Multi-sport courts · one pad, two or three games
One pad, more than one game.
Most parks have more players than pads. A multi-sport court puts tennis and pickleball, or basketball and pickleball, on one surface in two colors, or sets dedicated courts side by side under one color system. Here are the six layouts we build and the trade-offs of each.
Layouts
Six ways to share a slab.
The first question is always how many of each. The second is color. The third, for pickleball, is where the noise goes.
Tennis + 2 pickleball
The tennis lines stay; one pickleball court sits either side of the tennis net line in a second color, with portable nets. The cheapest way to add pickleball to a park, and the layout that keeps the tennis players happiest.
Tennis + 4 pickleball
Four pickleball courts across the tennis pad, two each side of the net line, in a second color. Busy, cheap per court, and a lot of lines on one surface; the colors have to be chosen well.
Dedicated bank: tennis beside pickleball
What Independence did: tennis courts and pickleball courts side by side, each with its own fence and gate, one color system across the park. No shared lines, no arguments.
Basketball + pickleball
One or two pickleball courts across the half courts of a basketball court, in a color away from the key, with portable nets. Mornings for one, evenings for the other.
Tennis + QuickStart
36- and 60-foot kids' courts blended onto a full court in a soft color, so a club can run junior programs without a second pad.
Game court
A residential or school pad with basketball, pickleball and a four-square or hopscotch set in three colors. Everything a backyard or a playground wants in one slab.
Color
Two shades apart, and the host sport wins.
The rule we work to: the sport the court is for keeps the most visible lines, white on a dark court, and the second sport gets a color that contrasts with the surface but sits well below white: a light blue, a soft yellow, a pale gray. Pickleball on a green court goes well in light blue; on a blue court, in yellow or gray. The color guide shows the pairings, and the SportMaster court designer lets you try them.
On dedicated banks the question is different: one color system across tennis and pickleball so the park reads as one place, with the surround color doing the work of telling the courts apart.
Questions
About sharing a court.
Do blended lines confuse the players?
Less than people fear, if the colors are chosen well: the host sport keeps the most visible lines (white for tennis), and the second sport gets a color two shades from the surface, light enough to see and dim enough to ignore. The eye learns in a game. Four pickleball courts plus tennis is the busiest layout and the one where the color choice matters most.
What about the nets?
Pickleball on a tennis court uses portable nets that roll off, or permanent posts in sleeves for the two-court layout. Dedicated banks get permanent nets. Basketball-plus-pickleball uses portable nets only.
Can an existing court be blended, or does it need resurfacing?
If the surface is sound, lines alone will do: a wash, the layout, the paint. If the court is due anyway, the blend is part of the resurfacing and costs almost nothing extra. The blended lines article shows pairings on real courts.
Reading
From the articles.
Blended lines: two sports on one court without confusing anyone
A second sport in a second color, two shades apart. The combinations that play well and the ones that do not.
Read onTurning a tennis court into pickleball courts, properly
Two courts or four, blended lines or dedicated, and why the surface has to be right before any color goes on.
Read onPickleball noise: where to put the courts and what to build around them
The pop of a paddle carries. Setbacks, acoustic fence, paddles and hours: what works before the neighbors organize.
Read onFree estimates
Tell us how many of each.
Send the address and the count you have in mind, or the arguments you are having about it, and we will draw the options with prices.
The yard
4000 East 86th Street, Cleveland, OH 44105
Off Broadway Avenue, south of downtown, ten minutes from I-77 and I-490.
Serving Cuyahoga, Summit, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Geauga, Portage, Stark and Ashtabula counties. Municipal, school, club, HOA and commercial work; residential courts by the job.