Pickleball is the fastest growing sport in the U.S.   Miami Beach is severely unprepared for this phenomenon and both locals and tourists have inadequate access to participate.  We need to expand / re-purpose current resources  to “serve” the growing number of users as well as build dedicated state of the art facilities for tournaments and high profile events. 

Update after the March 6th, 2022 Commission Meeting:

Mayor Dan Gelber & Commissioners, the City of Miami Beach Tax Payers need viable solutions for pickleball courts!

We appreciate the support the Mayor and Commissioners have given City of Miami Beach Parks at the March 9th commission meeting in coming up with interim solutions while the Parks department proposes sites and plans for dedicated pickleball courts.

At the moment, there is pickleball in North Shore & Scott Rakow Community Centers. Both are located indoors and with limited times that only retirees can mostly access. Covid is an issue and many players do not feel comfortable in playing indoors. And, those two locations will be closed come summer for summer camps.

City of Miami Beach has 40 plus dedicated tennis courts. How many dedicated pickleball courts does it provide its residents? Zero.

City of Miami Beach Parks has the following parks lined for pickleball:
Fairway Park-2 tennis courts lined
Miami Beach Golf Club - 1 tennis court lined
Normandy Shores - 1 tennis court lined
Polo Park - 1 tennis court lined

The problem with this setup is that the tennis model posted in local resident parks does not fit the pickleball model. Asking tennis and pickleball players to share a court with a maximum time of one hour on a first come first basis does not work. A pickleball game is about 18 minutes long and requires rotation with sessions lasting anywhere from 2.5 to 3 hours. The reason this sport is so social is that anyone can come onto a park and place their paddle on a court that players are on and pickup a game.

Also, many of within our pickleball community have come across tennis instructors teaching on the courts displacing those few tennis courts that have been lined for pickleball in the city. Many players have to set up temporary nets in locations not designated for play in the parks system because of these policies that do not take into account how pickleball is played.

The policies that currently have tennis and pickleball players share courts is leading to a host of problems. We ask that policies do not pit tennis and pickleball players against one another.  Posting open play pickleball times will go a long way to addressing these issues that keep displaced pickleball players from enjoying our parks.

Pickleball is the hottest growing sport in the country and it is time that Miami Beach Parks offer a viable working solution to address this shortage. Painting pickleball lines on tennis courts does not address the problem. We must look at posting open play times and providing more than one court.

The need is great and the opportunity to give all racquet sports players a quality of life in our City.

WHAT WE ASK

• We ask that a tennis court be set aside and set up to accommodate 4 pickleball courts while a long term solution is worked on.
• We request that those courts currently lined are lined like other parks systems have which are a pickleball court on either side of the tennis net to make two courts and dedicated times for pickleball play are clearly posted.
• For the indoor community centers we ask that evening times for play be provided as summer camps will close down the regularly scheduled times.