Seattle plan could remove 36 pickleball courts, players push back

Seattle’s draft racquet-sports plan would reshape pickleball access fast and unevenly. Under the proposal now in front of players, the city could remove 36 courts from seven neighborhoods by stripping pickleball lines from shared tennis courts, cutting Seattle’s total pickleball count from 92 to 56 while leaving 107 tennis courts mostly intact.

That math is why the backlash has been so sharp. Players at heavily used sites such as High Point in West Seattle say those lined courts are more than painted rectangles. They are where casual players, older adults, and neighborhood groups show up without booking a private facility or paying club fees, and the city’s plan would take that space away before new replacements are built.

Seattle Parks and Recreation says the draft Outdoor Racquet Sports Strategy was built from eight years of background data, engagement feedback, and planning documents. The department says it is meant to address dual use, open play, hub locations, communication protocols, and possible court expansion, and it says the broader goal is to improve parity and manage racquet-sport assets citywide instead of leaving the city with ad hoc court markings.

But the draft also admits the Phase I approach will immediately reduce the number of available pickleball courts. Seattle opened an online survey on April 16 and set a May 11 deadline, and the Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners was scheduled to brief the plan on April 23 with public comment. For players, that timeline matters because the cuts would hit first and the replacements come later, if they arrive on time at all.

The current fight sits on top of a longer Seattle pickleball history. The city’s 2019 Pickleball Pilot Study began after requests for more access in early 2017, when Seattle had just one dedicated outdoor pickleball court at Maple Leaf Reservoir Park and two dual-striped tennis courts. That summer, the pilot expanded to 24 striped pickleball courts at six sites and helped push free indoor drop-in play at community centers.

Seattle Parks later drew cleaner lines between sports. In 2024, it designated Green Lake Park East as a dedicated pickleball hub and Lower Woodland Park as a dedicated tennis hub, and it said it would not pursue proposed pickleball courts at Lincoln Park after that site became a flashpoint.

At the same time, the city is still promising new dedicated pickleball infrastructure elsewhere. Seattle has set aside $2.1 million for a dedicated facility at Magnuson Park, and after pushback to an earlier parking-lot site, Parks said in April 2026 it was pivoting to explore eight lit courts near Building 27 north of NE NOAA Drive, with design, permitting, and bidding slated for 2026-2027 and construction in 2027. The Seattle Metro Pickleball Association says that is too slow, too small, and too late, especially as it argues pickleball participation rose 51% in 2023, 45% in 2024, and 22% in 2025. The group says Seattle has not resurfaced a pickleball court since 2023 and warns some replacement courts would not be in place until 2029, leaving current players to absorb the loss now.