The River Forest Park District sells annual passes for use of the four platform tennis courts in Keystone Park. Annual passes run from June 1 - May 31. The courts are open to passholders 7 days a week from 7:00 am to 11:00 pm. Passholders have access to the Keystone Center Warming Hut the Wednesday after Labor Day until mid May, the opportunity to schedule court time via the online reservation system, and the opportunity to participate in the Park District's Travel and House Platform Tennis Leagues.
2025-2026 River Forest Platform Tennis Season:
June 1, 2025-May 31, 2026
Platform Tennis Annual Passes for the 2025-2026 season can be purchased NOW!
Passholder Types/Rates
New PASSHOLDER:
- Resident: $235
- Non-Resident: $280
Returning PASSHOLDER:
- Resident: $203
- Non-Resident: $248
Junior PASSHOLDER:
- Resident: $100
- Non-Resident: $150
A Platform Tennis Pass provides the following benefits:
- Access to the platform tennis courts and platform tennis court reservation system.
- Access to register for Park District platform tennis travel and house leagues.*
- Access to private lessons, drills, and clinics.*
- Access to the Paddle Hut, including a fob key (the Wednesday after Labor Day to mid-May).
- One sleeve of paddle balls.
Platform Tennis Passholder Guidelines
In-house Fall, Winter and Spring Men's and Women's Platform Tennis Leagues are available to platform tennis passholders who register. There are additional fees for each league. Please note that you must be a River Forest Platform Passholder to register for the Platform Tennis League.
For Platform Tennis House League Information, please view the Fun Guide.
League Information
Travel Leagues
- Leagues: The men participate in the Chicago APTA NS League and the Chicago APTA SW League. The women participate in the Southwest Women's Platform Tennis League. For both the men's and women's leagues, the league decides the team fees, rules of the league, match schedule, and hospitality responsibility of the host team.
- Platform Tennis Program Committee Representative: Both the men's and women's travel teams have a representative on the Park District Platform Tennis Program Committee. Both the men's and women's Platform Tennis Committee Representative recruit the Team Captains and team players, and work with the league in deciding what series level each travel team will play.
- Team Formation:
- For the men, the Platform Tennis Representative and Team Captains decide the players in each series, and who will play in the matches each week.
- For the women, the Women's Platform Tennis Representative and the Team Captains requested that the Paddle Pro be hired to assist in the formation of the teams, decide the players for each series, who will play each week, and observe match play as available.
- APTA Fees: The APTA fee for the men's league is included as part of their team fee. The APTA fee for the women's league is not included in their team fee and the player must pay this fee directly to APTA.
- Hospitality: For both the men and women leagues, the home team hospitality guidelines are determined by the league. Both the men's and women's league have a Hospitality Coordinator who manages the home team hospitality and determines the player hospitality fee. The player hospitality fee is separate from the player league registration fee.
- Drills:
- The men's teams do not participate in drills conducted by the Park District Paddle Pro. If they do begin participating in drills, they would follow the same guidelines as the women's teams participating in drills.
- The women's teams participate in drills conducted by the Park District Paddle Pro. Drills are not mandatory, but recommended to allow the Paddle Pro and Team Captains an understanding of the players skill level. It is recommended that players participate in 75% of the drills.
- Fee: The Park District determines the fees for the league and drills using a program worksheet. The worksheet includes league fees, court time, league balls, administration, miscellaneous (based on Platform Tennis Representative request) and cc & registration fees. The same worksheet is used for both the men's and women's leagues. The fee structure falls within the guidelines the Park District uses to determine all program fees.
House Leagues
When are house leagues formed? Men's and Women's House Leagues are offered for the fall, winter, and spring seasons. The fall leagues will be posted in the Fall Fun Guide in August and the winter & spring leagues will be posted in the Winter/Spring Fun Guide in November.
How are the Men's and Women's House Leagues managed?
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League Format:
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The men's house league is a team format with 13 players on a team. A minimum of 52 players is required to run the league. The league is on Sunday, beginning at 4:30pm for a 12-week season, plus playoffs. Team captains will determine the eight (8) players on their team who will participate each week based on player availability and participation.
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The women's house league is a round-round format with 3 levels of skill play (blue, green and red), with a minimum of 16 players in each level. A minimum of 48 players is required to run a league. The league is on Monday, beginning at 5:30pm for a 10–12-week season. Twelve (12) players will participate each week. If a scheduled player is unable to participate, they are responsible for finding a replacement from their group of players at the same skill level.
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Platform Tennis Program Committee Representative: Both the men's and women's house leagues have a representative on the Park District Platform Tennis Program Committee.
- The men's representative may request "Other Expenses" (i.e. social & apparel items) to be included in the budget, solicit team captains, participate in the team draft, work with the team captains on the weekly scoring, and host the end of season social.
- The women's representative may request "Other Expenses" (i.e. social & apparel items) to be included in the budget, determine the skill level placement of each player, and host the end of season social.
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Team Formation:
- For the men, teams are determined by a draft, with the team captains drafting the players for their teams.
- For the women, the Women's Platform Tennis Representative and player volunteers determine skill level placement of each player using player self-assessments.
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Scheduling:
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For the men, platformtennis.org scheduling software is used to determine the league schedule.
