A bone to pick with emerging recreational sport
Reprints
With a much smaller court and a short, underhand swing, proponents of Pickleball say everybody loves this easier-than-tennis alternative.
Unless you happen to live near a court.
The latest in a string of complaints popping up around the country, the mayor of Mission Woods, Kansas, and his wife have filed a lawsuit against the Mission Hills Country Club after hearing what they describe as the persistent pop of pickleball — a sport that has exploded in popularity in recent years — being played near their home, according to the local news channel KCTV. Similar issues have been raised in communities in Philadelphia, Denver, and Newport Beach, California.
As reported this week, the Kansas couple say the noise coming from the courts, of which they share a property line with what was once tennis courts, has “severely disrupted” their “tranquil and peaceful environment.”
A sport that is more a social gathering than a competition, the couple are also complaining about “loud music, excessive drinking of alcohol and a party/social atmosphere,” the “additional cars for players and spectators with enough room for those cars, resulting in vehicles parked on grass near” their home, and the “repetitive sounds of pickleball, loud music, and frequently vulgar and offensive language.”
According to their lawsuit, Pickleball “typically creates a sound in the range of 1,000 to 2,000 Hertz, which is near the most sensitive frequency range of human hearing.”
