The birthplace of pickleball’s largest city is poised to gut nearly 40 percent of its courts — and the community isn’t taking it lying down.
By Josh Kerns/Facility Magazine
Talk about irony: Seattle, the closest major city to Bainbridge Island and birthplace of pickleball — is now the stage for one of the sport’s most contentious municipal showdowns in the country. And the outcome may set a precedent that reverberates well beyond the Pacific Northwest.
At the center of the fight is Seattle Parks and Recreation’s (SPR) Draft Outdoor Racquet Sports Strategy, a proposal that would eliminate 36 pickleball courts across seven locations, reducing the city’s total inventory from 92 courts to just 56. In their place: dedicated tennis-only facilities. The plan has ignited a firestorm of opposition from players, community advocates, and industry leaders — and the battle is just getting started.
The Plan and the Math
SPR began dual-striping courts for both tennis and pickleball in 2017, then quietly paused the practice in 2024. As it is, the city only has five dedicated pickleball courts for a population of nearly 800,000 people. That’s courts, not facilities. The new strategy would reverse course entirely, converting shared courts at seven locations — including popular sites at Alki Beach and High Point in West Seattle — back to tennis only.
Under the proposal, 107 tennis courts would remain while pickleball would be left with just 56, according to the Seattle Metro Pickleball Association, the non-profit community advocacy group that has worked tirelessly for years to promote the sport. That lopsided outcome has critics pointing to a fundamental equity problem, and the numbers don’t flatter SPR.
David Johnson, CEO of the IAPPF and co-founder of Pickleball Central in Seattle, laid out the case in a recent op-ed: nationally, the SFIA reports 24.3 million Americans played pickleball in 2025, nearly matching the USTA’s count of 25.7 million tennis players. SPR’s own 2022 survey confirmed the parity locally, with 29% of respondents identifying as pickleball-only players and 25% as tennis-only. “The pickleball community is at least as large as the tennis community in Seattle,” Johnson wrote. “Yet after this strategy takes effect, SPR would control 107 tennis courts versus just 56 pickleball courts — nearly double the allocation for an equally-sized player base. That is not balance.”
The geometry of the situation makes the plan even harder to defend. A standard tennis court’s footprint can accommodate four regulation pickleball courts. The 36 courts slated for elimination could theoretically be replaced using fewer than nine tennis court footprints — without removing a single tennis court. Johnson’s point is pointed: there’s plenty of existing space. It should be a non starter.
The Community Responds
Dozens of people packed Seattle Parks and Recreation’s boardroom on April 23 with a shared message: “Let us play.” The Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners received its first presentation on the strategy that evening and took no action, but the public comment period made the stakes plain.
“Removing these courts is not just about longer wait times and longer drives,” West Seattle pickleball player Amy Greger told KOMO TV. “You can’t just send people to different neighborhoods and say, ‘Here are the courts.'”
Joe Lamy echoed the sentiment: “It seems to me that we’re making a big mistake. There are many times when the tennis courts have nobody on them, and the pickleball courts are packed.”
In West Seattle, players have moved beyond testimony and into grassroots organizing. Advocates rallied in the days ahead of the board meeting, describing the courts as “vital community resources used by hundreds of people every week to stay active and connect with neighbors.” A larger rally is being planned for mid-to-late May, with organizers hoping to bring out the entire West Seattle pickleball community and invite local elected leaders to witness the sport’s reach firsthand. A petition to pause the plan has already gathered more than 2,400 signatures.
Tony Pisa of the Seattle Metro Pickleball Association told KOMO TV the issue isn’t adversarial: “It’s not pickleball versus tennis. We’re advocating to save these courts, to keep this community thriving.”
To be fair, the proposal does have supporters — primarily residents who live adjacent to dual-use courts and have endured years of the sport’s distinctive sonic calling card. Shirley Purkey, who lives roughly 50 feet from multiple courts in Magnolia, told KOMO TV: “I’m woken up early in the morning, usually by 7:30, with pickleball noise — pop, pop, pop.” She and her neighbors are urging the city to consider relocating pickleball courts away from residential areas or moving the sport indoors. “I think it’s great that people are enjoying the sport,” she said. “However, there is another side to it, and it’s the quality of life that we have.”
SPR has also noted that complaints about the dual courts have been ongoing — players refusing to vacate, unauthorized court markings on dedicated tennis courts, and access conflicts. Those are real issues. But critics argue they call for better management, not the wholesale elimination of courts serving thousands of players.
What’s at Stake
For Johnson and the IAPPF, the deeper concern is what the “hub model” embedded in the strategy would do to neighborhood access. By consolidating pickleball into a handful of designated locations, the plan effectively prices out residents who don’t have the transportation or time to travel across the city to play. “Parks are neighborhood infrastructure,” Johnson wrote. “A senior in South Seattle should not have to drive across the city to play pickleball any more than a child in Ballard should have to travel to a hub to find a swing set.”
The IAPPF is not calling for tennis courts to be reduced — only for SPR to apply equal standards to both sports. Their ask: pause the removals, commission an independent utilization study, resurface dual-striped courts equitably, and convert underutilized tennis footprints into multi-court pickleball hubs where demand is highest.
SPR has scheduled three additional public feedback meetings. No vote has been announced.
For more information or to sign the petition, visit seattlemetropickleball.com.