PORTLAND, Ore. — Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in the country. And to keep up with the demand, Portland Pickleball Club, a private community group, renovated the underused upper tennis courts at Sellwood Park in Southeast Portland into pickleball courts.
“We took it on ourselves, raised the money and supplied the manpower,” said Henrik Bothe, a member of Portland Pickleball Club. “I myself spent three or four weeks, 40 hours a week, working on this place.”
Now Portland Parks and Recs says they’re changing them back to tennis courts after neighbors complained about the noise.
“It was kind of a little bit of a surprise to us,” said Bothe. “They didn’t talk to us about, ‘Hey, we’re shutting you down.’”
Portland Parks and Recs says they issued a non-park use permit to the club to “make repairs to the existing Sellwood Park courts.”
The club is frustrated all their hard work, time and money they raised will go to waste. Parks and Rec confirmed Friday that they will not reimburse the $20,000 that the club estimates it spent on the renovations.
Nearby neighbors tell KGW the pickleball noise has impacted their daily lives. Some debated selling their home and moving out of the area.
“You really don't know how bad it is until it's gone,” said Nancy Linnon, who lives nearby. “We don’t want people to not be able to do the sport they love. Right? It’s too well documented that the noise of that many courts is not good for people.”
To make both neighbors and players happy — the city will convert the lower Sellwood Park courts for pickleball use. But the decision isn’t sitting right with everyone.
“Instead of 32 people being able to play up there, only 12 can play down here and have a decent court. So, that’s kind of a problem,” said Eric Stephens, a member of the pickleball club.
“You know, I understand the neighbors have some concerns about the noise, that’s always a concern with pickleball. But if you move next to a park and you say ‘there is noise’ it’s like when people move next to an elementary school and say ‘those kids make so much noise.’ It’s like yeah, you live next to an elementary school.”
Other Portland Pickleball Club members are hopeful the city will put in the same effort to these lower lots as they did to the upper ones.
“At first they just painted some lines on the very crappy court that are below us here and wanted us to move down and move away from all the hard work and all the money we put in and give it up,” said Bothe. “But now I think they’re coming around and they realize that they have to make it at least as good or better down there.”
City workers have started preparing for the updates to the lower courts. Portland Parks and Recs couldn’t talk on camera but did sent KGW a statement in part-quote:
“PP&R will resurface and restripe one of the lower courts for pickleball and tennis play, work may be complete in approximately two to three weeks. PP&R is refunding the permit fees which PDX Pickleball paid, with thanks for their efforts.”