On Longboat Key, pickleball is daily social occasion

One pickleball challenge awaits pretty much everyone arriving at Bayfront Park most mornings, but especially on a weekend smack in the middle of winter-tourist season's upswing.

It's got nothing to do with equipment, strategy or the game's arcane-to-a-newcomer scoring system. Nothing to do with heat, humidity or choices of athletic shoes, either. 

It's parking. No, not a pickleball word that the uninitiated wouldn't understand. Just a simple place to shift into "P" and leave a car behind.

It's become that much of a draw in the two years since the town expanded public pickleball options at Longboat Key's mid-island park. In fact,  the sport has gotten so popular that bicycles can often rival motor vehicles as the most convenient means of transportation to the park on a popular morning. 

And lately, players say, they're all popular. 

On a recent Saturday, about 50 people chatted and waited their turn to play while 20 players served and volleyed in doubles matches on the five courts.

Eight tennis players queued up, too, on their dedicated court, and sunburned shuffleboard players took their turns not far away. 

With sunny skies and pleasant temperatures, it could easily have been a peak day at Bayfront Park.

Nope, said Brent Marshall, who's played the game for about three years and is involved with Bayfront Pickleball, a loose organization of players who enjoy open play at the park. He said 50 or so players gather on many mornings, meeting each other on the court and off, finding players of similar skill levels and generally enjoying a social time outdoors, a component of the sport as easy to spot as grip tape and knee braces. 

"It's like that everywhere you go,'' said Chris Amstutz, another Bayfront Pickleball member and a player on one of the organization's two competitive teams. "I travel around all over the place, and it's the same thing.''

Since Bayfront Park opened in 2017 until 2020, there was one open-to-the-public regulation court on the island, along with double-use hard court tennis facilities a few steps away.  As demand grew, not only did private condos or other sites either convert or double-stripe existing tennis courts, but the town also began considering ways to expand public offerings. 

A lot happened in 2019 that allowed for that grand opening of the three current courts in February 2020. After discussions about building courts at the Public Tennis Center, behind the Longboat Key Library, in place of the free-to-the-public hard courts at Bayfront Park and other ideas Town Commissioners eventually landed on a solution. 

The key to making it all work was a 15-foot concrete addition to the north end of what was a full-sized basketball court. The net loss was half of the basketball court and one 10-foot high backboard and hoop. The net gain were two additional regulation pickleball courts adjoining the original. 

 Total value of the project was about $50,000. Members of the pickleball community agreed to fund the purchase of additional amenities for the new courts, such as paddle racks, benches, public-use pickleballs.

One adjacent hard-surfaced tennis court at Bayfront remains as is. The other is lined to allow either full-court tennis or two pickleball courts with portable nets, bringing the total court space to five. 

The setting, alongside Sarasota Bay, is a big draw to an already social sport, said Cam Maddux, a Bayfront Pickleball team player who years ago traded a tennis racket for a pickleball paddle.  

"We meet so many people, so many visitors,'' she said. "This is a visitor magnet. People come to this island because they know we have pickleball here. Not a lot of places have what we have here at Bayfront Park.''

Marshall said he's been keeping informal data and said he's seen the numbers of players rise from around 30 waiting in September to dozens more now. He said it's not unusual to regular morning play even in the heat of summer. 

He's been inquiring with the town about what comes next. Marshall said the public aspect of Bayfront's courts makes for a real mixing pot of players not available behind the gates of private communities. 

"All the courts are going, all day long,'' Marshall said. 

Mark Richardson, the town's manager of streets, facilities, parks and recreation, said the town keeps an eye on usage and considers the current capacity about right to maintain the game's social aspect, especially considering the seasonal ebbs and flows.

Plus, there's the parking issue, he said. With the overall popularity of Bayfront Park and its dog park, nature area, kayak launch, playground and beach access, adding additional space for pickleball would make parking even harder to find.

Richardson said he's catalogued about 40 pickleball courts islandwide, including the park's and those on private property such as condominium communities or the Longboat Key Club. Plus, city leaders have long maintained a need to retain free-to-the-public tennis access and have been adamant about retaining recreational variety at Bayfront Park.

Richardson the pickleball will likely have staying power, owing to its social scene and the way players can transition from other sports easily.

"We have to look for a happy median,'' Richardson said.