The exponential rise in the popularity of pickleball has created significant demand for court space. Late last summer, tensions in San Diego boiled over to the point where a local pickleball group staged an antagonistic takeover of a tennis club. Charitably speaking, I suppose the action called attention to the absence of pickleball courts in the area. It is an interesting backdrop for examining the politics and social dynamics of court construction for racquet sports.
I definitely don’t want to get involved in San Diego politics, but I do believe that there are lessons to be learned from what transpired and continues to unfold. There is a genuine opportunity for the pickleball community to look to tennis for how to work with municipalities to gain support for construction of public courts. In fact, the USTA Community Advocacy Handbook outlines how to successfully work with local governments to get tennis courts built.
I believe that one of the fundamental disconnects between pickleball and tennis culture is rooted in the perception of time. The vast majority of public tennis facilities took years to construct. As a case in point, my local news sources indicate that the city of Flower Mound Texas was approached about building a public tennis center in early 2018. I know for a fact that the lobbying started much earlier than that. It took years before gaining enough traction to be newsworthy. Last year the city completed… a feasibility study. As of this writing, the city has narrowed down the site of the tennis center to two proposed locations.
Pickleball has no patience for that kind of delay. The sport wants more courts, and it wants them NOW! When casting about for a quicker solution, conversion of tennis courts is an easy and obvious target. It is undeniably faster and significantly less expensive to modify a tennis court for pickleball than to build a new court from scratch. Tennis courts are being sacrificed to pickleball at an alarming rate from a tennis perspective.
Lost in this debate is the fact that tennis also has a court shortage in many areas. The conversion of tennis courts to pickleball at parks, tennis centers, and private clubs is starting to squeeze out league and tournament play. A certain number of courts are needed in order to conduct events. Many facilities are dropping below the threshold of viability for hosting.
The politics of court construction shouldn’t be a zero sum game, but it is starting to feel that way. In “Holding Court: Pickleball vs Tennis” back in September 2020, I wrote “The conversation needs to shift from tennis versus pickleball to tennis and pickleball.” I still stand by that statement.
However, it is hard to work together when one side takes an overly antagonistic attitude such as occurred in San Diego. I am pretty sure that if Pickleball SD had approached the tennis club with a proposal styled from the USTA’s tennis advocacy manual, they might have found a synergistic way to work together. Most facilities are willing to embrace ideas that bring in additional revenue.
Launching into the pickleball topic again this weekend prompted me to reflect on everything I have previously written relating to that sport. Links to those essays are below. My viewpoints have not fundamentally changed but are perhaps becoming a little more nuanced over time.
- Game on: Pickleball battles San Diego for space in the kitchen, Claire Tragreser, KPBS.
- USTA Community Advocacy Handbook, USTA Asset, viewed October 11, 2022.
- Flower Mound narrows down potential tennis center to two locations, Mark Smith, The Cross Timbers Gazette, January 24, 2022.
Previous Fiend at Court Pickleball Posts
What infuriates tennis players is the painting of pickleball court lines on tennis courts. How can pickleball players get away with this defacement of tennis courts built at a considerable expense only for tennis players? I’ll leave that to Teresa for a future column. However, the 15 Forest Park public hard courts in Springfield, Massachusetts, are divided into five tiers or sections with three courts each. At the entrance to each tier, the gate has a sign about 6 feet above the ground. This sign lists the Tennis Court Rules. The first and most important rule states: “The courts are for tennis only.” No other sports or activities are allowed. Yet pickleball players flout the rules and play on tennis courts. What is the remedy?
Three PB courts can be crafted out of one standard tennis court. This has been done beautifully at AJ Veterans Park in Hartsdale, NY. They left the tennis net, then added one PR court on each side, using portable nets. On the other hand, where I play, Pinebrook Tennis Ctr., New Rochelle, NY, 2 of eight renovated courts were over-painted with PB. Then due to complaints, 2 more tennis courts were over-painted. The 2 back courts could have been transformed into 6 PB courts, providing more play for all-sigh