A year after Catherine Henderson implored the community club board of directors to make more tennis time available at the Racquet Center, the former Racquet Sports Committee chairwoman repeated her plea, this time armed with research showing potential harmful effects of pickleball noise.
Henderson’s conclusion, as she told the board at its December meeting at The Center, is that pickleball noise “is absolutely unbearable and unsafe.”
Henderson, a tennis player who served on the committee for three years and previously worked at the Racquet Center, told the board last December that some people would not play tennis when pickleballers were there.
She also said last week that there are many lawsuits nationwide because communities “ignored the consequences of noise exposure to physical health.”
One such lawsuit was filed against the city of Boise, Idaho, by retired family physician Kathleen M. Romito, who studies the connection between pickleball noise and its effects on the health of residents near outdoor courts. She said pickleball courts were built 50 feet from her house, leading to health problems for her family. (See Part 2 next week.)
Henderson referred to Romito’s research in making her case that noise from pickleball is hazardous.
The pickleball ‘pop’
Romito calls the “pop” sound of a hard plastic ball hitting a solid pickleball racquet “a new type of noise in our landscape” four times louder than a netted tennis racquet striking a felt-covered rubber ball.
Romito says four pickleball players on one court can generate at least 900 of those pops per hour. Henderson put that into the perspective of pickleball play at the Racquet Center.
“Multiply that by four courts – 16 players – and the number increases to 36-hundred pops per hour. With six courts in play, that’s 54-hundred pops per hour.”
Pickleball noise there hinders play as the number of players increases, Henderson contended, because “you can’t speak to your partners or opponents or even warn somebody if a ball crosses your court.”
Less time for tennis
Henderson also expressed concern over reduced opportunities for tennis play. There have been fewer since some of the tennis courts in the Racquet Center were relined to include pickleball and the outdoor tennis courts at Druid Hills were closed to make room for parking space at the new golf complex under construction.
There are outdoor clay courts adjacent to the Racquet Center, but they are open only from April to October or November. There also are outdoor pickleball courts, which are open year-round depending on the weather, and indoor pickleball courts at The Center.
Henderson and many other tennis players believe the deck is stacked against them as the popularity of pickleball outpaces that of tennis.
“In five years, you have systematically made it more difficult for us to reserve courts while also reducing the number of courts that we have access to,” Henderson said to the board.
There are plans to build indoor pickleball courts, but they were put on hold indefinitely this year because of long-range financial uncertainties resulting from the impending departure of the timeshare associations effective Dec. 31. The 2026 budget includes a capital expense of $500,000 to put toward the building but specifies it is “under consideration.”
A separate building for pickleball courts would allow for the Racquet Center courts to be fully dedicated to tennis. Pickleball and tennis players, then, no longer would have to share indoor courts.
Henderson said nearly 100 tennis players last year signed a petition asking that indoor pickleball play be moved from the Racquet Center to The Center. She made that pitch again last week, urging the board to “give us back our courts.”
She also asked the board to have a “qualified expert” conduct a sound study of pickleball noise.
The board offered no response to Henderson at the meeting, but Vice President Scott Hartema responded to Glade Sun questions posed to him by email.
Expansion plans
Hartema said current expectations for the Racquet Center are to resurface the courts “for tennis only” when the new pickleball facility is completed. There is no set timeline for that as the board and budget planners focus on how to make the community club financially self-sustaining, currently no longer able to count on income that timeshare visitors provided.
But he said the racquet sports expansion committee “continues to work on options for increasing the number of pickleball courts” as more Gladers continue to take up the fastest-rising sport in the country.
Hartema, the board’s liaison to the separate Racquet Sports Committee, said the number of pickleball players in Fairfield Glade has increased from fewer than 100 in 2018 to more than 700 now.”
Interest in tennis also is increasing in Fairfield Glade. William Taylor, who was director of racquet sports until his promotion last week to the new position of director of recreation, said hours for indoor and outdoor tennis have grown by 4% this year – about seven hours per week – continuing a trend of the past few years.
“There are no signs of either tennis or pickleball slowing down,” Taylor wrote in an email message to the Glade Sun. “Best way for both sports to continue to grow is to construct a separate indoor pickleball facility so both sports can continue on their upward trajectory.”
Hartema said the intention is for the new pickleball facility to have 8-10 courts.
The expansion committee is to present a recommendation to the board in January, he said.
“As with all plans, final decisions will depend on the growth of each sport within our member community.”
Hartema said Henderson’s “other comments were received by the Racquet Center leadership and will be considered along with input from other member comments as future operational decisions are made.”
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Next week: What the research shows about the effects of pickleball noise.