Pickleball courts in Northwest suburbs temporarily close due to bad behavior

(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Some people take their pickleball play pretty seriously but some heated exchanges in the Lake Zurich area forced officials to temporarily close some courts.

“We are supposed to be adults, right,” Ela Township Supervisor Gloria Palmblad said.

She said there there’d been repeated altercations at the four pickleball courts at Knox Park on Route 22 in the Lake Zurich area. “Chaos” this week, she said, forced her to temporarily close the courts.

They’d become pretty popular since opening last week and, Palmblad says, some people didn’t want to play by the rules and take turns.

“I’d gotten calls and emails about bullying that had taken place the night before and name-calling and foul language. Nobody called the police or anything so I decided that was it. I decided to close it until the new sign was up.”

Palmblad said the courts should re-open early next week when a sign with new rules goes up allowing for better rotations of players on and off the courts. Play will be allowed to continue until a player or team reaches 11 points unless no one else is around who wants to play.

“It is very sad that people can’t get along. This is recreational and there’s some people that take things seriously,” she said.

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