Questions from 1/28/25 Council Study Session
1. What is the current usage of the fields and what other sports are using the parks?
• Refer to the Sunnyvale Athletic Facilities Needs Assessment, Appendix A – Field Inventory and Usage
2. W
hat amenities do the parks currently have?
• Refer to the Sunnyvale Athletic Facilities Needs Assessment, Appendix B – Park Facilities at a Glance
3. H
ow will the proposed additions be fed into the 20 year plan or will staff implement additions outside of the project cycle budgets? • The recommended potential improvements, which would be located within a park, will be considered as part of the funded capital project to renovate that park. For example, the potential cricket pitch and tennis courts shown within Las Palmas Park are currently being considered as part of the conceptual design process. Also, the FY 25-26 budget added $200,000 to the “Park Tennis/Basketball Court Reconstruction (820240)” project to restripe up to three existing basketball and/or tennis courts to allow for pickleball. Prior to determining which locations to restripe, LRS will do community outreach to determine locations.
4. What is the status on the proposed Baylands Cricket Pitch? Would Baylands be able to meet some of the needs?
• Baylands Park is owned by the County of Santa Clara. The County would need to approve the intensification of the park such as a potential cricket pitch. Staff are waiting for the County to review the City's request to study this potential use within the park.
S
taff are also still waiting for Major League Cricket’s share of the study costs and their desired stadium size and configuration, which has been modified from their original request.
5. T
he proposed tennis and pickleball – how does that interact with the Sunnyvale Tennis Center upgrades?
• The potential new tennis courts in Las Palmas Park would not be adjacent to Tennis Center. They are shown closer to the picnic area, which is south of the Tennis Center. The Tennis Center upgrades are mostly focused on building improvements, so there isn’t any direct interaction with the potential new courts. Since the potential new courts would not be adjacent to the Tennis center, they would likely not be managed or overseen by the City’s contractor (Lifetime Activities) as part of the Tennis Center.
Attachment 2
6. Proposed pickleball at Encinal Park. How close would that be to multifamily housing?
• Metrics from previous noise studies show it should be at least 150 feet from the center of the courts to the residences. Councilmember Mehlinger recommended moving the location of pickleball closer to the northern edge of Encinal Park.
7. Concern about the laser focus on tennis, pickleball, and cricket. How do we know if we are meeting the needs of the other sports groups? • The key elements of this study were to consider current recreation trends and community needs relative to certain outdoor sports, especially pickleball, tennis and cricket. This study provided recommendations based on the top 3 desired sports facilities as determined by the surveys/outreach completed.
8. What is the demand for pickleball? (Information provided by the following article:
Pickleball Statistics – the numbers behind America’s fastest growing sport) • There were an estimated 19.8 million pickleball players in 2024 in the United States, according to the SFIA Topline Participation Report for 2025. This is a 45.8% increase from 2023. (The APP, which uses different methodologies, found that there were 48.3 million pickleball players in the US, according to their most recent research from 2023.) Attachment 2
• Pickleball participation has grown an incredible 311% over the last three years, according to the SFIA.
• Pickleball has been the fastest-growing sport in America for the past four years.
• The average player age is lowering. The 25-34 age group now has the most pickleball players (2.3 million), and 1 million more children started playing the sport.
• The average pickleball player age is 34.8 years old.
• There are now 68,458 pickleball courts (and counting) in the US, according to the Pickleheads court database, confirmed by the USA Pickleball Annual Growth Report.
9. Can we breakdown responses on surveys by Sunnyvale residents/non- residents?
• Page 56 of the Sunnyvale Athletic Facilities Needs Assessment shows the responses by zip codes
10. To what extent could the survey be hackable and artificially inflate numbers? • The survey was created on OpenGov and there was not a limit to the number of responses per user.
11. Council received a lot of advocacy from Cricket players and wanted to know why the cricket community was requesting Las Palmas Park.
• Las Palmas Park is beginning the process or reaching out to community members for renovations.
12. Does it make more sense to have a cricket pitch on the north side of town at Lakewood?
• Current plans for Lakewood do not include a cricket pitch.
13. Did the survey include narrative comments?
• Refer to the Sunnyvale Athletic Facilities Needs Assessment, Appendix C – Poll Results.
14. Would the new amenities be by reservations only, classes offered by City or private instructors?
• Depends on the facility and amenity. Field usage requires reservations and tennis in the parks is generally free.
15. Would like to learn more about the current conditions of the amenities within our parks and what would be needed to improve the current conditions.
Attachment 2
• The key elements of this study were to consider current recreation trends and community needs relative to certain outdoor sports, especially pickleball, tennis and cricket. This study provided recommendations based on the top 3 desired sports facilities as determined by the surveys.
16. Consider dividing recommendations more evenly among Sunnyvale. • North Sunnyvale
i. Add new dedicated pickleball courts at Encinal Park
• Central Sunnyvale
i. Add new pickleball overlay on existing basketball courts at Washington Park
• South Sunnyvale
i. Add new dedicated pickleball courts at De Anza Park
ii. Add new dedicated tennis courts at Las Palmas Park
iii. Add new dedicated tennis courts at Ponderosa Park
iv. Add new pickleball overlay on existing basketball courts at Ortega Park
v. Add new cricket pitch/field at Las Palmas Park
vi. Refurbish existing cricket pitch/field at Ortega Parkx
Attachment 2