By Frank Rivera
The bocce courts at the Custom House Plaza in Monterey are a visual oxymoron; three of the ugliest, unplayable dirt courts located in one of the most beautiful settings in California. For nine months, the Monterey Bocce Federation tried to rectify this.
We made an offer to State Parks that we thought they couldn’t refuse. We wanted to put state-of-the-art artificial court surfaces on the three courts, which would place Monterey in company with other bocce venues with world class courts.
The Colleoni Sports Facility Company of Gorgonzola, Italy is going to spend the summer months installing new surfaces in a number of bocce venues in Northern California. Bob Enea, President of Monterey Bocce Federation met with Danielle Colleoni several months ago, showed him the Monterey courts, and put us on the list for surfacing. All we needed was the funds to pay for the project and the approval from State Parks.
Raising the funds was the easy part. Bob presented our plan to a single potential donor, who agreed to fund the entire project with one condition; the donation must remain anonymous. With the plans we presented to State Parks, we thought gaining state approval would be just as easy. We were wrong.
Our plan? We take out the existing courts, shorten the length of courts 1 and 2 to conform to the 86 foot length of court 3, and install the court surfaces that made the Colleoni Sports Facility business the premier artificial court installer in the world. All at our expense.
All we asked for in return was that we be allowed to use the courts without fee up to once a month for tournaments. Chances are we would have used them no more than half that many times. We also wanted to start league play, starting with one day, and expanding to two and possibly three days if there was enough demand. What would State Parks get in return? They would get world class courts at no cost to them, and would retain the same control over the courts they enjoy now.
Use of the courts by the public would greatly increase, well beyond current use. We frequently receive inquiries on our website about court use and the rental of them. We offered to dedicate a page on our website, presenting a fee schedule for renting all three courts for tournament use, or even reserving a single court for several hours at a time by out-of-town visitors who wanted to make sure they get some court time while in Monterey. These inquiries would be automatically forwarded from our website to the State Parks office, where they would make arrangements and collect fees.
We tried to accommodate the desires of State Parks, presenting updated requests addressing new questions after answering old ones. To no avail. It was almost as if they already had their answer all along, but gave us hope by allowing us yet another audience with them. Then came their final “no.” Our hopes of having world class bocce courts at the Custom House Plaza are gone.
Footnote: Monterey Mayor Chuck Della Sala told Bob Enea that State Parks Ranger Eric Abma informed him that within 10 years, the existing courts will be torn out and the land put to other use because the courts as they currently are don’t receive the use State Parks would like to see. Quite ironic, I’d say. Arrivederci Custom House Plaza Bocce Courts.
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