With the popularity of pickleball, is there still room for tennis?

The tidal-wave growth of pickleball in the past decade has splashed down in Bayfront Park and changed the landscape of the only venue for free racket play on the island.

The public park smack-dab in the middle of Longboat Key has gone through a metamorphosis since the baseball diamond and dual-tennis court layout of 2016. Three pickleball courts have been added adjacent to the two hardcourt tennis courts. In 2018, the town did what some tennis players may scoff at — paint atop a tennis court with lines to accommodate pickleball.

Last year, the other tennis court was striped for pickleball, leaving no dedicated tennis courts at the park overlooking Sarasota Bay. That’s caused a minor issue for Christopher and Hannah Reynolds, who drive from downtown Sarasota to Longboat Key to hit together against a scenic backdrop.

“The only time it’s annoying is just when you come and the tennis courts are full of (pickleball players),” Christopher said. To avoid a wasted trip, the two avoid driving to Bayfront in the morning when the pickleball rush is in full force, because they know it would be a long wait to play.

“In tennis you only really play for like 60 or maybe 90 minutes because it’s more taxing,” Christopher said. “Whereas pickleball, that group can be out here for like three hours.”

Photo by S.T. Cardinal

Being a free, public course, there’s no expectation that a court will be available, but both tennis courts being occupied by those playing a different sport is not ideal.

“I think it’s fair enough to say first come, first serve. And we talk with a bunch of the pickleball players that play here, and they’re so nice to us. They’re so kind,” Hannah said. “But sometimes we just wish there was at least one tennis court because then this gets overtaken.”

Pickleball at capacity

On a Friday morning, the unmistakable “donk, donk, donk” sound of pickleball echoed around Bayfront Park as dozens gathered on a partly cloudy fall morning.

Sheila Loccisano can be seen at the Bayfront pickleball courts just about every day. An advocate of the sport, Loccisano outgoingly asks “where’s your paddle?” to the ill-equipped venturing toward the courts. She doesn’t just play, she acts as a caretaker for the pickleball players at Bayfront, bringing a shade structure, supplying balls, cleaning up. “She is the mother of pickleball,” one fellow pickleball player described.

Photo by S.T. Cardinal

Pickleball is a social sport, and the amount of people using the courts is impressive. They’re commonly full during peak season, with a queue. Teams in line rotate in, spectating and socializing while they wait for a court to open up. A paddle holder with more than a dozen slots signifies a players’ place in line.

“During season, you could wait an hour, an hour and 20 minutes to play one game. One game lasts 15 to 20 minutes,” Loccisano said.

Discussion of whether to paint the second tennis court to accommodate pickleball back in 2023 did not center around tennis players who used the court, but from other parkgoers concerned about availability of parking, according to a Longboat Observer article. Pickleball, often played as doubles, can bring many to a little area of the park. What started as two tennis courts with a maximum of four players is now essentially seven pickleball courts which can accommodate 28 players, often bringing double that number or more to the park.

Loccisano said many pickleball players choose to bike to the park because parking inventory is slim. Bayfront, with its dog park, canoe ramp, basketball court, shuffleboard court, playground, recreation center and walking trails, is used for more than just its courts.

“I love it here whether I play or I’m just watching,” Loccisano said. “And yeah, it gets crazy busy. The bikes will be lined up all over the place.”

The supply to the demand

What recreational activities Bayfront Park should accommodate is something Longboat Key streets, facilities, parks and recreation manager Mark Richardson thinks about a lot.

Richardson said pickleball at Bayfront Park started with a pilot program of lining one tennis court for pickleball use in 2013.

Photo by S.T. Cardinal

“Obviously everybody loved the two pickleball courts, so that’s why we built a permanent one,” he said. “Two years after the permanent one, they were asking for more permanent ones.”

With seven pickleball courts (sans tennis players) now available at the 8.4-acre park, Richardson said the town has responded to the demand for pickleball courts and that he believes there is enough capacity.

