Parents go to war with pickleball players over NYC parks
Last Friday, a little after 3:30 p.m. at Corporal John A. Seravalli Playground in the West Village, the sun was shining, kids were laughing, riding scooters and kicking soccer balls about. Pickleball players lined up beside two designated courts on the concrete area of the popular park.
Then, suddenly, a commotion interrupted the picture-perfect early autumn. The father of one of the children playing started screaming at the pickleball players and threatening to call the police.
“Leave!” he yelled repeatedly.
It’s a pickle. Parents and pickleball lovers are sparring over turf in city parks. The racket sport has exploded in popularity — it has grown by 40% in the last two years and now has 4.8 million players nationwide, according to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association. NYC players are desperate for more courts, so much so that they’re bringing their own nets and chalking their own lines to make temporary DIY courts in city parks, alongside those officially designated for them. Moms and dads are not having it, fights are erupting, Parks Department staffers are being called and even the City Council is getting involved.
“At first it was just one or two courts and then it just kind of exploded,” said Anne, who declined to share her last name and is a mother with two sons, ages 7 and 9. “It covers the entire area, so the kids who normally ride their scooters or play football don’t have that space to play.”
She added that she’s seen up to 12 makeshift courts set up in the park on weekends. “It’s became really stressful… I kind of feel like we’ve been overtaken.”
A dad who was also in the park on Friday put it more bluntly. “They’re the lantern flies of the sports world,” he said of the pickleball players.
“We’ve been coming to this park since we were 5 and now we don’t,” the man’s 10-year-old girl told The Post. “One day I came here and there was just all these pickleball courts [and] none of my friends were here [because] the pickleball players were.”
“We want to play too,” added her friend, also 10.
This past Saturday, pickleball player Corporayshid posted a video to Instagram showing an NYC Parks Department official approaching players at Seravalli Playground and telling them to dismantle their DIY courts after receiving complaints. According to the video, the players were told the space is a playground, not a park, with the officer citing a rule that “no person shall throw, catch, kick or strike any baseball, football, basketball, soccer, golf or tennis ball, or similar object,” in nondesignated areas.
“She did say that if I refused to take down my net, her captain’s going to come and cuff me,” a man says in the video.
Some note that the families aren’t just innocent victims.
Pickleball enthusiasts Angel Ramirez, 66, told The Post that some moms and dads are going to extremes to stake out their turf, setting down picnic blankets on cement areas and seemingly nudging their children to interfere with games.
“Kids kick the soccer balls into [or] towards the nets and [ride their bikes] through the nets,” Ramirez said. “We’re trying to be accommodating but there are parents that are encouraging this behavior.”
Local politicians are jumping into the fray.
“Pickleball has exploded in popularity & that’s great. But competition for space at playgrounds has caused tension,” tweeted Erik Bottcher, City Council member for District 3. “We’re working with @NYCParks on solutions.”
Anne hopes they’ll figure out something soon.
“There’s a lot of challenges to growing up in New York City,” the mom said. “There’s a lot of wonderful things about it too, but I didn’t think a challenge would be fighting grown-ups for play space.”
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