The Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) confirmed the PPA Seattle Open will be held at the Lower Woodland Tennis Courts at 5773 West Green Lake Way N in Seattle. This USAP Golden Ticket event is being held from July 26th to July 30th on 24 outdoor courts which will be painted for pickleball. Players and spectators will be shuttled to the venue.
Just south of Green Lake and east of the Woodland Park Zoo, this wooded venue is within the historic plan designed by the Olmsted brothers, famed for their design of New York’s Central Park.
With one thousand registered players, this will be the largest tournament ever held in Washington state. Come watch the pros play, including Riley Newman, Ben Johns, and Anna Leigh Waters. You can purchase tickets here.
This is the first time the PPA will be holding a tournament in Washington state. This televised tournament will be broadcast on ESPN, CBS and the Tennis Channel. Per PPA’s Chief Operating Officer Connor Ogden, the PPA sought to host a tournament in Seattle because Washington state is the birthplace of pickleball and is the state’s official sport. Ogden stated the tournament will have a twelve-million-dollar economic impact for Seattle.
The venue change from the Amy Yee Tennis Center to the Lower Woodland Tennis Courts occurred when an inspection of the Amy Yee Tennis Center revealed significant splits and cracks in the foundation, rendering the location unsuitable without significant repairs.
The tournament could not be hosted at The Seattle Tennis Club due to a conflict with the scheduled opening of the Washington State Open on July 31st. The PPA Seattle Open tournament dates were fixed due to broadcast issues. Holding the tournament at other venues proved difficult as most other venues had already been fully booked, including obvious contenders like the University of Washington, Lumen Field Event Center and the Seattle Convention Center, which had no availability on the tournament dates.
The Seattle Metro Pickleball Association is grateful to Andy Sheffer, Director of Planning and Development for Seattle Parks and Recreation, for allowing the tournament to be held at the Lower Woodland Tennis Courts. As part of their agreement with SPR, the PPA will resurface, paint and convert the tennis courts to temporary pickleball courts. After the tournament, the PPA is contractually obligated to repaint and convert the courts back to tennis use.
Seattle Metro Pickleball Association board members held a meeting on April 12th with the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department. At that meeting, SPR Superintendent AP Diaz stated, “My dream is to have a world class pickleball facility in downtown.” Those are encouraging words to the SMPA, who has been fighting for years for support to build dedicated pickleball facilities in Seattle.
A dedicated pickleball facility in Seattle would solve the problem of finding a suitable venue for the PPA Seattle Open on an annual basis. Hosting a tournament of this size is challenging due to a lack of dedicated pickleball facilities. Although Axios recently published an article stating that Seattle has the most pickleball courts per capita in the nation, SMPA can confirm that this is not the case. Seattle has one legitimate dedicated pickleball court for 750,000 residents, while tennis has 92 dedicated courts.
SMPA is excited that the PPA Seattle Open is being held at the Lower Woodland Tennis Courts in Seattle and we look forward to a great tournament.