Bocce Ball Club Pays $1 for Wicker Park Plot to House Courts

What was once a cluttered and vacant lot behind some driveways in Wicker Park is now home to the first bocce ball courts in the neighborhood, thanks to a June grassroots push to create the space.

Spearheading the project are a few members of the Chicago food industry, including Alex Gara, beverage director at Mindy's Hot Chocolate, and Ben Tudor and Alicia Harvey at Quartino Ristorante.

While the courts have been open for about ten days now, Gara recalls the difficulty of the project and the time it took for the Wicker Park Bocce Club to get to that point.

"We all have full-time jobs that we worked in the evenings, so we'd come out in the mornings once or twice a week for a couple months to clear out the lot and construct the actual courts," Gara said.

The city owns the lot, but it has been vacant for more than a couple decades, according to Harvey. So Chicago officials worked out an agreement to let the Bocce Club purchase the space for $1 for two years, and if a buyer approaches the city with an offer for the lot, the city can sell it, with a 30-day notice to the bocce club.

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But having since gotten this first court open, the bocce club members' desire to popularize the sport and create more spaces like the one in Wicker Park has been met with support.

Just last week, the mayor's office released a statement on the project, quoting Mayor Rahm Emanuel who said, "With the use of this vacant lot in Wicker Park, residents and visitors will be able to enjoy this space and participate in a fun activity that promotes an active lifestyle at no cost to the city of Chicago."

Gara, Harvey and Tudor want to keep building bocce courts throughout the city and with support from Emanuel, Gara feels confident they can do so.

"We're entertaining the idea of having another one built within the year, and we'll need the city's approval again, but I feel like the press release from the mayor's office gives us pull now," he said. "So if we go into a local alderman's office, we can say that the mayor liked the idea."

While raising money for building materials for the original court, a banking firm backed the project with a generous donation.

"It was just a nice guy who likes what we're doing and is giving us the freedom [financially] to expand," Tudor said.

The group is looking into building courts in Logan Square, West Loop, Fulton Market and Pilsen. And for next year, a flagship court with three bigger courts and a grassy area is in the works.

"There is a huge tournament on the West Coast in California and on the East Coast in Delaware, so we want to launch something on a smaller scale hopefully next year," Gara said.

If you don't know what bocce ball is, don't worry, you're not the only one. Bocce ball is an Italian game played with 9 balls, on what is essentially a long sandbox, filled with sand and finely ground oyster shells, which give the court a slickness, according to Tudor, and allows the ball to go farther.

Tudor grew up playing bocce at family gatherings.

"We always had a set lying around the house," he said.

You can rent a set of bocce balls at the nearby eatery, Small Bar, for free and play at the court as long as you follow the rules, like, "Clean up after yourself; bottles, cans, butts, bags..."

But what Gara hopes to communicate is, "It's not a club that you become a yearly member of, you can just come and play a couple times a week. It's a community court."

It seems word of mouth is spreading quickly. Two men walked up to the court on Wednesday while the trio was there, squinted at the "bocce" sign and asked about the game. Gara immediately explained, inviting them back to play.

Harvey says that during the whole process of creating the courts, that kind of interaction was commonplace. 

"It's been really cool to see and meet all of our neighbors," she said. "Everyone has been so welcoming and helpful."

While the club has not officially announced their entrance into the neighborhood, a "Welcome to the Neighborhood" event is on the calendar for Monday afternoon, with casual competition and Italian bocce ball-themed drinks afterward at Small Bar.