Ever Heard of ‘Ticket Tearing’ in Pickleball? Here’s What It Is and How to Do It Right
One of the harsher realities pickleball players need to face is that courts—especially standard, top-notch ones—aren’t always available and for free. More often than not, if you want to play in a world-class facility, or at least something close to it, you will need to pay. And whether we care to admit it or not, many of these pickleball venues can be a bit exorbitant in how they price their court rentals.
What Is Ticket Tearing?
Enter what’s called ticket tearing. Basically, ticket tearing means splitting the court rental fee. It could be an equitable split where each player pays the same amount to cover the final bill, or it could be that one player pays more and so on and so forth. The goal, ultimately, is to lessen the financial hit of renting a court.
Think about it. Suppose you and a friend are renting a court that’s ₱300 per hour, which means two hours will set you back ₱600, with each maybe paying ₱300. But, say you have another pair of players who can tear the ticket. ₱600 split four ways means ₱150 for each player. That’s a big discount, and the more the merrier in this case: more hours, less financial burden.
Buyer Beware: When Ticket Tearing Turns to Ticket Ripping
While ticket tearing is a great way to foot the court rental bill, players shouldn’t be too trusting with picklers they don’t really know. A male pickleball player in Vietnam, where ticket tearing has become quite popular amongst the pickleball community, learned this the hard way.
The man recounted to Nghe An Newspaper his nightmare experience where what was supposed to be a ticket tearing set-up instead became a ticket ripping incident. What happened, according to the victim, was that he posted on social media that he was looking for a friend to “tear up the ticket” for a court he had booked. A female pickleball player who claimed she had just started playing the sport heeded the call. As part of the deal, she deposited 80,000 VND.
The two did, indeed, meet to play. And, according to the man himself, the atmosphere was friendly. But when the matches were over with and it was time to pay the rest of the bill, the lady hedged, making the age-old excuse that her phone had died and promising to transfer the remaining amount later. The man agreed, and the two went their separate ways.
However, when the man tried to contact the female player again, he discovered he had been blocked. He said the money the lady owed him wasn’t that big, but he was nonetheless perturbed and disappointed at being taken advantage of.
Better Be Careful
Now, it’s not that we’re frowning on ticket tearing here. We think it’s a great thing, actually. Renting courts can be financially straining, so it certainly helps if players can split the bill so they can enjoy longer play without the financial strain. Unfortunately, there are still way too many people who like taking advantage of others or even scamming people outright. Evidently, that holds true even in ticket tearing in pickleball.
So, to make sure you don’t get scammed or aren’t taken advantage of in case you do practise ticket sharing, here are some tips to keep in mind:
- Just do it with friends or players you know you can trust.
- Set rules right at the start: mode of payment, amount, when to pay, etc.
- Opt for online payments so there are tracking mechanisms. These could prove handy in reducing disputes.
- Use booking apps if available. In the alternative, have someone in charge of payment and collection. The court’s personnel could help in this case.
- Have a back-up plan just in case players back out.
Remember, the whole point of playing pickleball is to have fun. But, at the same time, it’s still imperative that you be careful with setups like ticket sharing. Otherwise, it could leave you with a bad experience.
