[Tagging] Is tag leisure=sports_hall suitable for riding halls?

[Hufkratzer]

This is about some issues about the use of tag sports_hall for riding 
halls and for other halls used for sports. After the description of the 
issues and some statistics, I explain my current opinion and I ask for 
comments in order to be able to correct the wiki if necessary.

1. Issues:

1.1 In January this year the wiki page for leisure=sports_hall was 
changed: the riding hall example and the table entry that was indicating 
that the tag can be used for any kind of halls used for sports (sport=*) 
were removed and  it was added that a sports hall "usually has a firm, 
smooth surface such as hardwood ...". Based on that, on the talk page 
for building=riding_hall it was proposed that riding halls should better 
be tagged with leisure=pitch (or perhaps leisure=sports_centre). See 
wiki discussions 
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Talk:Tag:leisure=sports_hall#Scope_of_the_tag 
and 
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Talk:Tag:building=riding_hall#Combination_with_leisure=pitch,_leisure=sports_centre_or_leisure=sports_hall

1.2 The wiki page Riding has (since its creation in 2012) a table entry 
"Riding arena" which says that if a whole building is used for a riding 
arena, that this can be tagged with leisure=pitch + sport=equestrian + 
building=*, only if the riding arena does not occupy the whole building 
it should be mapped separately inside of the building.

1.3 The current short decsrption for tag leisure=sports_hall (in the 
ValueDescription template) is: "A building that is used as a sports hall 
or gymnasium". This is not a good explanation and does not reflect the 
use of this tag for other kinds of sports halls than gymnasiums (e.g. 
tennis or riding halls).

1.4 On the wiki page for leisure=pitch there is an old, possibly 
misleading example titled "Indoor tennis court" that suggests to use 
leisure=pitch + sport=tennis + building=* for a tennis hall.

2. Some statistics:

We currently have ~5k leisure=sports_hall, in detail:
3024 leisure=sports_hall without sport=*
1122 leisure=sports_hall + sport=multi
253 leisure=sports_hall + sport~; (some semicolon-separated list)
195 leisure=sports_hall + sport=tennis
36 leisure=sports_hall + sport=swimming
49 leisure=sports_hall + sport=equestrian
363 leisure=sports_hall + sport=* other than above (sports with more 
than 2 occurrences are: archery (3), athletics (7), badminton (12), 
baseball (3), basketball (56), billiards (3), boules (4), boxing (12), 
climbing (11),  fencing (6), fitness (11), futsal (5), gymnastics (70), 
handball (18), ice_hockey (4), judo (10), karate (3), martial_arts (5), 
paddle_tennis (3), padel (4), paintball (3), pelota (5), roller_skating 
(4), shooting (8), skateboard (3), soccer (12), squash (8), table_tennis 
(13), volleyball (12))

3. My current opinion:

3.1. I think, if leisure=sports_hall can be used for tennis halls and 
for swimming halls, then there is no reason why it could not also be 
used for riding halls and other halls used for sports. Not only that, 
but in the case of riding halls tagged with building=riding_hall it 
makes much more sense than to use leisure=pitch. I remind you that in 
2018 I was asking here 
(https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/tagging/2018-February/035064.html) 
if it is ok to tag sports halls with leisure=pitch + sport=* + 
building=* and I was told that it is preferable to use 
leisure=sports_hall instead. Why should that be different for riding halls?
Just because in American English a riding hall is called "indoor arena" 
is not a sufficient reason to use the same leisure tag (leisure=pitch) 
like for an "outdoor arena". In German we don't call a "Reithalle" an 
"Indoor-Reitplatz".
I would reserve the tagging combinaation leisure=pitch + 
sport=equestrian + building=* for cases where building=riding_hall is 
perhaps not appropriate, e.g. building=tent 
(https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:Equitent_textile_Reithalle.jpg) or 
building=roof (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjVCeE-4Ht0).
leisure=sports_centre is not suitable for riding arenas, as these are 
almost always only parts of some larger riding facilities and not 
centers themselves.
The wiki pages for leisure=sports_hall, building=riding_hall and Riding 
should be adapted accordingly.
The only theoretically sensible alternative that I can think of would be 
to introduce separate tags leisure=tennis_hall, leisure=swimming_hall, 
leisure=riding_hall, leisure=*_hall ; but I assume that this alternative 
would not find many supporters (we have 0 leisure=tennis_hall, 2 
leisure=swimming_hall, 2 leisure=riding_hall, 1 leisure=climbing_hall).

3.2. The short decsrption for tag leisure=sports_hall (in the 
ValueDescription template, currently "A building that is used as a 
sports hall or gymnasium") should be changed to "A hall that is used for 
sports, like a sports hall or gymnasium or tennis hall" to give a better 
explanation and reflect the use of this tag for other halls than 
gymnasiums that are used for sports.

3.3. The recently added explication about the "firm, smooth surface" 
should be removed; a sports hall simply has to have a suitable surface 
for the sport for which it shall be used, and what that surface is can 
be tagged with surface=*.


3.4. The "Indoor tennis court" example on the page for leisure=pitch 
should be removed because the photo shows tennis hall that should better 
be tagged with leisure=sports_hall or leisure=sports_centre. It can be 
replaced by a better example for something  that could be tagged with 
leisure=pitch + sport=* + building=* like this: 
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:09786jfMexico_Magalang_San_Antonio_Jose_Cawayan_Mexico_Pampanga_Road_Arayatfvf_08.JPG 
(covered multi-sport pitch, building=roof).