April 13, 2026
You love pickleball, but would you want to live so close to pickleball courts that you could hear the sound of paddles hitting balls all day long?
Homeowners around the country have been complaining about pickleball noise for the past few years as communities add courts, in many cases in residential neighborhoods. The complaints in some municipalities have risen to lawsuits and government action.
The city of Martinez, California last month permanently closed a $1.5 million pickleball complex. The city council voted to shutdown the courts after an independent acoustical engineer concluded that no “feasible mitigation measures” could stop the noise from affecting nearby homes. This followed similar action in Carmel-by-the-Sea, which became one of the firsts towns to ban outdoor pickleball entirely.
Residents in Lone Tree, Colorado, sued the city, claiming pickleball noise was a “public nuisance.” The city tried to dismiss the case but a judge allowed the lawsuit to proceed, ruling that the “loss of enjoyment of property” was a valid claim. The case has reached the Court of Appeals.
In Weaverville, North Carolina, just north of Asheville, four pickleball courts opened in February 2024 in a residential neighborhood. One house is about 50 feet from the courts, another is across the street. The courts are not lighted and play goes from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the spring and summer, and starts later and ends earlier in the winter.
The town has spent between $20,000 and $30,000 on sound mitigation, installing heavy-duty sound-dampening fabric on the court fencing to absorb noise. Trees and shrubs were planted to act as a natural sound screen. Those will take years to reach full effectiveness.
Some nearby residents have been vocal in their opposition to the courts’ location, but they’ve been outnumbered by pickleball players and other residents who think pickleball promotes exercise and is a welcome addition to the town.
“The opposition is really just houses with older, long-term residents,” Weaverville Mayor Dee Lawrence told me. “They are very vocal, but their numbers are small.” Lawrence does not play pickleball, but he’s aware that those who do outnumber the noise critics.
Asked why the courts were built so close to houses, Lawrence said, “It was a site the town already owned, which was once the location of the town swimming pool. Talk about noise.”
Months before the courts were built, Weaverville’s town council held a public hearing and no one spoke up in opposition. They only started complaining after play started.
Some communities nationwide have told pickleball players they must use quiet paddles or they cannot play. At one HOA in Sacramento, California, that order came down on a pickleball club’s 110 members. According to the community’s manager, only four of the club’s players refused to buy a quiet paddle, even though they were offered at a significant discount.
An interesting piece about pickleball’s noise issue was written this week in the online “Global Pickleball Report” by Adam Forziati. He wrote that noise isn’t the problem, it’s location.
“For years now, pickleball’s noise debate has been framed as though the sport itself is the problem,” Forziati said. “I’ve never really bought that. The sound is real, but the bigger failure has almost always been where courts were placed, how quickly they were added, and how often planning came second to demand. That distinction matters because one party leads toward blaming the game for being itself, while the other leads toward building it more intelligently.
“Quiet paddles and balls can help,” Forziati says, “but they are not a substitute for setbacks, smarter zoning, and the willingness to say a bad site is just a bad site.
“We’ve known for years now that if you place courts at least 250 feet away from a residence, the chances of play affecting neighbors lowers considerably.”
Housing communities built in the past few years and being built now are putting pickleball courts at least that far away from the nearest home. I visited friends at a Del Webb 55 and over community last year and the 16 pickleball courts were nowhere near any houses.
With pickleball being the world’s fastest-growing sport, the noise issue isn’t going away anytime soon. But for pickleball lovers, the noise, the sound of your paddle hitting a plastic ball, is part of the fun.
“Its sound actually plays a role in the sport’s dynamic,” Forziati says. “Any experienced player will tell you that they sometimes rely on sound as much as sight to make split-second decisions mid-game.
“I appreciate the attempt to solve a problem, but the quiet pickleball product category has always raised my hackles a bit. I just don’t believe we should alter a core dynamic of the sport and its physics to solve the noise issue when there’s already more than one key solution available.”
As a pickleball junkie myself, I would not want to live next to courts, and I understand the anger of those who do. You live in a quiet neighborhood for years, then suddenly pickleball courts are constructed and your peace and quiet is over for much of the time. But few of the noise critics actually play pickleball. Perhaps if they did they’d be more understanding.
As realtors say to home buyers, it’s all about location, location, location.
Thoughts of the week, not all pickleball
· It will be fascinating to see what happens with JOOLA’s patent infringement lawsuit against 11 paddle manufacturers. JOOLA claims the companies copied its proprietary “Propulsion Core Technology.” JOOLA chose to file the case with the International Trade Commission instead of a federal court. It’s a strategic move because ITC investigations are typically faster. And instead of just seeking money, the ITC can issue orders to block the importation of paddles being brought into the US. A JOOLA victory could effectively block the 11 brands from selling their foam-core paddles in the US. The owner of a popular paddle company not named in the lawsuit told me, “Joola has every right to protect their [Intellectual Property] - that's how it should work. We don't build by copying others, so I'm pretty comfortable not being on that list.” I agree. JOOLA spent considerable time and money on research and development and patented the technology. Competitors should not be allowed to simply steal that tech. As JOOLA CEO Richard Lee was quoted in The Dink, “We take our responsibility to defend what we’ve built seriously. Our goal is to protect our innovation and encourage others to innovate as well.” Now, the fact that JOOLA, according to many paddle buyers, has paddles core crushing at an alarming rate and has lousy customer service, those are separate issues.
· Pickleball instructors who I respect tell me that I am a 3.25 player. I never had a DUPR (Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating) until recently because I only participated in rec play. However, a friend asked me to be his partner in a tournament and I agreed. And I was reminded quickly why I dislike some tournaments: Sandbaggers. We entered the 3.0 division because I’m 72 and my buddy is 66 and all the other players were in their 50’s. During warmups I immediately saw one team consisting of two guys who looked to be in their early 50’s and both in my judgment were at least 3.75 players. I knew they would win gold and they did fairly easily. To be honest, my partner and I were ahead of them 11-7 and lost, 15-11. Big-time choke by us due to, what else at that level, unforced errors. Still, it left a bad taste about tournaments and reinforced my opinion that sandbagging is just too common. Some players are desperate to win medals. We took bronze and my medal is gathering dust in my office closet.
· The recently concluded mens NCAA basketball tournament was fantastic as usual.
· I think that Fox’s weekly medical series, Doc, is TV’s best hospital drama since St. Elsewhere.
· The Netflix comedy-drama, Eleanor the Great, is a poignant look at aging and loneliness and worth your while.
Hudef has several new supercritical foam honeycomb core paddles on sale, with the price being $119.00 instead of $169.99. Use my discount code, MS10, to knock the price down to $107.10.
