Legal Doubts Regarding Park Rules

Question

In the middle of night I suddenly remembered a time when I went to play soccer at a local public park. This park has only one soccer field that was unfortunately closed. We didn't know why it was closed but we were told not to go on the field. So, we decided to practice our shooting and passing at the exterior racquetball court located within the same park as the soccer fields. After walking and arriving at the racquetball court there was a sign at the entrance that said "Only for racquetball" yet since nobody was playing we decided to go inside and practice. We spent a few minutes practicing, nobody that passed by the court seemed to mind us being there until a group of racquetball players arrived and were hesitant for us to leave the court. Now the perimeter of the racquetball court is quite big and therefore allows for multiple fields that are aligned vertically from one another meaning that the racquetball players could have peacefully played their game without us bothering them or vice versa. So after a few minutes arguing about wether we had the right to play or not I still wonder what would've happened if we had called the cops? I know our act was immoral for breaking a park rule but I wouldn't consider it illegal. Hence, would the cops have had a right to kick us out? should we have notified someone about park managers closing the soccer fields for no reason?; is there a law that forces community parks to build more fields?

Answer 1

The controller of a premises can impose conditions on visitors

You need permission to be there or you are trespassing. That permission can be conditional.

• The soccer field was closed - you don’t have permission to be there.
• the racquetball courts have the condition that they are only for racquetball - you don’t have permission to play soccer there.

If you had called the police, they would have asked you to leave.