In the Pickleball’s efforts to transform all unused park spaces into thriving Pickleball hangouts, many are turning unused Tennis courts into Pickleball courts. Depending on where you stand, this could be a assault to your favorite sport (tennis) or it can be seen as an opportunity to give Americans more opportunity to play Pickleball. If find that you fall into the latter categorization, you might be asking yourself “Can I fit 4 Pickleball Courts on a Tennis Court?”
The answer is yes. A tennis court measures 78 feet long by 36 feet wide and pickleball courts measure 44 feet long and 20 feet wide. While you can’t fit 4 courts directly inside a tennis court, most tennis courts have 10+ feet leeway outside the boundaries to work with which gives us enough space to neatly fit 4 pickleball courts in the area of 1 tennis court, even if the squeeze might be tight. Let’s explore how.
Can you actually fit 4 Pickleball Courts on a Tennis Court?
The short answer is yes, you can certainly fit 4 Pickleball courts on a tennis court. There are 2 ways to do this, and both will be a tight squeeze. There is a way to do this even if the tennis net infrastructure is in place. The one thing you will have to make sure of is that there is about 5-10 feet of space to work with beyond both the baseline & sideline of the tennis court you are working with.
What do I need to convert a Tennis Court into a Pickleball Court?
Once you find a good tennis court to convert into 4 pickleball courts, then you will need 4 pickleball sets in order to actually set up the Pickleball courts. The beautiful thing about pickleball is that you can set up a court anywhere without vandalizing or doing permanent damage to the surface you are playing on, so long as you have the right equipment. A good Pickleball set is around $100-150 and includes a net you can easily set up anywhere on the tennis court, markers to lay out the boundaries, balls and 4 paddles. If you don’t like the markers, then you could also use court line chalk… but don’t come running to us if your city’s parks and rec department issues you a fine!
How to fit 4 Pickleball Courts on a Tennis Court
The first way to do this is to line up each Pickleball court so that each of the baselines is perpendicular to the tennis net and parallel to the tennis court sideline. This is an optimal set up if there is limited room beyond each baseline of the tennis court.
The second way is to stack Pickleball courts side by side on each side of the tennis court. In other words, on one side of the tennis court you’ll have 2 pickleball courts where the baselines, sidelines and nets of both the tennis court and the pickleball courts run parallel to each other as shown in figure #2.
Conclusion
Setting up 4 pickleball courts on a tennis court is pretty straightforward. You can either arrange the 4 Pickleball courts side by side so that each Pickleball court’s baseline runs parallel to the tennis court’s sideline or you can arrange the set of 4 Pickleball courts 2 by 2 in two rows where the sidelines run parallel to the tennis court sidelines. Make sure you have some 5-10 feet of space beyond the tennis court boundaries to allow for some extra room to fit all 4 Pickleball courts.