A Government by the Tennis Lobby for the Tennis Lobby
The Plan: Rob Peter Pickleball to Pay Tom Tennis
After two years of working behind closed doors, Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) has recently finally released its "Outdoor Racquet Sports Strategy" which includes plans to remove many existing pickleball courts and convert them back to tennis courts. This is a significant setback for the Seattle pickleball community. It raises grave concerns about the basic fairness in how Seattle Parks is allocating its resources.
This new plan delivers so many blows to Seattle pickleball players we can’t possibly list them all here:
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They are planning to remove at least 36 existing pickleball courts. That is more than a third of all pickleball courts.
Here are the pickleball courts known to be on the chopping block:
- Alki: 4
- Brighton: 4
- Gilman: 4
- Rainier Beach: 8
- Soundview: 4
- Walt Hundley 4
- West Magnolia: 8
- They will remove 2 of the 5 pickleball locations that have lights (Alki, Rainier Beach).
- They will remove 2 of the 3 pickleball locations in West Seattle.
- They will remove the only pickleball location with lights in all of West Seattle.
- North of the ship canal they will turn over Soundview and Gilman to tennis. Green Lake and Bitter Lake will become open play. People who want to reserve courts will only have the Maple Leaf courts. This will deeply affect the current Bitter Lake community.
- By removing the Rainier Beach courts, they will create a pickleball desert in South Seattle.
- There will be no lighted courts south of Mount Baker.
- They originally added pickleball lines at Alki to provide one lighted pickleball location in West Seattle. Now they are removing it. It’s insane.
- They originally added pickleball lines at Rainier Beach (8 courts), Dearborn (4) and Brighton (4) because of a petition asking for courts in South Seattle (South of Mount Bake, East of I5), which didn’t have any. Now they want to take half of them away
- In 2022, SPR came up with a 3-pronged strategy: 1. Add pickleball court lines to SOME tennis courts, 2. Convert SOME low-usage tennis courts to dedicated pickleball courts, 3. Create brand new dedicated pickleball facilities. NONE of that was executed, and now they want to go backwards.
- ...
The worst part is that this new plan perpetuates the favoritism dispensed to one class of citizens at the expense of another. It is not based on any kind of needs analysis, or actual and projected usage data. If SPR bothered to look for data, they would find that there are at least as many pickleball players as tennis players in Seattle. With that information, they might have come up with a totally different strategy. Maybe they did look at the data and found it unsuitable for their purpose. Instead, they founded their strategy on anecdotes from some players, complaints received by the Parks Department, and lobbying from the United States Tennis Association. Instead of government by the people for the people, it is government by the tennis lobby for the tennis lobby.
The Sham: Public Engagement
Settle Parks is holding a series of public meetings to discuss the new plan. But they most likely have already made up their minds, and they are just going through the motions of public engagement to check a box and create the illusion of transparency and accountability.
We still need to attend those meetings. Otherwise, Seattle Parks will argue that low attendance means that there is no opposition to their plans. So, please attend and share your thoughts. If you can’t attend, you can submit comments online or by mail. The more voices they hear, the better.
Here are the public meetings that you can attend. Note that the first one is not really set up for you to interact with the Parks personel. And the last two only allocate 40 minutes for public comments.
Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners - 100 Dexter Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109
Thursday, April 23, 2026 6:00 pm
You can attend this meeting in person or by video. This meeting will be about two hours long, and cover multiple topics, one of which will be Seattle Parks presenting a rosy version of its new Outdoor Racquet Sports Strategy to the commissioners for their approval.
The commissioners themselves are supposed to represent you, but you don't have access to them, and they don't know anything about you. If you want to contact them, you can try to reach them at PKS_BPRC@seattle.gov
This meeting will start with a period where the public can voice their comments. Each person can talk for up to two minutes.
Bitter Lake Community Center -
13035 Linden Ave N, Seattle, WA 98133
Monday, May 04, 2026 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm
This will be an in-person meeting, with representatives of Seattle Parks. Expect them to listen to you. Don't expect that you will be able to change their minds.
The agenda will be as follows:
- 6:00 pm - Doors Open
- 6:35 pm - Presentation
- 7:05 pm - Public Comment
- 8:15 pm - Meeting End
Garfield Community Center -
2323 E Cherry St, Seattle, WA 98122
Thursday, May 07, 2026 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
This will be an in-person meeting, with representatives of Seattle Parks. Expect them to listen to you. Don't expect that you will be able to change their minds.
