On Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025, Beverly Ng, SF Rec Park’s Deputy Director of Policy and Public Affairs, presented a preliminary report from the SF Tennis & Pickleball Planning Roundtable (SF-TAPP) to the Rec Park Commission. You may recall that SF-TAPP was formed to gather input and establish priorities in order to address pickleball’s explosive growth in San Francisco.

Beverly’s presentation starts at 1:50:40 and Director Phil Ginsburg’s comments and questions begin at 2:17 https://sanfrancisco.granicus.com/player/clip/50774

Rec Park stated that in 2018, SF public pickleball courts numbered just 12 and today that number has grown to over 90 places to play. However despite recent progress, pickleball demand still exceeds supply, which overwhelms small neighborhood parks, leading to park patron conflicts, noise, traffic, and litter.

To address these concerns, SF-TAPP conducted a community survey (online, intercept survey & focus groups) and evaluated potential sites for expanding pickleball facilities. The survey, administered between November 25 and December 14, 2024, received 1,761 responses, with 1,444 completed entries. This is perhaps the most comprehensive research effort about pickleball planning for a densely populated urban environment.

There are a few interesting planning results revealed in the survey:

Play Patterns:

  1. 64% of respondents consider themselves intermediate-level players.
  2. Most players (51%) play 2–4 times per week.
  3. A notable preference emerged for both open (drop-in) and reserved play formats, with 34% preferring open, 30% reserved, and 35% liking both.

Priorities for Play:

  1. Top considerations when selecting where to play include location (53%), number of courts (48%), and wait times (44%).
  2. For future sites, lighting (70%), hub design (59%), available parking (53%), and convenient locations (63%) ranked as top priorities.

Equity and Access:

  1. Several demographic groups, particularly non-residents and players from equity zones, stressed the importance of parking and court availability.
  2. Drop-in players favored large sites (6+ courts), while reserved players emphasized location and amenities.

Evaluating Potential Sites

The Department’s Capital & Planning and Property Management staff began working with SF-TAPP to develop criteria to guide the identification and evaluation of underused public spaces for future dedicated pickleball complexes, though acquiring or leasing land, and securing funding.

The team evaluated 36 potential sites using nine criteria, including:

capacity for multiple courts • existing pavement • on-site parking • restrooms • lighting • sound buffer • fencing • room for seating • cost to convert

The top nine locations are (in no particular order):

  1. John McLaren Park at Louis Sutter Field
  2. Hamilton Rec Center
  3. Moscone Rec Center Putting Green
  4. Aptos Playground
  5. Crocker Amazon Volleyball Court**
  6. Golden Gate Park Panhandle Multi-Use Court
  7. Joe DiMaggio Playground
  8. Lake Merced Sunset Parking
  9. Stern Grove Croquet Lawn

New Crocker Amazon Pickleball Courts

** During the evaluation process, RPD was able to quickly convert the Crocker Amazon volleyball court into 4 new dedicated pickleball courts which are now open for reservation play.

SF-TAPP members also requested RPD staff analyze non-RPD publicly owned properties that could serve as future pickleball sites. RPD staff conducted desktop analyses of several sites owned by the Presidio, City College, the Port of San Francisco and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (PUC) and estimated their suitability for pickleball use with similar criteria to those applied to RPD sites.

After ranking, the top 3 choices under RPD control are John McLaren Park at Louis Sutter Field, Hamilton Rec Center, and Moscone Rec Center Putting Green, however these choices are very preliminary. A final short-list will be selected later after cost-estimates for each site are spec’d and more analysis of fundraising viability comes in.  Also, there will be opportunities for the public to provide feedback on the final project selection.

It’s important to note that Rec Park has emphatically stated that they don’t have the funds to develop any of these sites. They are looking to the community to provide the funds necessary to build future dedicated pickleball courts. The next step is to get some leads on engineering firms that could help do pickleball court construction estimates and begin to explore the viability of a fundraising effort.

Please click here you have feedback, engineering and/or construction expertise, or can donate or assist with fundraising to help meet the growing needs of San Francisco pickleball.

Thanks to SF-TAPP which is chaired and led by Martha Ehrenfeld, and co-chairs Hans Carter and Peg Stevenson.