Pickleball Project News

Roundtable formed to look at underused public spaces to accommodate future growth  

Recreation and Parks and leadership from the tennis and pickleball communities have announced the formation of the San Francisco Tennis and Pickleball Planning Roundtable (SF-TAPP) which will be led by three community leaders from both sports.  The group will be chaired and led by Martha Ehrenfeld, a competitive tennis and pickleball player and current board member of the San Francisco Parks Alliance. Ehrenfeld will be joined by co-chairs Hans Carter and Peg Stevenson. Carter is an avid and experienced pickleball proponent who has played pickleball at both competitive and pick-up levels. Stevenson is a co-chair of Tennis Coalition of San Francisco with expertise in public policy and city performance planning. Leadership from Rec and Park Planning and Property Management will support the process. 

The group will gather user survey data and hold one or more public meetings to hear feedback. SF-TAPP hopes to identify additional under-utilized spaces in and outside of the city’s park system to add to the inventory of dedicated pickleball spaces that reduce user conflict with the tennis community and nearby neighbors. When finished, SF-TAPP will submit its recommendations to the Recreation and Parks Commission for approval.   

With the addition of the new pickleball opportunities announced recently, Rec and Park will be pausing conversion of tennis courts into dedicated pickleball complexes and any further dual lining of courts until this process is completed. Over the past five years, the department has increased its number of pickleball courts seven-fold, bringing the number of courts from just 12 in 2018 to nearly 90 places to play today. 

New reservation system

In April 2024, Rec and Park unveiled a new online reservation system to better ensure access to park sport courts for all users. The new system provides a daily schedule for courts, an organized method for professionals to offer lessons, and ensures fairness by preventing users from making multiple reservations under different account names.