The rapid growth of pickleball has created unprecedented demand for quality indoor and outdoor facilities. As club owners and operators navigate this competitive landscape, one critical factor consistently determines player satisfaction and facility success: proper court lighting.
After analyzing hundreds of prospective builds and working with pickleball facility operators nationwide, we’ve identified the key lighting considerations that separate exceptional pickleball venues from mediocre ones.
Physics is Part of the Game: Where Lighting Comes into Play
Poor lighting doesn’t just frustrate players—it creates real business problems. As Bill Taylor from Matchpoint Pickleball Club in Columbus, Ohio, explains in LED Lighting Supply’s The Project Advantage Podcast recent episode, “The complaints that you get from people are A, there aren’t enough courts. B, the courts that are there aren’t lit very well.”
Taylor, who’s opening what will be the world’s largest indoor pickleball facility with 38 courts, understands that lighting directly impacts competitiveness and player retention. The physics of pickleball make lighting even more critical than other racquet sports. The lightweight ball moves quickly and can be difficult to track under inadequate illumination.
Poor lighting conditions cause the ball to appear as a streak during rapid exchanges, making precise tracking nearly impossible. This visibility challenge affects competitive play quality and increases injury risk when players can’t clearly see court boundaries, net height, or potential hazards.
Take it from the Pros, No More Blind Spots
Proper lighting serves as a fundamental safety feature in any pickleball facility. Inadequate illumination increases the risk of player injury. Players need clear visibility of court lines, net posts, and other players to make split-second movement decisions safely, while optimal visibility for sideliners enhances spectator experience.
Taylor experienced this firsthand at a tournament facility: “I played in a tournament in Michigan at a beautiful facility that was in a very high-end facility. It was in an old high-end furniture building, where they were selling retail furniture. Lots of glass, lots of windows, and we had to go out and buy crepe paper and block thousands of square feet of windows because when there’s sun, you don’t have clear visibility of the court. So having uniform light, having enough light without it being blinding, and having the light at the right height.”
Glare and shadows create dangerous blind spots that compromise player safety and competitive fairness. Work around existing structural elements to ensure the court is clear at all times of day.
Critical Questions to Ask Your Lighting Supplier
Based on Taylor’s experience evaluating multiple suppliers, successful installations require asking the right questions upfront.
- Do you provide complimentary photometric analysis? Professional Lighting Specialists should analyze your specific court dimensions and performance requirements without additional fees.
- How will you integrate with existing infrastructure? Taylor emphasizes the importance of suppliers who ask, “What’s there already? How can we complement that?” The most cost-effective outdoor court solutions often work with existing electrical infrastructure and poles.
- What’s included in your lighting plan? A custom-tailored lighting plan should determine precise fixture specifications, wattage requirements, lumen targets, optimal optics, fixture quantities, and exact aiming points. Taylor’s team hung 160 lights in 120,000 square feet in less than a week, because the plan was easy to follow and integrated existing features of the space.
- What certifications do your fixtures carry? Essential certifications include DLC Premium, UL Listed, and ETL Listed. These ensure safety, performance, and energy efficiency while qualifying projects for utility rebates and tax incentives.
Indoor Pickleball Court Lighting Considerations
Indoor facilities have distinct advantages in controlling lighting conditions. Ceiling-mounted LED systems provide direct, uniform illumination across the entire court surface.
Indirect Lighting Options
Higher ceilings create better light distribution. Taylor’s facility benefits from 40-foot ceilings, eliminating harsh bright spots while allowing for optimal fixture placement. Depending on the selected fixture for your project, high gloss paint can further enhance light distribution without compromising visibility.
Fixtures Built for Impact
Indoor fixtures must withstand the demanding environment of active sports facilities. Opt for a fixture built for impact – one that won’t break the light’s protection if hit by a racquet court ball. Quality LED systems eliminate flicker and shadow issues that are common with outdated lighting technologies.
Glare Control
Indirect lighting systems are a top choice for racquet court sport facilities. They are designed to bounce light off of highly reflective ceiling surfaces, creating soft, diffused illumination throughout the space. This technique minimizes harsh shadows while maintaining even distribution, helping players track ball movement during rapid gameplay.
Outdoor Pickleball Court Lighting Considerations
Outdoor installations present unique challenges requiring specialized solutions. Pole-mounted fixtures around the court perimeter must achieve optimal playing conditions while addressing light pollution concerns and neighboring relations.
Fixture Selection
Shoebox-style fixtures equipped with Type III optical distributions excel at illuminating rectangular court areas with minimal light spill beyond baseline and sideline boundaries.
Preventing Light Trespass
Back shields effectively eliminate light trespass by blocking backward spill while maintaining full court illumination. This addresses local code requirements without compromising court quality.
Pole Configuration
Most outdoor installations benefit from four poles per court, typically shared between adjacent courts. The minimum recommended mounting height is 20 feet, though heights up to 40 feet work well, allowing fewer fixtures to achieve uniform coverage.
Tournament-Level Lighting Considerations
Tournament-level facilities require exceptional lighting uniformity to ensure fair competition. Taylor notes a critical insight from one of his competitive play experiences:
“If you watch the pro game or really any tournament-level game, you’ll see that, generally, one side of the court absolutely has more winning points. I don’t care about the level of play; there’s one good side and one bad side. A lot of it’s background, but a lot of it, especially outdoors, is the lighting and the lighting direction. Try to make each side of the court fair. That uniformity makes a difference.”
This competitive imbalance creates operational challenges. Taylor explains, “I don’t want someone to say they don’t want to play on this court because the lighting is not as good as court number one. It has to be the same as court number 38. For us, in a business aspect, I don’t want a court that doesn’t get used because we skimped on that one.”
Recommended Light Levels and Technical Specifications
Professional illumination standards vary based on intended use. It is best to consult with a Product Specialist who understands the requirements of the space and can recommend a custom solution.
Taylor’s facility targets over 110 foot-candles on championship courts and averages 90 foot-candles throughout, with even their lowest-lit court achieving 15 foot-candles brighter than their competitors’ brightest court.
For color temperature, 5000K delivers optimal ball tracking with crisp, daylight-like illumination that enhances player performance. Facilities preferring warmer lighting can select 4000K, while color-adjustable models allow post-installation tuning.
The Business Case for Quality Lighting
Modern LED systems deliver 60-75% energy savings compared to metal halide fixtures, with maintenance-free operation for over 10 years. But the real value lies in player satisfaction and retention. As Taylor explains, “I don’t want a court that doesn’t get used because we skimped on that one or the lighting isn’t as good.”
Quality lighting creates fair playing conditions, eliminates the “good side, bad side” court phenomenon, and supports the competitive integrity that keeps players coming back. In today’s pickleball club market, lighting quality often determines which facilities thrive and which struggle to maintain membership.
Investing in professional lighting design and quality LED systems isn’t just about illumination—it’s about creating the optimal playing environment that builds lasting player loyalty and facility success.
References
LED Lighting Supply. (n.d.). LED lights for pickleball courts. Retrieved September 19, 2025, from https://www.ledlightingsupply.com/led-sports-lighting/led-pickleball-court-lights
About the Author
Chelsea Jones, Digital Marketing Manager at LED Lighting Supply, brings over seven years of experience developing customer-focused strategies. Specializing in content creation and digital campaign development, Chelsea helps streamline buying decisions by providing customers with the necessary resources to make informed decisions. Her insights have been featured in leading industry publications, including Commercial Construction Magazine and T&D World.
