What a Chicago Racket = Pay to play at Maggie Daley Tennis Courts - Maggie Daley Park tennis courts to open next month

Of Course, Elected Officials and their families will play for free as the fools of Chicago run to pay $15.00 an hour to play there

Six new tennis courts will open April 1 at Maggie Daley Park, but it'll cost tennis players to use them, officials said.

The courts are at the northeast corner of the park at Randolph Street and Lake Shore Drive, an area referred to as Peanut Park, just east of the Cancer Survivors Garden. The corner was open, unused space before the Daley Bicentennial Plaza was transformed into Maggie Daley Park complete with an ice skating ribbon, climbing wall and spiral slide.

Some neighborhood residents opposed the tennis courts and asked that the area to be left as open space, pointing to the tennis courts located further south in Grant Park and the limited time the tennis courts would get used for a few months in a year. Tennis players pushed for the half dozen courts to replace the 12 courts removed from the Daley Bicentennial Plaza site for the reconstruction of the park.

It will cost $15 an hour to play at the courts from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, according to the Maggie Daley Park website. The price will go up to $20 an hour to play from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday and 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, the website said.

Last July, the Chicago Park District board approved paying more than $2.4 million to Walsh Construction Co. to build and install six tennis courts, fencing and lighting. At the time, the tennis courts were expected to be completed and operational by last fall.