Pickleball, it turns out, is an unusually loud sport. If tennis was just as loud, they wouldn’t revert back to tennis after pickleball noise complaints.
When the hard surface of the pickleball racket connects with the hard surface of the ball, sound waves vibrate rapidly, registering a decibel level of ~70 dBA at 100 feet from the court. (Tennis is closer to 40 dBA.)
Although a solid hit reaches 70 dBA, the average noise level throughout a typical pickleball match (which features lighter hits and moments of silence between hits) is ~59 dBA, according to a research paper co-authored by Unetich. That number increases when multiple courts are packed next to each other, as is often the case.
Data from one of Unetich’s papers estimates that even in a wide-open space the sound of pickleball will likely be tolerable to people living at a distance of 977 feet or farther from a court. It is when surfaces such as water and buildings come into play that an impact assessment is necessary.
Here is an article from 2023 in the New York Times: Shattered Nerves, Sleepless Nights: Pickleball Noise Is Driving Everyone Nuts: The incessant pop-pop-pop of the fast-growing sport has brought on a nationwide scourge of unneighborly clashes, petitions, calls to the police and lawsuits, with no solution in sight. It is likely behind a paywall if you don't have a subscription.
Here are some more articles from all over the country:
https://johnsoncountypost.com/2024/02/06/prairie-village-windsor-park-pickleball-225397/
and this: https://thehustle.co/one-mans-quest-to-make-pickleball-quiet which has been mentioned to me on more than one occasion but the company doesn't serve our purposes since they SELL NOISE REMEDIATION equipment.
We are asking ACSA to obtain an impact assessment that is not attached to the outcome for fair and unbiased reporting of findings to the community before putting aside 100K in our 2025 budget reserves for this project.