Pickleball continues to grow throughout the nation, and that includes the Aloha State! The City of Honolulu recently announced that it plans on adding over 70 new designated pickleball courts throughout O’ahu.
Last week, the City and County of Honolulu’s Department of Parks and Recreation held a press conference to announce the city’s plan to increase the number of pickleball courts. After noticing an increase in the sport’s population on the island, and also identifying several underused tennis courts, the city will now move to convert and create new pickleball court space.
As pickleball’s popularity continues its meteoric rise, finding open court space has become a serious issue in many major US cities. Honolulu is beginning to realize that they’re also in desperate need of new pickleball courts.
When we put together “Pickleball in Hawaii: Courts, Tournaments, Clubs & More”, it quickly became apparent that even though there are about 170 courts where you can play pickleball in O’ahu, just 17 of them are dedicated for pickleball and only 10 of which have permanent nets in place.
The remaining 150 or so courts are either public park courts or permanent tennis facilities that can only be temporarily converted for pickleball. There’s already well-established contention between the tennis and pickleball communities, and the fight for court space is right at the heart of that debate.
With Hawaii’s many pickleball tournaments and dedicated clubs like the Oahu Pickleball Association (OPA), there’s clearly a large pickleball fan base that needs more places to gather and play the game that they love. Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation Director Laura Thielen stated that, in what will be known as the “grand compromise” between tennis and pickleball players, they will convert underutilized courts into brand new dedicated pickleball courts.
“The grand compromise is so that we can try to maximize the use of our outdoor courts and reduce the conflicts between the different users. We’ve identified under-utilized courts across the island so that we can create more dedicated pickleball courts. We’re going to go from 17 dedicated courts to 77 dedicated pickleball courts.”
Laura Thielen, Director of the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation
The goal is ultimately to create enough court space to ensure that all tennis and pickleball players have a place to play. As the city explained, they’ve identified several courts that aren’t being used and the new plan will revitalize them for everyone’s benefit.
Ideally, this “grand compromise” will prevent nice tennis facilities from being overcrowded with pickleball players, while also breathing life into new places to play for the pickleball community. Rather than looking at the conversion efforts as a loss of court space for tennis players, they should consider that they are making a small sacrifice in order for the pickleball community to have a place of their own.
In short, 20 existing courts at 17 parks throughout O’ahu will be converted into 67 new pickleball courts, complete with lines and nets. Visit the City and County of Honolulu’s website for a more detailed breakdown of the pickleball facility conversion plans.