The agenda will be as follows:
- 7:00 pm - Doors Open
- 7:35 pm - Presentation
- 8:05 pm - Public Comment
- 8:45 pm - Meeting End
Van Asselt Community Center -
2820 S Myrtle St, Seattle, WA 98108
Saturday, May 09, 2026 10:30 am to 12:30 pm
This will be an in-person meeting, with representatives of Seattle Parks. Expect them to listen to you. Don't expect that you will be able to change their minds.
The agenda will be as follows:
- 10:30 am - Doors Open
- 11:05 am - Presentation
- 11:35 am - Public Comment
- 12:15 pm - Meeting End
The solution will not come from Seattle Parks
It is obvious that Seattle Parks was not, is not and will not be willing to treat all its citizens equally.
Seattle pickleball players have tolerated unfairness, injustice, and abuse at the end of the Seattle Parks department for too long, hoping that it would eventually come to its senses.
It is high time to get the mayor and the city council involved. Stay tuned.
Friday, Sept 25, is Pickleball Night at the Mariners
The Seattle Metro Pickleball Association is celebrating women's history month with a 16-year-old who's already making history, PPA professional pickleball athlete Ella Cosma.
A Seattle metro-based pro pickleball athlete, Ella signed with the Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) Tour in September 2025 at the age of 16.
Health challenges and multiple surgeries left her unable to play sports as a child. Ella fully recovered, discovered pickleball, and advanced from a 3.0 player to the pro level in under three years. She is the first female to win 3 Junior triple crowns. She played against Anna Leigh Waters, the number one female pickleball player in the world, at the PPA Mesa Cup in February 2026.
How does one go from the inability to play sports as a child to becoming an accomplished pickleball athlete at 16? What is the secret ingredient? It's always been support, transformative, inspiring support, encouraging and nourishing that kernel of potential in each of us.
We are stronger together, and Ella's journey can inspire other potential athletes. Join SMPA in celebrating Ella's achievements, raising awareness for each woman's potential (no matter where she is in her journey) during women's history month.
Writing Credit: Kate Van Gent, SMPA
How USTA is Squashing Pickleball
and How Seattle Parks Fell Prey to its Tactics
The Podcast
Here is something to discuss when you are waiting for your next pickleball game on Seattle's public courts.
Get your eyes on the evidence by reading all the juicy details.
The United States Tennis Association (USTA) Helped Select Which Seattle Courts Would Be Resurfaced in 2024 and Beyond
Do you ever wonder why so many of the tennis courts with pickleball lines are in such bad shape and why so few of them get resurfaced every year?
Seattle Parks has a single budget item that covers the maintenance and resurfacing of public outdoor tennis and pickleball courts.
How would you fairly allocate this budget between the two sports?
In September 2023, Seattle Parks let the United States Tennis Association guide the selection of courts to be resurfaced in future years.
In 2024, all the tennis courts that were resurfaced were tennis-only courts. No tennis courts with pickleball lines were resurfaced.
UPDATE:
In 2025, we expect the two dual-lined Mount Baker tennis courts to be resurfaced.
All other resurfaced courts should once again be tennis-only.
In 2025 again, all the tennis courts that were resurfaced were tennis-only courts. No tennis courts with pickleball lines were resurfaced.
What are you going to do about it?
Tennis vs. pickleball winter court usage
A one-minute video is worth a thousand words.
Did you notice there are people waiting to play on the side of the pickleball courts?
Playtime Scheduler Update
NEW: A PlayTime Scheduler app is now available for your phone.
Time for pickleball only tells you where and when regular drop‑in pickleball games are happening. To organize or join one-off games, join Playtime Scheduler's "Seattle Metro" region. It is free.
You will be in good company since more than
4,000
6,000
9,000
players have already joined this region.
Recent Schedule Changes
- The International School in Bellevue has resumed hosting drop-in pickleball. Please respect the posted hours on their calendar and do not show up outside of those hours.
- The calendar has been updated to reflect Mercer Island's community centers spring schedule. (Thank you, Conrad!)
- The calendar has been updated to reflect Seattle's community centers spring schedule.
- The Rainier Vista Boys and Girls is no longer hosting adult drop-in pickleball. (Thank you, Brendan!)
- The Queen Anne Community Center stopped hosting Saturday pickleball. It might resume when the kids' basketball season ends. (Thank you, Jim!)
See something? Say something!
Many thanks to all the players and staff members who let us know about schedule changes.Please email schedule change information to info@timeforpickleball.com.
Disclaimer
Since most facilities state that "programs, hours, and fees are subject to change without notice", the information included here cannot be guaranteed to be accurate. Call play locations within 48 hours of play to verify daily schedule.Weather Forecast
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