Pickleball players across Seattle are pushing back against a city proposal that would remove more than 30 public pickleball courts from several neighbourhoods, arguing the cuts would displace thriving communities built around the sport before adequate replacement facilities are in place.
Seattle Parks and Recreation added pickleball court lines to numerous tennis courts during the pandemic as the sport’s popularity surged, creating shared-use dual courts across the city. Now, under a draft Racquet Sports Strategy, the city is proposing to remove those lines and more clearly separate tennis and pickleball facilities. Under the proposal, the city’s 92 pickleball courts would be reduced to 56, with seven neighbourhoods losing a total of 36 public courts as soon as June. Tennis would retain 107 courts across the park system.
Players at the High Point courts in West Seattle, one of the areas affected by the proposal, said the sport has become far more than recreation for those who use the facilities regularly. “You want to be healthy, you want to be active, and you want to be social. We know that is really key to being a healthy person and also creating a healthy community. That’s what pickleball is to me,” said Amy Nelson, who plays at High Point. Joe Turcote, another regular at the courts, said the heavy daily usage makes the rationale for cuts difficult to understand. “We don’t really know why. When you just look around here and you see the number of people that use this on a daily basis,” Turcote said.
Tony Pisa of the Seattle Metro Pickleball Association said the debate should not be framed as a conflict between sports. “It’s not a pickleball versus tennis, it’s a pickleball and tennis,” Pisa said. “We’re advocating for the courts here to save these courts, to keep this community thriving.” The association has launched a petition calling on the city to pause the plan and keep dual courts in place until new dedicated pickleball facilities are built and ready to use. The petition had gathered 2,000 signatures as of this week.
Seattle Parks and Recreation said the strategy was developed in response to the growing popularity of both sports and the need to balance competing demands across the park system. The city has indicated it plans to build new pickleball courts as part of the transition, but players argue that the timeline for new construction makes immediate removal irresponsible. “You’re going to displace all these communities in the meantime,” Pisa said. “Keep it as it is. Let us play the way it is until they actually have a feasible plan in place to transition communities.”
