If the craze surrounding pickleball that started during the pandemic has slowed, it’s not by much. For the fifth consecutive year, it’s taken the top spot in the Sports and Fitness Industry Association’s fastest-growing sports report. And despite our climate rendering many outdoor activities impractical for months out of the year, Milwaukee has embraced pickleball with open arms. Not only have residents taken a liking to the game, with dozens of leagues ranging from casual to highly competitive, but many local organizations have hopped on board.
For example, the Milwaukee Bucks opened their doors to allow local pickleballers to play on the basketball court in Fiserv Forum. Businesses, parks and beer gardens brought pickleball into their promotions and programming. Henry Maier Festival Park hosted pickleball pop-ups as well as a pickleball “village” during Summerfest, where attendees could play and receive instruction from professionals free of charge. Milwaukee even hosted a Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) tournament last year, bringing in dozens of players from across the globe.
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With such profound community engagement and support surrounding pickleball, it’s confounding that in Milwaukee, a city whose population is approaching 600,000, there are just two public, free-to-use courts. The Riverwalk Commons courts, located beneath the I-794 freeway in the Third Ward, have become increasingly popular since they opened in the summer of 2021. Still, there are just two of them, and their surface is made of blacktop – a material perfectly suitable for the casual player, but not endorsed by the PPA. Not only does this prevent any sanctioned tournaments from taking place there, but it creates conditions different from what many players are used to.
You may ask: can’t you play pickleball on a tennis court? Yes, you can, and many people do. In fact, Milwaukee’s shortage of dedicated pickleball courts has necessitated it. However, using a tennis court requires players to bring their own net, or else use a tennis net that is both taller and wider than a standard pickleball net (no official PPA tournaments on tennis courts, either). The takeover of tennis courts by pickleballers has also led to a sort of passive animosity between the two racquet sports, especially when courts get busy.
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“What we, and what everyone wants, are dedicated pickleball courts used exclusively for pickleball,” said Jim Hahn, a Milwaukee resident and USA Pickleball ambassador since 2017. “Much easier said than done, of course.”
Despite the clear demand for more public pickleball facilities in Milwaukee, very little ground has been made. The primary obstacle to progress is an obvious one: funding.
“To meet the rising demand for pickleball, we are requesting funding through the 2026 Capital Budget to build additional courts at Brown Deer Park,” said Peter Bratt, the director of operations for Milwaukee County Parks.
Bratt also noted that a pickleball development is underway at Jackson Park, which would bring the first public, dedicated pickleball courts (with the proper surface material) to the city of Milwaukee.
Many of Milwaukee’s suburbs have been aggressively pursuing pickleball facilities and programming for several years. In 2023, six pickleball courts were installed in Froemming Park in Franklin, fully available to the public at no charge. A year later, West Milwaukee Park unveiled six of its own.
When asked about the success of suburban parks compared to Milwaukee’s, Hahn said he believes there may not be strength in numbers. “There are so many neighborhoods and communities in Milwaukee without a connective tissue, which diminishes our political power,” Hahn said.
According to Hahn, it’s much more feasible to green-light a significant public project in an area with only one or two zip codes. Still, it’s frustrating that Milwaukee has been unable to fill what is, to him, an obvious void.
“My message to the city of Milwaukee is that if the suburbs can figure it out, so can we,” said Hahn. “We are the anchor community of the metro area and we can make meaningful progress if we work together.”
