Shortage of pickleball courts in San Diego prompts new proposals from city, players

Fans of the increasingly popular sport pickleball, which is a cross between tennis and ping-pong, are lobbying San Diego officials to provide more courts within the city and to consider creating a new pickleball center in Point Loma.

City officials acknowledge they aren’t meeting the sharply increasing demand for dedicated pickleball courts, but they say a better solution than a pickleball center is sprinkling courts across San Diego at various parks, recreation centers and school campuses.

Supporters of the proposed pickleball center say it’s needed partly because San Diego is way behind other cities in providing pickleball courts, forcing city residents to either drive up to North County or use the few makeshift courts with limited hours that San Diego now provides.

“There are like 50,000 of us searching for places to play,” Debbie Merickel of Pacific Beach said in a phone interview. “We need a centralized place where the courts are ready to go.”

As the population of San Diego continues to grow, demand for pickleball courts is expected to continue increasing. The sport, which is played with a whiffle ball in an area about one-fourth the size of a tennis court, is a popular form of exercise and socialization among middle-aged and older people.

Thousands of pickleball fans like Merickel say they support a proposed for-profit pickleball center at Point Loma’s Robb Field, and they have flooded City Hall with emails and phone calls this month in support of the proposal.

But city officials say they have no plans to pursue a pickleball center in that location for a variety of reasons.

They say a key drawback of the proposal to create a 36-court Robb Field pickleball center is the need to turn over a public tennis facility to the for-profit group proposing it. Getting approval to use parkland that way would require a multi-year bureaucratic process.

City parks director Andy Field declined requests for an interview, but the city issued a prepared statement addressing the Robb Field proposal and the challenges San Diego faces regarding pickleball.

Jodi and David Traver (back) and Kate and Keith Frankel (front) partake in a game of pickleball in September 2020.

(Ashley Mackin-Solomon/La Jolla Light)

“While there are no current plans to convert the Robb Field tennis courts, there has been an increase in requests for pickleball facilities, and the city has taken steps to expand pickleball opportunities in locations where there is both demand for the sport and availability,” the statement says.

The city also says pickleball courts will be considered as possible amenities in all future city parks, and that city officials plan to propose pickleball courts at joint-use park facilities they share with the San Diego Unified School District.

Regarding possible conversion of the Robb Field courts, San Diego says the nonprofit Peninsula Tennis Association has “properly managed” the courts for more than 50 years and will continue to operate it as a tennis facility for the foreseeable future.

The two people proposing the Robb Field pickleball facility — Mike Shinzaki and Stefan Boyland — say the 12 tennis courts it would replace are dramatically underutilized and have started to decay.

They say Robb Field has about 150 members, only about half of what it needs to cover its operating costs. They also say the few people who continue to play there could easily be accommodated at the nearby Barnes Tennis Center.

Duncan Depew, tennis director for Peninsula, did not respond to requests for comment.

However, Todd Sprague, a spokesman for Peninsula, later rebutted the claims of Shinzaki and Boyland.

He said club membership “increased more than 75 percent in the past year to 493 memberships as of January 2022.”

Sprague said the courts are “well maintained,” and over the past four years the club has invested more than $100,000 into them.

The courts are well-utilized, depending on the time of day, he said. Peak usage occurs in the morning and between 3 and 8 p.m. on most days. He added that Warren Walker Middle School and Point Loma High School teams use the tennis courts. He also noted that the club’s city permit requires that 20 percent of the courts be available for the general public.

Shinzaki and Boyland contend that Peninsula officials continue to exaggerate how much use the courts get.

Shinzaki and Boyland have offered to cover all the renovation costs at Robb Field and allow the city to help set the rates they will charge pickleball players.

“San Diego is five years behind in the development of its pickleball scene,” Shinzaki said. “With our proposal, we can be five years ahead of the curve. Best of all, it will require zero city finances or manpower.”

Mardie Schroeder, a North Park resident who plays pickleball three times a week, said San Diego officials don’t seem to understand how badly they are failing to meet the local demand.

“San Diego needs to get on the ball and have some dedicated pickleball courts,” said Schroeder, 86.

Dozens more people than can be accommodated show up for virtually all open pickleball sessions scheduled in the city, she said.

“You sometimes have to wait a pretty long time before you can even get on the court,” she said.

While there are 21 city facilities where pickleball is available at least once a week, players must use makeshift courts created by laying tape on tennis or basketball courts.

Stefan Boyland (l) and Mike Shinzaki (r) engage in a warmup pickleball match. The two sought to persuade city officials to convert tennis courts at Robb Field into pickleball courts.

(Nelvin C. Cepeda/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

And pickleball is limited to very specific times, such as 9 to 11:45 a.m. every Monday, Tuesday and Friday at the Carmel Valley Recreation Center.

Shinzaki said the courts at the proposed Robb Field center would be permanent courts with nets always in place, making the pickleball higher quality, more enjoyable for participants and available at all times of the day.

Renee Flores, a 58-year-old South Park resident, said she plays three days a week for a variety of reasons.

“It’s one of the most fun things we can do that is not hard on our joints,” she said. “It’s social, it’s good for the reflexes and we get to be outside.”

Shinzaki said San Diego’s lack of dedicated courts also hurts the city’s crucial tourism industry by frustrating visitors who expect to play pickleball while on vacation.

Pickleball, which is often called the fastest growing sport in America, has more than 3 million players nationwide, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association. Shinzaki estimates there are more than 50,000 players in the San Diego region.

A central facility for pickleball would allow the creation of structured programs like leagues and classes for new players and seasoned competitors, Shinzaki said. It would also help foster the social element of the game, including hosting events and parties, he said.

The idea that it would require privatizing a public park facility might turn out to be a tough hurdle for the proposal, but Shinzaki and Boyland note that SeaWorld is an example of a for-profit venture on city parkland in Mission Bay Park.

Pickleball players interviewed this week said they doubt the anti-privatization argument would matter much. Players already pay fees to play at city parks, they said, so it probably wouldn’t be a big deal that they would be paying fees to a for-profit group at the Robb Field pickleball center.

“Most people won’t notice any difference,” Schroeder said.

Shinzaki agreed.

“The private-versus-public debate ignores the most important aspect of this, which is how can we serve the most amount of local residents successfully,” he said. “If the local community supports a private entity ensuring this resource for them, which I believe we have proven, the city should not block it just because it is a novel idea.”

A potential drawback to the city’s plan to sprinkle courts across the city is the noise that pickleball generates, because the sports uses a whiffle ball. Supporters of the proposed Robb Field center said it makes sense to keep pickleball out of neighborhoods where the noise would annoy people.

Supporters also said tennis players would welcome more dedicated pickleball courts in the city so there would be less conflict from joint use of courts by both sports.

For details on the Robb Field proposal, visit pickleball-sd.com.