Bob Hassan Pickleball Courts
The Case for Magnuson Park
Magnuson Park’s 350 acres welcomes countless numbers of visitors each year. It plays host to families, kids on playgrounds, baseball players, football players, softball, lacrosse, tennis, basketball, rugby, frisbee and soccer players, dog owners, runners, hikers, bikers, boaters, book readers, bird watchers, kite flyers, model plane pilots, gardeners, theater, pub, and picnic goers, mountaineers and more. All manner of activities happen at Magnuson Park. I look forward to the day pickleball players are welcomed here too.
– Frank Chiappone, President Seattle Metro Pickleball Association
the pickleball experience
If you play, you know. There is no other sport like pickleball. It’s a sport that effortlessly blends fitness, friendship, and fun!
Pickleball is often played in large groups with friends and strangers rotating on and off the courts, mixing partners and opponents after each game. Between games is a great time to socialize and catch up with friends old and new. This is what gives pickleball its unique community feel.
The 25-courts at Magnuson Park will be more than just a place to play pickleball; it will be a vibrant community hub where people of all ages and backgrounds can come together to enjoy the game, stay active, and build lasting friendships.
Seattle Parks & Recreation has been studying the growth of pickleball since 2019. In that time only 3 dedicated courts have been added to the park system.
Seattle Parks and Recreation supports SMPA’s efforts to build 24 or more courts at Magnuson Park
The Extraordinary Growth of Pickleball
Since 2021, SPR’s outdoor court reservation system has seen a 311% increase in pickleball reservations.
In that same time span 42 pickleball courts have been added to tennis courts around town, but only 4 with nets*. SPR discontinued the practice of dual-striping courts in 2023 and no additional pickleball courts were added or built in 2024.
The chart below illustrates the year over year percentage growth of SPR’s pickleball reservations and the year over year percentage growth of pickleball courts in the system.
In summary, many, many more courts are needed to meet the growing demand for pickleball.
*The pickleball community has purchased semi-portable nets at many locations.
Source: Amy Yee Tennis Center, Seattle Parks & Rec
Timeline: How did we get here?
As part of its long-term strategy to meet the growing demand of pickleball, Seattle Parks has been seeking suitable sites for dedicated pickleball courts since 2019.
- 2018, SMPA completes assessment of 46 potential sites for dedicated courts, recommends 7 sites to SPR, including Magnuson Park
- 2019, SPR Pickleball study lists Magnuson Park as a potential site for dedicated courts
- March 2022, First public meeting held to gather community feedback as part of pickleball study
- August 2022, E5 parking lot at Magnuson Park named as one of 5 potential sites in presentation to Park Commissioners
- September, 2023 SPR announces plans for 6 dedicated courts at Lincoln Park
- April 2024, SPR announces plans to build courts at Magnuson Park, E5 lot at Park Commissioners meeting
- May 2024, SPR announces the Lincoln Park plan will not move forward
- September 2024, Public meeting held to gather feedback on plans for Magnuson Park
- November 2024, Public meeting held to gather feedback on plans for Magnuson Park
when is a pickleball court not a pickleball court?
According to Seattle Park’s pickleball website there are 90 outdoor pickleball courts in Seattle. That number is misleading. Let’s break it down by defining what makes up a pickleball court.
One could make the case that a pickleball court includes five core components:
– A regulation pickleball net
– Regulation, highly visible court lines
– A minimum safe playable area of 60ft x 30ft
– Fencing to keep players and passersby safe
– No encroaching obstacles (i.e., a basketball hoop at the baseline)
Using that criteria the court photographed on the top right does not meet the definition of a pickleball court. There is no net, the lines are not highly visible (you can’t even see the far baseline in the photo), the playable area is not 60 ft in length, and both the back fence and the tennis net encroach on the playing area. Yet many courts just like that are included in SPR’s count on their website and reported as courts in many online surveys and articles.
Using those same criteria, which isn’t unreasonable, Seattle can count 1 dedicated court, Laurelhurst Park (bottom photo, right), among its inventory of pickleball courts. Lakeridge Park (2) has dual lines for pickleball and badminton and includes a net that raises up and down depending on the sport you wish to play. While quaint, the two courts at Maple Leaf Park (middle photo on the right) only meet two of the 5 core components – they have regulation nets, and highly visible lines.
The other 85 “courts” SPR lists on their website are all pickleball lines on tennis courts, AKA, dual-use courts. Of the 22 Seattle parks with dual-use courts for pickleball and tennis, less than half (10) have semi-permanent nets (sturdy outdoor nets that roll on and off the court) on site. But even at those 10 parks there are only 29 semi-permanent nets available for 51 pickleball courts. Pickleball players are expected to buy and bring their own nets to make up the difference.
Since beginning their dual-use concept, SPR has purchased only 4 semi-permanent nets for pickleball. The other 25 nets were purchased with grants obtained by SMPA or by the pickleball community. Of the 140 tennis courts in SPR’s inventory, can you guess how many don’t have nets, highly visible lines, fencing, or regulation playing area? That number would be zero.
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