Four pickleball courts proposed for 2020

Longboat Key leaders have approved a proposal to construct four new pickleball courts on the island, a project that the town hopes donations will help fund.

Four pickleball courts are estimated to cost $200,000, half of which the town has budgeted for in the 2020 fiscal year. The town is hoping that people in the pickleball community will organize to raise the rest of the money necessary to construct the additional courts.

“[T]here is undeveloped space north and west of the library on the west side of Bay Isles Road and some limited space on the Tennis Center parking area on the east side of Bay Isles Road that may facilitate an expansion,” Public Works Director Isaac Brownman wrote in his report to the Town Commission.  

As proposed, the pickleball courts would be operated by the Tennis Center, which already cares for 12 clay tennis courts. The town has estimated that adding pickleball courts to the Tennis Center could bring anywhere between $18,000 and $35,000 annually, based on projected on- and off-season revenues.

“Operating costs would be nominal," Brownman wrote in his report. "Within a 5-year span, we would need new nets and windscreens.”

Town staff conducted a survey of Tennis Center members to determine if pickleball would be acceptable to those who already play a racket sport at town center. Of the 168 people surveyed, 117 said they would be in favor of adding pickleball courts to the Tennis Center. Of that 117, 11 said they would only be in favor if no tennis courts were taken away.

There’s also a hope from library members that pickleball courts next to the repository will bring more traffic to the island's foremost place to borrow books, according to a staff report.