Neighbor complaints about noise in Braintree due to pickleball courts.

As they parted ways, the Meghley retiree, who likened the sound to the truck's reverse beep, recalled, "I was instantly bored. I heard the noise, and it was like coming back to reality." Along with the explosive growth of the Pickleball phenomenon, especially during the pandemic, a flurry of noise complaints followed. Concerned about the constant echoes of hitting the perforated plastic balls, residents living near the courts contacted the police, complained to civic associations and filed lawsuits.

The Mission Hill neighborhood is in turmoil.

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The sound of perforated plastic balls being hit is causing discontent among residents in Wellesley and Provincetown, and has led to the closure of courts in Falmouth and Mashpee. In Needham, vandals have cut and dropped pickleball nets from courts.

Less than three years earlier, Braintree spent $443,000 in Community Preservation Act funds to transform the tennis courts at Hollis Field for an explosive trend. The courts opened in June 2022 and have been extremely popular ever since.

From April through the end of November, the Braintree Pickleball Players Club, consisting of approximately 560 members, occupies eight courts daily with the public.

Megli says the games go on 13 hours a day, every day of the week, creating such chaos that the noise reaches even his home through closed windows and the TV on.

In response to neighbors' complaints, the local City Council recently approved $22,000 to install soundproof acoustic panels that will partially enclose the courts, renewing hopes for a truce between the parties and testing whether the measures will help alleviate neighbors' discontent.

Mayor Erin Joyce, who has courts visible from her backyard, said officials are considering neighbors' opinions and the possibility of using "public spaces that we've invested in to use."

"The last thing we want to do is close" the courts, Joyce said. "We don't expect [the panels] to completely solve the problem .... But we're confident it will help."

The goal is to have the panels installed by May, said Jan Burris of the Braintree Pickleball Players Club.

Knowing how serious the Pickleball controversy can be, Burris said the group took steps to address the issue as soon as the complaints surfaced in August.

Together with another player, Yanis Walsh, Barris researched companies that provide soundproofing panels and contacted cities that had used them to assess their effectiveness. They chose the company Vibrasciences from Connecticut to install the double-layer panels, Barris said.

According to the results of tests conducted by the company, the noise level on Wynot Street was around 62 decibels, while in the middle of the court it was 85 decibels, she reported. The panels are expected to reduce the noise level by 10 decibels, which will help soften the sound of the ball hitting the racket.

The volume of sound is one of the irritations; the high pitch and high frequency of quick racket hits, which some compare to the sound of popcorn popping in a microwave, can also be unpleasant for neighbors like Megli.

In response to the protests, the national governing body for pickleball, USA Pickleball, introduced a "quiet category" last year for products such as paddles that produce a frequency level below 600 Hz and a decibel level below 80.

A player with over 70 years of experience, Barris herself witnessed the pickleball boom.

“Right now, I’m playing with people in their 30s, which was unimaginable a few years ago. And when we organized the courts in Braitree, they were literally the best on the South Coast,” she said, attracting players from all around.

The Breitrie pickleball players' club has become so popular that last year the group banned non-residents from joining after reaching a limit of 500 members. In the upcoming season, the group plans to set a limit again, Barris said.

“He became much more popular than we expected,” she said.

Maxlevel Julia Walsh will showcase her skills.

A group of pickleball players in Breitrie.

The decibel range for pickleball is comparable to normal conversational speech, said Nicole Laffan, an audiologist and head of the clinical teaching program at Northeastern University in Boston. Although it is louder than tennis, this sound does not cause noise-induced hearing loss, but it can lead to "satisfactory fatigue" in those who are constantly exposed to it.

Megli has his own testimony from Rob Mastroianni, a staunch critic of pickleball from Falmouth, who, along with his neighbors, sued the city council over the noise. The sound level recorded was above 85 decibels, said Megli.

He doubts that the panels will reduce the noise since they won't completely cover the courts.

“I would like to sit on the porch,” he said. “I can’t enjoy my home. I either have to sell it or put on headphones.”

At first, Megli said, he wanted to join the league, but he quickly changed his mind.

“After all the suffering, I definitely don’t plan to join this noise,” he said.

His neighbor Maggie Trudel, who lives a bit further from the courts, said that the constant noise annoys her.

“I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes,” said Trudel, 72. “It’s incredibly frustrating. I want to ask for a reduction in property taxes.”

Braintree Council member Meredith Boerick said that the "huge success" of the refurbished courts has led to "unforeseen consequences," but she hopes the panels will help. However, her colleague Peter Morin is less optimistic. He stated that Braintree needs to be more actively involved in noise control.

“I have no illusions that this is a final decision,” he said.

On Monday, Megli and Trudel met with several city officials, including Joyce, to discuss additional solutions such as using softer balls or quieter paddles and reducing court hours. Joyce acknowledged that this is likely not the last conversation on the topic and said her administration plans to discuss with the Breitrie pickleball club their proposals for other mitigation measures.

After Megli felt that his complaints were ignored, he said it was "nice that someone in the city listened."

“We are not looking for complete silence,” he said. “But more can be done.”