“We’ve noticed capacity has only really been a morning problem,” Richardson said. “You don’t build enough courts for your max amount of people for a short period of time, and then during the summer they go unused.”

He’s heard the call from residents to expand, though.

“Pickleball players anywhere, not just on Longboat, always want more courts,” Richardson said. “But you have to play that balance of how many courts are necessary that are free to the public for a small island.”

Richardson said that as of January 2024, there were at least 71 other pickleball courts scattered across the island in condominium complexes, racket clubs, hotels, etc.

Richardson said in peak season the town alternates “open play” days between pickleball and tennis in peak season. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the two multipurpose courts are reserved for tennis from 9 a.m. to noon. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, the multipurpose courts are designated for pickleball players.

Loccisano said she has noticed a “mutual respect, generally speaking,” between pickleball players and tennis players at Bayfront Park.

“The only time it really becomes an issue is during season, and that’s been taken care of with the Tuesday and Thursday,” she said.

Pay-to-play

Like pickleball, all but one location to play tennis on the key comes with an admission price. The most accessible of which is the Longboat Key Tennis Center off Bay Isles Road. The town-run facility has 10 “Har-Tru” clay courts available to rent via seasonal or annual memberships or for an $18 walk-on rate. Even with an admission fee, the complex is thriving, said Ron Watts, a director of the nonprofit Friends of Tennis group. From November to March, seeing the courts packed is a common sight.

“Tennis numbers here have been steadily increasing nicely,” Watts said. “This is a very popular facility.”

Tennis is growing nationwide. Not as fast as pickleball, but still growing. According to the United States Tennis Association, the sport has gained new recreational players for the fifth year in a row, with 25.7 million players. Pickleball, even with the well-publicized meteoric growth of the sport, has less players than tennis with 19.8 million players, according to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association.

Evolution of a courtship A satellite view of Bayfront Park through the years
	2016 Bayfront Park in 2016 was dominated by a baseball diamond, with the outfield bordering Sarasota Bay and two hardcourt tennis courts. A pilot program to line one tennis court for pickleball had ended and both courts were tennis exclusive.
	2017 The baseball diamond was removed in 2017, making way for green space on Sarasota Bay. Concrete was poured adjacent to the tennis courts to make room for pickleball and basketball.
	2018 Basketball and pickleball made its Bayfront Park debut in 2018, with one pickleball-specific court built next to a full-court basketball court. The tennis courts adjacent remained unchanged.
	2021 Basketball made way for more pickleball-specific courts in 2021, with two more additional courts built on half of the basketball court, which was changed to one hoop rather than a full court.
	2023 The pickleball paintover began in 2023, with one tennis court able to accommodate two pickleball courts on each side of the existing tennis net.
	2025 Both tennis courts have been lined for pickleball in 2025, with the town enacting alternating open play days for tennis and pickleball during the busy season.

Andy Sawyer is one of many tennis players who come out with a group to hit at the Longboat Key Tennis Center. Sawyer, like many other tennis enthusiasts, prefers to play on clay. Seeing a hardcourt tennis court converted into a pickleball court doesn’t bother him. Sawyer and Watts both say hard court tennis courts aren’t used much on the Key.

“We have over 100 clay courts on the Key, and of course as you age, the clay is much easier on your knees and legs, so I don’t want to play on a hard court to be honest,” Sawyer, 82, said.

Watts and Sawyer both said the Bayfront Park hardcourt tennis courts didn’t get much use even before the pickleball lines were painted on. Richardson saw that too and said it was hard to argue against painting over the last tennis court when he would go to the park and see 50 to 60 pickleball players while the tennis court sat unused.

Friends of Tennis took the term “pay to play” to another level. The nonprofit funded the construction of four additional courts in the early 2000s and also funded the construction of the clubhouse/pro shop.

And the nonprofit hopes to continue to expand the number of tennis courts on the Key, with Watts saying the group hopes to fund three more courts to be built in conjunction with the town’s “Complete the Green” project.