Seattle Parks and Recreation released a draft of its new “Outdoor Racquet Sports Strategy” in early April.
SEATTLE — A Seattle Parks and Recreation plan to end court sharing between pickleball and tennis players is drawing sharp criticism from the pickleball community, which says the proposal would eliminate dozens of courts before replacements are built.
The draft strategy, released April 6, would end the city’s practice of “dual striping”, or marking tennis courts with pickleball lines. The city would dedicate each court exclusively to one sport. The immediate result would be a loss of 36 courts currently available to pickleball players throughout the city. According to the plan, it would take several years to replace the courts.
John Rankin, secretary of the Seattle Metro Pickleball Association, said seven established pickleball communities would be shut down almost immediately.
“They’re large, they’re organized [and] they’re very upset. They don’t really know where they’re going to go,” Rankin said. “It makes these neighborhoods safer because we have active, outgoing, happy people… it’s good for the community.”
Rankin said the association supports eventually separating the two sports but wants the city to slow down and develop a real transition plan before eliminating existing capacity.
“We want to see a pause in the plan and a smoother, better planned transition,” Rankin said.
Even tennis players are pushing back.
At Alki Playground, one of the courts slated to go tennis-only under the proposal, longtime tennis player Leary Labanlic said he doesn’t want pickleball removed.
“There’s grandparents out here playing pickleball. I don’t want to take that away from them,” Labanlic said. “Don’t take one from the other, otherwise you’ll get fire on each side.”
Rankin stressed the dispute doesn’t have to be adversarial.
“It is pickleball and tennis. It’s not pickleball versus tennis as we see it,” he said.
Seattle Parks and Recreation said it will collect community feedback before finalizing the strategy. No implementation timeline has been set.
The plan proposes converting 20 dual-use sites to single-sport courts, with some going to tennis and others to pickleball. It also calls for feasibility studies at several locations for potential new courts, though those studies would not begin until 2027. New court construction costs between $200,000 and $300,000 per court.
Community members can submit feedback through the Outdoor Racquet Sports Online Engagement Hub on the Seattle Parks website.
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