Concern for Oakley tennis courts

Hi Tennis Friends & Community,


Your help is needed.  We wanted to make you aware that Asheville Parks & Recreation are considering converting the Oakley Park Tennis Courts into pickleball only courts. These courts are regularly used by both youth and adult tennis players, the Reynolds Middle School tennis team, USTA spring matches, and multiple Asheville Tennis Association's (ATA) outreach programs. Not only is Oakley one of the nicest public hard courts in town but they are 1 of only 2 lighted facilities. 


The ATA would like to work together with the pickleball community to encourage the city to build a dedicated pickleball facility. In the meantime, we propose sharing all the public tennis courts with a pre-determined schedule for multi-use. This would allow tennis players and pickleballers to know what time all courts were available for use and also alleviate a lot of on-court conflicts. This system has been adopted in other cities to accommodate both racquet sports.


The pickleball community has been very vocal and active so if you would like your "tennis voice" to be heard on this issue, please send an email before September 14 to the following:


Please let them know:

  1. That you oppose converting Oakley to pickleball only

  2. That you encourage them to create a multi-use schedule for all public courts

  3. That you advocate for funds to be allocated to a pickleball only facility


Thank you for your support of tennis over the many years.  The ATA is committed to furthering the growth and development of tennis in the Asheville area.  


The Board of Directors

Asheville Tennis Association

Talking Points of Interest

  • The Tennis Community is giving back to Asheville by providing every youth that is enrolled in one of its programs a free tennis racquet and can of balls. At the present time, we have provided over 400 youth a free racquet and can of balls.

  • The AC Reynolds Middle School holds their tennis team practices and plays their matches at the Oakley Parks Tennis courts.

  • The City of Asheville should allocate financial resources to serve the Pickleball Community, but not at the expense of another activity that has boomed in participation and gives back so much to the youth of the community.

  • The ATA wants to collaborate with the City and the Pickleball community to help both sports thrive. The current situation is untenable for both sports. We should consider other possible low-hanging fruit options where park property is underutilized like Recreation Park basketball courts, parking lots, etc.

  • We all know how difficult it has been to go to a tennis court in Asheville since the city put pickleball lines on tennis courts, and have one that is not packed with pickleball players. Imagine how difficult it is for a parent whose child was just introduced to tennis at an ATA clinic to try to compete for a public court with 40+ pickleballers waiting to play.

  • Asheville’s tennis community worked with the United States Tennis Association, the Harrah’s Cherokee Center Asheville, the Asheville Buncombe Regional Sports Commission, and Explore Asheville in hosting three Billie Jean King Cups over the past five years, estimating a $19 million dollar economic impact over that time frame.

  • The ATA has a variety of Community Outreach programs that serve our under-resourced population of low income, minority youth. A few of these include the Terminettors, the NJTL program, the Champion Junior Tennis Camp, and instruction to 8 Community Center Playground Sites throughout Asheville.

  • The ATA conducts Community Outreach Adaptive Programs including Special Olympics, Asheville Autism, and Wheelchair Tennis. In addition, the ATA hosted an Abilities Clinic in May at Oakley Park.

  • The ATA supports the Asheville Open Tennis Championships which brought over 550 players to Asheville in July. According to the Buncombe County TDA, the AO’s economic impact to the community was over $500,000.

  • The USTA has released the following Information provided by Sports Marketing Surveys (SMS) as a follow-up to the Physical Activity Council’s (PAC) Participation Report, which monitors more than 120 different sports and activities, provides a closer look into specific demographics driving the surge in participation. This data outlines the growth of tennis in the next 4 bullets.

    • Since 2019, the sport of tennis in the United States grew by 4.9 million players. The total number of tennis players is 22.6 million.

    • The total number of pickleball players in the United States is 4.8 million players.

    • New analysis of this data provides the demographic breakdown driving this growth:

      • Participation among youth (ages 6-17) players grew from 4.6 million in 2019 to 6.9 million in 2021, an increase of 50%

      • Participation among Hispanic/Latino players grew from 2 million in 2019 to 3.2 million in 2021, an increase of 60%

      • Participation among Black/African American players grew from 1.6 million in 2019 to 2.3 million in 2021, an increase of 43.75%

    • Other key metrics in tennis growth:

      • Tennis’ total increase of 4.9 million players in the two-year span exceed the total growth of all other racquet sports combined (including pickleball, badminton, table tennis and padel).

      • The 3.4 million wholesale racquet units in 2021 represents the largest year-end racquet unit total since 2010

      • The $122.9 million in racquet dollar shipments in 2021 is the largest year-end total on record in 2020, racquets priced below $50 and increased by 51.7% from 2019; while in 2021, racquets priced $50 and above increased by 49.2% from 2020

Asheville Tennis Association