FREQUENTLY ASKED
QUESTIONS
These FAQs will hopefully answer some of your questions about the club.
Please explore our website especially our ABOUT page and our MEMBERSHIP page.
Feel free to contact us at info@winstonchurchilltennis.ca if you have more questions. We may include them in future FAQs.
Who can be a member?
Why become a member?
How many members do you have?
What type of memberships are available?
Do you have prime and non-prime time memberships?
How do I join?
How long will it take me to join?
I live near the club, can I join the club sooner?
Is there any way to play at the club as a non-member?Can I take lessons as a non-member?
Becoming a member
Who can be a member?
SWCPTC offers memberships to City of Toronto residents.
What does being a member mean?
Members can book courts in advance, play in social events like Round Robins, participate in competitive events such as our ladder, house league, inter-club teams, and our annual tournament. Members can take lessons, camps and clinics from our teaching staff.
How many members do you have?
We cap our adults and seniors to 1100 members which is more than City of Toronto standards. Under 18s can join any time as juniors. We currently have a waitlist for interested new members.
What type of memberships are available?
We offer Junior memberships for children under 18 years-old, Junior Camps and Clinics memberships for children under 16 years-old, Adult memberships for over 18 year-olds, and Senior memberships for adults over 65 years-old.
Do you have prime time and non-prime time memberships?
We do not make a distinction between prime and non-prime time for members. Members have access to courts during all club hours. Club hours appear at the bottom of every webpage.
How do I join?
As our membership is full for adults and seniors, you will have to first sign up on our waitlist. Our waitlist opens from late April to October every year online (see our membership page). Any new signups from this year are added to the main waitlist in Fall.
In January every year, we ask you for confirmation that you want to remain on the waitlist.
In February, existing members are offered an exclusive two weeks to renew their membership. After the two weeks, renewals close and we offer new memberships to our waitlist. The waitlist is addressed in order of receipt of interest to join as per CIty of Toronto procedures.
Please note that as of April 2026, our current waitlist is over 2600.
How long will it take for me to join the club?
This is something we cannot determine in advance. We host over 1400 members at the club, far more than City of Toronto minimums. New adult members are invited only after our membership renewal period, and we have identified spaces in our membership.
In 2026, we invited over 120 people from the waitlist.
I live near the club. Can I join the club sooner?
Proximity to the club does not grant anyone privilege over any deemed resident of the City of Toronto. This is City of Toronto policy. There are public courts close by at Cedarvale Park, Ramsden Park and Dovercourt Park that are fully supported by the City of Toronto and designed for residents in the area.
Can I play as a
non-member?
Is there any way I can play at the courts as a non-member?
Yes!
Public Hours
You can play during public hours - outside of our club hours - i.e. before we open (variously 8am during the Summer, 9am in the Spring and Fall season), and during our designated public hours - Saturdays after 8pm until 11pm, Sundays and public holidays after 6pm until 11pm. This is self-managed by users of the courts during this time and SWCPTC has no authority and are not responsible for players, play or behaviour during these hours. Please note that our clubhouse will be closed during these periods, and you will have to use public park facilities.
Guest of a member
You can play as a guest of a member during club hours. The member who is hosting you can book with you on the club management system. There is a non-member fee that the member will need to pay for at the time of booking. As a guest, you must complete our waiver form.
Non-member walk-on
You can play as a non-member during club hours, however this is only on a "turn-up, pay to play" basis - i.e. there is no ability to reserve a court in advance. Turn up and check in with the clubhouse to see if a court is available. A court will then be booked for you on the spot and there is a non-member fee to pay for each player.
Please note that if a court is empty upon your arrival, that may not indicate the court is available. Our courts run on the hour and half-hour, and there may be a booking in the next 30 minutes or for a camp or clinic
For guests and non-members, the non-member fee is $10 (plus HST) per hour with a maximum of $20 (plus HST) a day. All guests and non-members must fill out a waiver form and check in with the Clubhouse.
Can I take lessons at the Club without being a member?
No. Lessons, clinics, camps etc. are available only to members.
Could there be a winter bubble over the courts?
Without a doubt, the sight of 10 courts in great condition sitting in a park with no immediate surrounding buildings would be ideal for a winter bubble over it and establish a venue for community winter tennis. This has been a desire for many people for many years and we have tried. The last attempt, in collaboration with the City and Toronto Water was 2017-2019 after the reservoir rehabilitated and reinstalled by Toronto Water and City of Toronto.
The MAIN factors in why SWCPTC does not have a bubble include:
- We sit on a reservoir that houses emergency water supply in two basins for the city.
- The depth of the earth is only 2 ft deep (on top of the basins).
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Our location is subject to extreme winds as it sits high and is exposed on all sides.
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Any development on the site requires absolute agreement from the neighbourhood.
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Having an air dome also entails a generous electrical and possible gas supply brought to the site.
From 2017 through 2018, as the work started, SWCPTC worked with Toronto Water in exploring the engineering involved in having a bubble over the courts. The first part of this was to examine whether a bubble could be supported on the reservoir. Toronto Water executed an engineering analysis, and it was determined that, in short, with the force of the wind and potential weight of snow, that the reservoir could not bear an Air Dome. This basically killed the idea of a bubble.
Additionally the depth of the park is only 2 feet of earth above the reservoir roof. This would mean a grade beam, to hold an air dome in place, would need to be 6 ft wide that would infringe on all sides of the courts.
A bubble would mean bringing in an increased or separate electrical supply and possible gas supply to the site to heat and keep the bubble erect. There is electricity to the park but could it support or be increased to support an air dome? And at what cost and who would pay for this?
The courts are City property not club property and any property changes is ultimately up to the City.
An earlier attempt at getting a bubble approved at SWCPTC was also made in the early 2010s. They consulted a major air dome manufacturer on the practicality and aesthetics of a bubble to garner support. SWCPTC sits in the middle of the city and some of the residents around us are not as keen on tennis as our members. It would not only take our local councillor to back (and possibly financially contribute) to a bubble on the site, but ALL the surrounding residents to allow this to happen. As we discovered a few years ago when we tried to add extra courts to the site, it only takes 2 or 3 voices to stop any development.
Even if technology provided for a better structure and support system for an air dome that reduced the force of the elements on the surface of the park under a bubble, there is also the fact we sit on a large and important reservoir of water that supplies the city. Toronto Water would need to drain the basin before any work above the reservoir (that impacts the roof of the basin) – not a cheap endeavour and they could simply veto it.
Perhaps the next time the City and Toronto Water needs to rehabilitate the reservoir, there might be an opportunity to put in a winter structure, but that’s going to be another 80 years from now. Hopefully, the club will still be as robust as today, and the future might allow us to have some winter structure and winter tennis possible.