The pickleball noise issue is real!
Our home is within 1000 feet of some tennis courts, and recently it has been converted into tennis and pickleball courts.
We heard about the complaints of the pickleball noise issue in the media, and we thought it can’t be that bad; we have never heard people playing tennis.
When pickleball began, we could hear it within our home even with the windows closed, and then we thought it likely won’t be played that often, so we shrugged it off.
That gradually changed; several weeks later, people were playing pickleball from 6am to 11pm, 17 hours a day, every day, 119 hours a week.
We were wrong, and it’s not just the loud noise that is a nuisance; it’s the type of noise that is so intrusive.
There are soccer league games that play once a week in the park and that type of sound is not bothersome for any of us, and we cannot hear it inside and barely outside our home. Plus, they play for a couple of hours at a time for about 4 hours a week.
Imagine barely hearing soccer at 4 hours a week and hearing the abusive sound of pickleball for 119 hours a week inside your home. Pickleball players only hear it when they play, and some players that live near the courts don’t like it in their home.
More and more people are providing a description of the sound that their family home experiences, and here are some of them:
Constant ‘pop’, ‘thwack’, ‘whack’, ‘plink’, ‘tock’, ‘plonk’, ‘pock’, ‘faucet dripping in a ballroom’, ‘pistol range practice’, ‘bubble wrap being popped in a cave’, ‘large amplified ping pong’, ‘popcorn near the end of popping in a microwave’, ‘percussive burst piercing the air and carries’, ‘a stoned woodpecker going to town on a plastic hollow pipe’, ‘amplified squash game’, ‘amplified racquetball game‘, ‘sporadic bursts that quickened, gradually, to an arrhythmic clatter’, ‘ticktock cacophony’, ‘bonky sound on a PA system’, similar to ‘beeps of a garbage truck’, ‘musical note C6, which is an annoying pitch’, or ‘rain hitting a tin roof’ .
The paddles vibrate at a high pitch of 1000 times per second, which is what leads to the pop noise. It’s an impulsive sound because it starts quickly and disappears within 2 milliseconds as a short burst.
Our entire family loves playing, watching, and attending many sports, and there is a real difference when the annoying pickleball sound enters our home without seeing it. It happens during every activity inside of our home: watching a movie, when the kids go to bed early for school the next day, working on homework, playing games, cooking, during meal times, parties, and working from home, etc.
We love being outside of our home for BBQs, having meals in our backyard, sitting around the propane fire pit, parties, reading, talking, relaxing on the front porch, and sometimes we bring the laptop outside to work. Now that’s impossible; it’s difficult to enjoy our home space and even concentrate.
While cleaning and exercising, some of us turn up the volume of the music without disturbing the neighbors, and we can still hear the pickleball noise.
Noise is everywhere: cars, trucks, trains, planes, and other sports, construction, playing in the park, indoor and outdoor parties, dogs, music, air conditioners, lawn equipment, sirens, bells, and fireworks. None of these noises are bothersome to us, and we know it will end shortly.
We have enjoyed our home for over 12 years, and the new constant ‘tonk’, ‘pop’, ‘tonk’, ‘pop’ sound at intermittent, variable times is truly torture.
The popularity of pickleball is growing fast and joining outdoor tennis courts quickly. The noise is still being investigated by sound engineers as they discover new variables as it relates to how the noise travels.
We contacted the city, but there wasn’t much they would do, and they didn’t have any ideas and said they would look into it. If they decide to reduce the amount of pickleball play to 5 hours a day, 35 hours a week, it’s excruciating. Even listening to it for 1 hour per day, 7 hours a week, inside and outside our home is torture now that we are being exposed to this 17 hours a day, 119 hours a week.
Some people are so passionate about the game that they are playing in the rain, thunderstorms, and extreme cold weather, with coats, hats, and gloves.
Cities are planning new outdoor pickleball courts to be built near more family home residences, scheduled already for 2025, 2026, 2027 and so on.
Around the world, various attempts at sound proofing have been tried for the outdoor pickleball courts and the equipment, which unfortunately is not working.
Some of the reasons are identified in the research from the articles in this link, and here are a few of them:
- Quality of the material being used and whether it’s a sound barrier vs. sound absorption, the annoyance continues
- With new acoustic panels, it’s still too noisy, and the ‘pop’ sound still carries over the fence
- Types of structures nearby that amplify the sound
- Home structure, i.e., 2nd floor with bedrooms, buildings with more than 2 stories
- Positioning of the court ends
- 1 row of small trees sporadically placed around the court –> if air can get through the trees, so can the sound, in addition, all the other variables involved
- Equipment Changes: Players want to make the ‘pop’ sound by hitting that ‘sweet spot’ and play pickleball professionally. In addition, some players do not want to spend more money, and the attempts to drown the sound haven’t worked completely, it’s still annoying.
A sound engineer can measure and determine all the variations involved as they relate to every outdoor pickleball court location and each and every family home nearby. In addition to the structures nearby, it’s the angle of the structure, the size of the structures nearby, the size of the home, height, width, depth, wind, cold air vs. hot air on or off the ground, which requires measurements on different day’s, and other background noise effects, etc. The unique sound of pickleball is obviously unlike any other single sport sound and requires proper testing with professional sound equipment.
There are some cities that did a great job, they organized and planned well in advance and thought about families nearby and only placed outdoor pickleball courts at least 1000 feet from their homes. They have saved themselves from many complaints, tension in the neighborhood and lawsuits by families and players. Depending on the numerous variations discovered, another source said that noise can carry up to approximately 1900 feet.
To make everyone happy for family residences and pickleball players, there is a very simple solution: build dedicated outdoor pickleball courts at least 1000 feet away from people’s residences and continue to build more indoor courts.
After speaking with some friends who love playing pickleball, said they prefer playing outdoors because it’s too loud for them at the indoor pickleball courts; therefore some cities are working on sound proofing ideas for the indoor courts as well.
The outdoor pickleball noise issue is real and not like anything else, as evidenced by many people living near it and the impacts are real including financial ones, i.e. health, home values and lawsuits.
Click here for supporting news documents and videos about the pickleball noise issue.
Eliza Woods | R&D FYA | December 17, 2024