Sound of summer: How the pickleball revolution has communities on edge
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Jun 20, 2025
The noise generated by pickleball across the country shows no signs of slowing. What effect is it having on residents and what can be done?
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Pickleball, the fastest growing sport in America, is going through some growing pains
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While the expansion shows no signs of slowing, neither are the escalating complaints from neighbors who say the noise from the courts is driving them crazy
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It's become an annual summer squabble since the sports leap in popularity, which began during the COVID-19 pandemic
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Why? Because courts continue to be built in cities and suburbs across the country, many smack in the middle of existing neighborhoods
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According to USA Pickleball's latest report released in January 2025, there are close to 70,000 pickleball courts in the U.S., with more than 18,000 added in 2024
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There are between 20 and 50 million players, and for the fourth consecutive year, it's the country's fastest growing sport
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You know the sport's been declared a cultural phenomenon when it's featured in a Super Bowl commercial
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Excuse me, would you consider playing us? For the ultras. Oh, we're kind of at a high level
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Fascinating. You guys sure you want this? Please serve All fun and games until there are police calls in a Minneapolis suburb a lawsuit in Berwyn
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Pennsylvania, court construction projects paused in Atlanta and Palm Springs, California, all because of the noise generated when paddle hits ball. Lawyers are actively soliciting
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complaints against HOAs for building courts and helping communities with mediation efforts
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You pick the place, there's likely a pickleball controversy nearby. Donna McEvishus lives across the street from a busy court in Salem, Massachusetts
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Four courts times four people. There's like 16 playing at the same time as bang, bang, bang, bang, bang
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I hear it as click, click, click, click, click. McEvishus, who sent us this video of the park
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says a sound test determined the noise to be above the city's allowable limit of 68 decibels
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but there haven't been enough complaints from other neighbors for the city to act
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except for posting signs that restrict play to daylight hours. She dealt with the issue since the city changed the courts from tennis to pickleball nearly a decade ago But in the last few summers the activity has exploded Her only relief is during bad weather In the spring and summer she can open her windows But my house was built in 1880
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So when there's a lot going on over there, I feel like it's shaking my house, you know
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because of all the noise. Dale VanScoik, a pickleball enthusiast and coach, owns a consulting
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company called Pickleball Sound Mitigation. He says it's a common issue. Pickleball is known as
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an impulse sound. We're genetically tuned to pay attention when we hear it. It's a quick onset. It
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happens immediately. It's a pop. There's a high intensity and it's of a certain frequency that's
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essentially the same. We're very close to the frequency of human speech, like the backup beeper
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on a refuse truck or alarms on forklifts or they're designed for that frequency because
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they want to get your attention because it's a safety issue. Van Skoik's company has had success helping developers and municipalities dampen court
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noise by using sound barriers around the court or different balls and paddles
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But those solutions can be expensive and they can change the dynamics of the game
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Sometimes there are no solutions. Homes are just too close to the action But underneath some of this is respect And it you know I told you this was annoying me and you not listening to me
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You're not respecting even my opinion or my feelings about this. That's when the anger and the lawsuits enter the fray. A recent incident after dark has
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McEvish's at her wits end. So I turned off my lights and I kind of looked out the window because
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I saw things lit up in the park. And all of a sudden I heard click, click, click, bang, bang, bang, bang
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And I see two young people playing pickleball. And I saw the ball that was lit up
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And I thought to myself, oh, God. It's that kind of incident, Van Squaik says, that gives the game he loves a bad name
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Coexisting is an ongoing battle that will keep his company and others like it busy
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The fine line between enjoyment and annoyance is one that we're straddling all the time with the sport right now
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Pickleball is a billion-dollar industry, and it seems court space is the only challenge to continued growth
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Next week, we'll detail some of the solutions being developed at the corporate level to try and keep everyone happy as more neighborhoods become affected
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For Straight Arrow News, I'm Chris Francis
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