One of Santa Barbara’s best community resource for amateur athletics has got to be the rink hiding in the back corner of Earl Warren Showgrounds. That rink has housed a tightknit community of sports organizations for more than two decades. From roller hockey to lacrosse, and futsal to roller derby, a diverse community of non-profit organizations have used it as a safe space for everyone from at-risk youth to LGBTQ adults.
Well, that is, until a pickleball detonated in the center of it this week. Now, Santa Barbara Roller Hockey and its member groups is facing off against Dynamite Pickleball Inc.
Santa Barbara Roller Hockey (SBRH), which was responsible for fundraising and building the rink in the late 1990s, has leased the land the rink occupies since it first opened. On June 8, the leadership of Earl Warren Showgrounds served SBRH an impossible ultimatum.