and hours available. In an effort to continue to support all user groups and offer a range of sport court programming within New Westminster, we are reviewing existing drop-ins days, times and courts with the intent to better match community needs.

How can I engage?

Complete our survey and have your say on how you think sports courts should be used. Your answers will help us in understanding the needs of our community and guide our planning processes. Survey input will be used to support building a schedule that can work towards satisfying users’ needs, better utilize and maximize available court space, and improve court experiences and enjoyment of sports play for all user groups.

We need the community’s input to guide our planning processes to prepare the indoor court facilities, staff and program schedules for summer 2022. The survey was open through March 22, 2022 - and here is What We Heard!


Sports Courts Survey Visual Summary. Please click the image for a larger, screen reader friendly version of the summary. 



How can I book a sports court?

For information on booking a court, contact 604-527-4567 between the hours of 8:30 am – 4:30 pm, Monday to Friday, or complete the Sports Fields, Courts and Track Request form.

Consultation has concluded

Check out our FAQ before submitting your question - we may have already addressed your question!

Have a question about the indoor and outdoor sports courts engagement? Please add it here. We will aim to reply within 5 business days. If we think your question may be of interest to others, we'll post your question and our response here. Thank you for taking the time to write to us!

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    I did the survey and didn't see the lacrosse boxes discussed. Lacrosse and ball hockey cannot be played on other types of sports courts. The proposal of dispensing with the lacrosse box in Hume Park and being replaced with a multi-function sports court is the equivalent of saying that you are reducing the number of facilities that accomodate lacrosse and ball hockey. What is the current plan for the lacrosse box in Hume Park?

    My home town asked about 2 years ago

    Hello and thanks for your question and comments. While the survey does not ask for feedback specific to the City’s lacrosse boxes, lacrosse is an answer option for the questions on “your primary sport” played on both the City’s indoor and outdoor courts. When reviewing and analyzing the survey results, Parks and Recreation staff will be considering lacrosse boxes as a sports court for the responses from participants who chose lacrosse as their primary sport.

    The Parks and Recreation Department recognizes the long history of lacrosse in New Westminster and is committed to supporting the current and future needs for lacrosse and other sports in the city. 

    Through the Hume Park Master Plan engagement process, members of the community expressed the importance of lacrosse and other regulation sports played at Hume Park. This input is reflected in the plans for replacing the aging Lacrosse Box with a multi-use Sport Box to:

    • Support increased capacity/use with a larger facility;
    • Provide a flexible, multi-purpose space that supports a variety of regulation sports, recreational uses, performances, and other uses; and
    • Incorporate lacrosse box requirements identified by the New Westminster Minor Lacrosse Association (NWMLA) such as internal separation walls and use of colour to distinguish play lines of different sports.


    Staff have been researching built examples of  multi-use facilities in the region, including: https://www.delta-optimist.com/local-news/new-city-of-delta-sports-court-moves-closer-to-reality-3459590. The Sport Box envisioned in the Master Plan will be confirmed with future public engagement, detailed design and will include a feasibility study for additional amenities such as lighting, digital scoreboard and weather protection.

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    Is there a reason why the cost of indoor sports like pickleball costs more than all the other municipalities and why even with increased service taxes and fees, that the City of New Westminster, unlike Vancouver, Burnaby and Surrey or Coquitlam, does not offer lower indoor sports drop-in fees nor does it offer dedicated pickleball courts and free net use (e.g. in lockboxes like other cities)? Pickleball is the number one fastest growing sport in N. America and other cities have picked up on finding ways to provide their residents with the ability to affordably access this recreational sport/exercise, but New Westminster is lagging behind.

    cspud asked about 2 years ago

    Thank you for your question and comments. The City of New Westminster’s recreation fees are approved by Council every year, are generally based on market value, and are comparable to other municipalities in the region. Based on our review of current one-visit adult drop-in fees (including drop-in court sports such as pickleball), New West is not the most or least expensive of surrounding cities. Drop-in costs can be reduced by purchasing a New West Active Pass – click here for more info: https://www.newwestcity.ca/activepass

    We appreciate all feedback and questions coming forward from the survey. The goal of this engagement is to source information from the public to identify the needs and wants of the community. We are in regular communication with neighboring municipalities and follow recommendations from sports organization like BC Recreation and Parks Association and viaSport to identify trends, best practices and methods to also guide our decisions.