Our Facilities
Royal Oak’s Outdoor Pickleball Courts:
– SMPA, formerly the Royal Oak Pickleball Club, was instrumental in securing the grant money to build the Whittier Park Pickleball Complex (2010-2011) and the Upton Park Pickleball Court (2014-2015). Once the funding was secured, our volunteers literally built the courts!
– With the money we’ve raised from our pickleball programming in Royal Oak since 2011, which uses the courts for <20% of the time, we’ve provided the sole funding for the courts and the equipment at the courts. This includes all repairs and maintenance to the court surface, subsurface, fencing, etc, plus all nets, windscreens, johns, brooms, rugs, etc at the courts.
– During the ~80% of the time when SMPA isn’t running a fundraising event, the city of Royal Oak – not SMPA – is in charge of the courts. At these times, the city leaves the courts open to drop in players regardless of SMPA membership or Royal Oak residency, and, though SMPA still provides all the eqp’t at the courts even when our own events are not running, the city is responsible for enforcing their rules for open/closed hours, for court-sharing and paddle rack usage, for noise control, etc.
The Pat Sullivan Whittier Park Pickleball Complex
- eight dedicated courts; converted from two tennis courts in 2010; last refurbished in 2021 by VTech Construction of Milford
- check out our 2017 repainting effort pics here!
- located at the corner of Farnum and Potter in Royal Oak
- open daily 9am – 9pm for drop-in play late April – early October
- not open during SMPA ladder league play hours
- Monday league : 5:30 – 8pm, May – Sept
- Wednesday league: 9–11:30am, May – Sept
- Thursday league: 5:30 – 8pm, May – Sept
- Sunday league: 5:30 – 8pm; May – Sept
- also not open during other SMPA sponsored events, including:
- approximately monthly Sat night mixers
- approximately monthly weekend afternoon mini-tournaments
- free to use, but please join SMPA to fund court maintenance
- maintained by SMPA and owned by the city of Royal Oak
Royal Oak’s Indoor Pickleball Courts:
The Salter Community Center
- six non-dedicated courts on a gym floor
- located at 1545 East Lincoln in Royal Oak
- please contact the City of Royal Oak for hours and fees
- phone: (248) 246-3180
The Upton Park Pickleball Courts
- seven dedicated courts; converted from two tennis courts in 2014; last refurbished in 2020 by VTech Construction of Milford
- check out our 2014-15 court installation pics here!
- located at the corner of Mandalay and Nakota in Royal Oak
- open daily 9am – 9pm for drop-in play late April – early October
- not open during SMPA ladder league and mixer play hours
- Tuesday league: 9–11:30am, May – Sept
- Tuesday league: 5:30 – 8pm, May – Sept
- Wednesday league: 5:30 – 8pm, June – Sept
- Thursday league: 9–11:30am, May – July
- Friday league: 5:30 – 8pm, May – Sept
- also not open during other SMPA sponsored events, TBD
- free to use, but please join SMPA to fund court maintenance
- maintained by SMPA and owned by the city of Royal Oak
Other Places To Play:
The SMPA Newsletter
- an approximately monthly/bi-monthly publication during our off season (Oct-Apr) that includes places to play updates for the metro-Detroit area including but not limited to SMPA events. This was begun under former president Gordon Statz (though it was a publication only for 4.0+ level players). It was expanded under former president Heather Siersma to be for SMPA members of all levels. It was discontinued under current president Frank Fedel.
The Michigan Pickleball Newsletter
- a monthly publication that includes places to play updates for the metro-Detroit area (though it unfortunately excludes SMPA event information as of a 2021 decision by its current umbrella organization – the Michigan Pickleball Association (MPA) 🙁 ). Pam Mackowski has been putting this newsletter together for many years – long before it became an MPA publication, and she does a wonderful job with it, so we continue to recommend it to our members despite our exclusion from it 🙂
- you can read the August 2022 copy here: https://conta.cc/3OWAA2Y
- to sign up to receive MPN, please go to: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/BpaL8o5/MPAemailsignup
USA Pickleball
- the national governing body for the sport of pickleball in the US with a mission to promote the development and growth of pickleball
- see USA Pickleball’s Places 2 Play here: https://www.places2play.org/