NOKOMIS

The Nokomis-Hiawatha area of Minneapolis has a rich history of outdoor community tennis courts. The courts at Hiawatha Golf Course, Nokomis Community Center, Sibley Park, and Minnehaha Creek spurred community engagement, provided summertime free youth Urban Tennis for thousands of kids (and jobs for older kids) over many years, and seeded successful tennis teams at nearby Roosevelt High School and South High School. But all those tennis courts have been eliminated or fallen into disrepair.

It’s time to bring tennis back to this community:

  • Tennis courts are free for everyone, and there are not enough courts to meet demand.
  • More than 900 adults signed up for tennis programs in the parks last summer—but 300 remained on waitlists due to not enough available courts.
  • Youth and adult tennis programs and neighborhood players all compete for the neighborhood’s last remaining courts, at Lake Hiawatha Park.
  • Summer evening youth tennis programs were highly subscribed for years but cancelled in 2024 due to demand for other programming at tennis courts at those times.
  • InnerCity Tennis (ICT) runs youth programming throughout the city but has been limited in being able to offer youth programming due to unsafe court conditions.
  • Roosevelt High School tennis teams are highly popular with local youth, but there are not enough courts for sufficient practice and match times for all the kids that want to play.
  • Locating 7+ tennis courts together supports high school and other competitive match play. High school scoring consists of 4 singles and 3 doubles matches—some players on large tennis teams wait hours to play during a match when it occurs at a site with few tennis courts.
  • No outdoor public location in Minneapolis currently has 7+ tennis courts together.

This project aims to restore 3 courts that have fallen into disrepair and are unsafe for play, while also adding in four additional courts to total 7 courts.  These courts would be available for the Roosevelt and South boys and girls high school tennis teams, specifically for hosting matches, but also practice. ICT could expand their summer programming, which focuses on developing youth players aged 6-17 years old, as well as providing coaching jobs to high school and college students. And, with the addition of LED, energy-efficient lighting, the courts can be safely used into the evening, with minimal light pollution to the surrounding neighborhood.

Explore the Plans