“Just figure out a way to get new courts built and not stealing the tennis [courts].”
– Comment on the Seattle Pickleball Facebook group
“Stealing Tennis Courts”
Public vs Private
For Seattle pickleball players to steal public outdoor tennis courts from tennis players, tennis players must own these courts in the first place. Is that the case?
Public tennis courts are, unsurprisingly, public property. They have been built and maintained for decades with public money. They are administered by the Seattle Parks department. It seems appropriate for the Parks department to review its allocation of public resources, including sports courts, from time to time, in a clear and transparent way.
Tennis Money vs Public Money
“But these tennis courts were built with tennis money!“, some say. Is that true?
Not at all. Some Seattle public outdoor tennis courts are clearly marked as having been built by the Work Progress Administration which most likely used federal funds. Seattle Parks’ very own Amy Yee Tennis Center was built as the Seattle Tennis Center in 1977 with public money from the Forward Thrust funds on land received from the federal government. It was renamed Amy Yee Tennis Center in 2002.
Did the US Tennis Association provide some funds for some of the other Seattle public tennis courts? Maybe. If so, does it mean that the tennis courts can only ever be used for tennis until the end of eternity? Only if Seattle Parks agreed to such terms, which seems very unlikely.
An Old Battle, Lost in 2010
Is there any precedent for reallocating tennis courts to different recreational uses in Seattle?
There are several. In 2008 and maybe even earlier, dodgeball players started using one of the Cal Anderson tennis courts. In 2010, Seattle Parks proposed a process through which low-use tennis courts could be converted to a non-tennis activity venue. In October 2010, Seattle Parks approved a pilot program that allowed one court at Cal Anderson Park to be specifically designated for dodgeball and bike polo, and one court at Judkins Park for bike polo. This pilot program was a success which you can witness to this day at either location.
Note that those tennis courts were not simply lined to accommodate other sports. Instead, they were converted to be used by other sports. Those courts are no longer useable by tennis players.
Skin In the Game
Most Parks departments in the country don’t have a vested interest in either tennis or pickleball. They treat sport courts as resources that they need to allocate fairly.
They have tennis courts that are used to various degrees. A few years ago, they heard about pickleball and decided to paint pickleball lines on some of their tennis courts so they could be used for both sports. They immediately observed that the courts with pickleball lines got a lot more usage both in terms of hours of use and in terms of number of people served. Not long after that, they started converting some of their dual-use courts into pickleball courts.
In contrast, Seattle Parks has a tennis department that has skin in the game. It manages all of Seattle’s approximately 140 public outdoor tennis courts and has yet to embrace pickleball even though there was already enough interest as far back as 2016 for Seattle players to form an advocacy group. It only shares with pickleball its least used (and most often least desirable) courts. It hides the pickleball lines as well as it can. It limits the number of pickleball courts available at any location. It favors the closed play culture of tennis over the open play culture of pickleball. It often ignores the fact that a pickleball “court” without a semi-permanent pickleball net is not a real court. It makes all significant decisions regarding pickleball on outdoor tennis courts in light of how they affect tennis players. If pickleball interests are represented at all in Seattle Parks’ decisions, they are not considered on even terms with tennis interests.
“Just Figure a Way to Get New [Pickleball] Courts Built”
The mayor said recently that we need more pickleball courts. Seattle Parks has recently “selected a consultant team to assist with a detailed analysis and local engagement for dedicated pickleball sites that were identified in the 2021-2022 Outdoor Pickleball Study.” That study recommended creating two sets of eight to twelve dedicated pickleball courts: one to the north of the ship canal and another one to the south.
Will this be too little too late? The perfect time to build eight new dedicated pickleball courts would have been during the last seven years, as the number of pickleball players was growing exponentially all over the country and in Seattle. But Seattle Parks spent most of those seven years explaining why it couldn’t build dedicated pickleball courts. Even this year, a Parks Department official purportedly explained during a public engagement event that pickleball might be a fad, and therefore it might not be wise for Seattle Parks to build dedicated pickleball courts.
Today, there are approximately as many Seattle pickleball players as tennis players, and the number of pickleball players keeps growing at an alarming rate. Seattle Parks offers over ninety dedicated tennis courts, but only one[*] decent dedicated pickleball court. Pickleball players are no longer waiting for Seattle Parks to lead them. They find unused tennis courts on their own and mark them with chalk, temporary pickleball line markers, removeable tape or sometimes paint.
Five years from now, Seattle might very well have twice as many pickleball players as tennis players. Will Seattle have ninety dedicated outdoor tennis courts and only nine dedicated outdoor pickleball courts? Will Seattle Parks be able to handle this situation, or will it find itself in an even larger pickle than it is today?
[*] Seattle Parks likes to include their improperly designed “courts” at Maple Leaf Reservoir Park in their dedicated pickleball courts tally. So, you might hear them say that they have three dedicated pickleball courts instead of one. This is pure spin.