Not enough difference IMO to worry about unless you’re seriously competitive in either - I’ve played pickleball on a tennis court painted for both - I assume the net was set for tennis.
The shared courts I have seen use the fixed tennis net as a divider for two pairs of pickleball courts. The kitchen is often left the same color green as the rest of the tennis court and the rest of the pickleball area is painted dark blue. The pickleball nets (which are lower than a tennis net) are on rollers and can be pushed against the fence for tennis.
Basketball courts can also be repurposed for part time pickleball if striped appropriately. 3 nets are stored in lockers maintained by the local pickleball club.
Okay cool, you’re suggesting that not only is my teenage daughter being dishonest about the noise complaint, but that she’s somehow an elitist whose sport will go the way of the dodo as yours pushes it out of the way.
Until I read your post, I had no real concept of why anyone might feel that pickleballers are such jerks, but consider my ignorance fought. Well done.
I’m not the one complaining about sharing courts. I may be a jerk, but I’m not an intolerant jerk.
I think the noise complaints are mainly about the sounds that hitting the ball makes. I don’t think it’s about the players talking too loudly. I think it’s because the sound of the ball on the paddle. It’s a loud, rapid fire, repetitive pok-pok-pok sound. Kind of like ping-pong, but louder. It’s not like tennis or basketball. I can generally tune the sounds of those out. It might be because tennis balls and basketballs are much softer than whiffle balls, so the sounds of those are more soft and rounded. Pickleball has very sharp sounds with the hard plastic balls and paddles, which makes for more annoying sounds.
yeah, loud people are somehow never the ones complaining about sharing spaces. Funny how that works.
It’s definitely a more noticeable sound than tennis or basketball, but not as jarring as kids screaming in a playground or a coach yelling at Little Leaguers. My watch alerts me to sounds over 90 db, and it has never done so during pickleball despite being mere inches from where the ball strikes my paddle. There’s a good reason to keep pickleball courts a good distance from homes, but the noise isn’t too loud for a general purpose park. There are quieter paddles and balls and they are slowly making inroads. Some municipalities have considered making them mandatory at courts where noise complaints are lodged by neighbors.
We don’t have pickleball courts in my city, yet. Being the council member representative to the parks & recreation commission, I was the one to hear a lot about it from community members who wanted it. It came down to the parks director just not wanting to deal with it. He came to us from a community that did have pickleball courts and he said the players were a huge headache for him to deal with. They definitely do have a reputation. I supported the director’s decision and didn’t push the issue. I didn’t want a situation where the guy in charge of it was constantly at odds with it.
Local people did have plenty of opportunity to play in most of the surrounding communities, within easy distance. So we didn’t worry about it too much.
But, we got a new parks director and the first thing he asked was why we don’t have pickleball. I told him it was just that the previous director didn’t want it, nothing else was really stopping us. So the new guy came up with plans and checked with the finance director, and even got a grant so we’ll have pickleball soon. I think it’s a great move.
I do worry about the noise from the game itself. I’ve heard it’s quite a racket (ha!) The best place for courts for us is near the park pavilions - because they already have bathrooms and parking - but I hope it’s not a problem when people are using the pavilions and their events have pickleball noise in the background.
FWIW it looks like it can be a fairly rigorous sport, to me. I’m impressed so many older folks have taken it up as a hobby.