Introducing Pickleball in Your Community
The following should serve as a guideline for working with city parks and recreation in introducing pickleball within your community.
The process can be slow and tedious as there are many obstacles you will naturally be faced with; below are some, all of which have a solution.
Park officials/government entities not familiar with pickleball
Public tennis courts that do not allow play other than tennis
The public is not familiar with pickleball
Concerns about noise issues
Cost concerns (developing pickleball courts or lines)
Confusion of added lines on existing courts
You will need to understand what, if any, concerns there currently are.
First, you need to find advocates to help you. Advocates can be fellow players, city officials, recreation staff, parks planners, and anyone that you can count on to push forward.
Second, if you can, find those who might strongly oppose pickleball for whatever reason. Find out what their concerns are. It may be simply that they are not educated in the game (they don’t know how to play or what pickleball is). Mostly, they will not accept change, which is common as we all love our comfort zone.
What can you do with folks that oppose pickleball? Find out why, engage in conversation or invite them to play.
The process of conversion…the above is relatively easy, although it requires working with people; it should focus on listening to the concerns and understanding their point of view.
You should not attempt to address their concerns or become defensive, rather use your ears. You will hear, most likely, ‘pickleball is loud and distracting, people can’t cope with the constant noise’, I would say in response that I understand this is a concern as pickleball can be very enthusiastic and move on.
Park officials/government entities not familiar with pickleball
You will find and look for the following types of people: the influencers, the decision-makers, and the ones that are ‘blocks in the road.’
If you want to find and advocate with the influencers, those are the ones that can help you move forward. They will help introduce you to other influencers and advocates. They will also be essential in getting you to the decision-makers.
With your advocates, and this certainly doesn’t come overnight, you will want to understand their concerns in pickleball, even letting them know there are concerns and talk about them.
You will want to find and identify potential places to play or places you may convert to dual sport (indoors or outdoors). Unlike tennis courts, you cannot and should not advocate for pickleball courts located within 100M of nearby homes. You must ensure adequate parking availability, road access, lighting (for night play), and the physical condition of the courts.
Ultimately, you will want to create a plan of action with your influencers to bring to the decision-makers.
Lining Public Tennis Courts
As a matter of expediency, municipalities have resorted to lining tennis courts for pickleball. This works well as a temporary short-term solution if the tennis courts are under-utilized and located more than 100M away from nearby homes. However, if they suggest using the existing tennis nets, it is important to realize that tennis nets are higher than regulation pickleball nets, and they are not ideal for pickleball.
It is possible to line tennis courts and not use the tennis net, but this will require portable nets and this is problematic
Concerns over Noise
Another challenge many municipalities face is finding suitable parkland to host outdoor pickleball courts. Why? Noise complaints. This is the big one. DO NOT DENY IT EXISTS.
We strongly recommend that outdoor pickleball courts be located a minimum of 100M away from nearby homes, ideally 150-200M away. For this reason, we recommend large multicourt facilities strategically located away from nearby homes with ample parking (4 sports per court or 5-6 parking spots for tournament courts), including washroom facilities and/or porta potties.
Indoor Courts