omelee shows two things: the places you can play and the games people organise at them. Games you post here in the app, in a few taps (the user guide walks through that). Places work differently, and that’s what this page is about.
omelee keeps no list of facilities of its own: every place is read from OpenStreetMap, the free, community-built map of the world. So to add or fix one you edit OpenStreetMap directly, and it appears here at the next sync. Each place keeps a stable identity across syncs, so the follows and events attached to it stay put: an edit updates the existing place instead of replacing it. Your work helps every app built on the same shared data, not only us. Since you’re editing OpenStreetMap directly, skim their good practice before you begin.
We sync from OpenStreetMap weekly, so your place appears on omelee at the next sync, within a few days and up to about a week.
Any OpenStreetMap editor works. The phone apps are easiest when you’re standing at the place and can check what’s actually there.
On the web — iD is the official editor, built into openstreetmap.org. Find the spot, click Edit, and it opens in your browser.
On Android — Every Door is the friendliest for dropping a point of interest; StreetComplete walks you through simple questions; Vespucci is the full editor when you need to draw an area.
On iOS — Every Door again, or Go Map!! for a complete editor.
A sports place is a point or an area carrying a handful of tags. Two of them do the real work: what sport is played, and what kind of place it is. You want both.
The sport goes on sport=* , and it’s the only tag omelee filters on. A spot without
it won’t appear here. But a bare sport tag floating on its own isn’t enough for OpenStreetMap
either: the wiki expects sport=* to sit on the physical thing it’s played on. Most
of the time that’s a leisure=pitch for an outdoor court or field, a
leisure=sports_centre for a club, hall or complex, or a
leisure=fitness_centre for a gym. Pools, running tracks and indoor halls each
have their own value.
If several sports share one pitch, list them with semicolons, like
sport=soccer;running .
Before you save, glance at the Key:sport page,
and especially its
possible tagging mistakes.
The classic trap is sport=football : it’s ambiguous, since “football” means a
different game depending on where you are. Reach for sport=soccer ,
sport=rugby_league or sport=american_football instead.
Sport and place are enough to appear, but a few more tags make the listing genuinely useful, so
add them whenever you know them. A sport tag is commonly coupled with a surface=*
(asphalt, clay, grass and the like), a name=* where the place has one, and
lit=* for whether it’s floodlit, which is what tells you it’s playable after dark.
Beyond those, access=* says who may use it (yes for public, private, or
customers), opening_hours=* says when, and operator=* with
fee=* say who runs it and whether it costs anything.
The syntax reads oddly, but it’s just days and times. A court open on weekday evenings and
weekend afternoons is opening_hours=Mo-Fr 16:00-22:00; Sa-Su 10:00-18:00. StreetComplete and
Every Door build the string for you, so you rarely type it by hand.
Put the place where it really is. A single point is plenty for one court; draw an area if you can trace the outline of the pitch or building. When you save, leave a short changeset comment like “added local tennis court” so other mappers can see what changed.
Only map what’s actually there. Copying from Google Maps or other commercial sources is not allowed on OpenStreetMap. Survey it yourself, or use the aerial imagery your editor offers.
First time editing? The OpenStreetMap beginners’ guide walks through your first edit step by step.