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For the women, due to the complexity of the league format and to address fairness concerns expressed in the past, the Park District drafts the schedule.
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Drills: Participation in drills are not required to participate in the house leagues.
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Fee: The Park District determines the fees for the league using a program budget worksheet. The worksheet includes league fees, court time, league balls, administration, other expenses (based on Platform Tennis Representative request) and cc & registration fees. The same worksheet is used for both the men's and women's leagues. The fee structure falls within the guidelines the Park District uses to determine all program fees.
Platform Tennis Game Rules
Group Lessons:
The Park District offers group platform tennis lessons throughout the year. A platform tennis annual pass is NOT required to register for lessons.
Registration will be available online. Please note that use of the platform tennis courts by non-passholders is limited to the registered lesson day and time.
Check the season's Fun Guide for more information.
Private Lessons:
Private Lessons/Drills
Private lessons/drills are available with our Paddle Pro at a rate of $100/hour. Private lessons/drills can be taken by 1-4 players. Players wishing to schedule a private lesson/drill are required to pay through the Park District website. Players have the option to pay for a 1 or 1.5 hour lesson, and the option for 1 to 4 players on the court. Players will schedule their private lesson/drill directly through the Paddle Pro. Cash payments for private lessons and drills are prohibited.
Online Court Reservations
Please note our Reservation Guidelines when making a platform tennis court reservation:
- When making an online reservation, all pass holders must be included on the reservation.
- Each Pass Holder is allowed to play in (1) prime time reservation per day. The prime time hours are: Saturday & Sunday: 7:00am to 5:30pm.
- Each pass holder is allowed to make non-prime time reservations for other times not listed above; however, is not allowed to make/or be part of more than one reservation per day. The Park District will be monitoring the online reservation system daily. If a pass holder's name is seen in duplicate time slots on the same day, those duplicate reservations will be deleted from the system.
- Guests: If a reservation includes the use of the "Guest 1 $5.00", the pass holder is required to email Carrie Ferguson at cferguson@rfparks.com to notify her of the name of the guest and a contact phone number to arrange the $5.00 credit card guest payment. This email must be sent at the time of making the reservation. If an email is not sent notifying the Park District of a guest, the reservation will be deleted from the system.
Platform Tennis Committee
The River Forest Park District Platform Tennis Program Committee is a group of River Forest Platform Tennis pass holders who support the River Forest Park District platform tennis program. The Committee was created to enhance the quality of platform tennis through volunteerism and contributions.
The 2025-2026 Platform Tennis Program Committee Members Are:
- Matt Schuler: Men's Travel League
- Karen Giafrancisco & Meegan Beckmann: Women's Travel League
- David Walker: Men's House League
- Open: Women's House League
Platform Tennis Program Committee Information
Women's House League Representative
Women's Travel League Representative
Men's House League Representative
Men's Travel League Representative
For more information or to apply to be on the platform tennis committee, please contact Ethan Gutzmer, Athletic Manager at egutzmer@rfparks.com or 708-366-6660 x104.
The Game of Platform Tennis
Platform Tennis, also called paddle, is a racquet sport derived from tennis. The sport was developed as an opportunity for sport enthusiast to play outdoors during the winter months. The court dimensions of 60'x30' are one quarter of a tennis court, with 12' of fencing around the court that is part of the play.
The court surface is specifically designed for winter play, consisting of a highly gritty surface to provide better traction in winter weather, and a heater system under the courts to assist with the drying of the courts during a winter snow.
The rules to platform tennis are similar to tennis, however there are distinctive differences. Because of the smaller playing area, and a one serve rule, play is far more continuous than tennis. As a result, even in subfreezing temperatures, players work up a sweat fairly quickly and maintain it until play is stopped.
The growth of platform tennis in the Chicago area has been steady over the past decade, with over 250 public and private courts in the area and thousands of participants.
Here is a Self-assessment tool provided by the American Platform Tennis Association that provides insight into what higher-level skills look like, as well as where you currently stand. It's great for developing your skills.
Click here to try it out.
Here is a good description to help you interpret the skill levels. Click here to view the description.
Platform Tennis Finances
The financial management of the platform tennis facility is unique from other Park District programs as it's a membership based program, and the program required construction of the courts that was financed through the Park District's Capital Improvement Funds.
Since its inception, the platform tennis facility has been designed to be self-sustaining and have no financial impact on the taxpayers. All debt incurred to construct the four platform tennis courts and all annual operating expenses are financed or recovered through user charges. The user charges include the annual pass holder fees, league fees, lessons, clinics, programs, and merchandise sales. The operating expenses include a portion of staff time of staff that directly manage and maintain the facility, program contractor expenses, maintenance contractor expenses, utility costs, and facility repair & replacement costs.
The cost to construct the four platform tennis courts was $671,795 and repayment of this debt is amortized over a 20-year period. An annual payment of $33,600 through 2032, then reduced to $19,600 through 2037 is made to debt service from the revenues generated from the facility. The facility has met its debt repayment obligations every year.
In 2021, the overall finances of the platform tennis program/courts operated in a net surplus. As a result:
- An additional $20,000 was made to the debt payment out of the 2021-2022 budget.
- An additional $20,000 was made to the debt payment out of the 2022-2023 budget.
Field Status
