Open play wait time and courts calculator
Courts, players and game length in; wait between games, games per hour and courts needed out.
By Albert Antioquia · Updated
Enter your courts, the number of players you expect and how long a game takes. The calculator shows how long each player will wait between games, how many games they’ll get per hour, and when you need another court.
- Wait between games
- ~13 min
- Games per player per hour
- 2.1
- On court
- 16
- Waiting
- 14
Healthy: people sit out one game or less.
Averages for a queue where everyone rotates fairly. Time a few of your group’s games for the minutes per game.
The maths
Each court holds four players in doubles (two in singles). With C courts and N players, 4 × C are playing and the rest wait. If a game lasts L minutes:
wait between games ≈ L × players waiting ÷ players on court
The rule of thumb that follows: the wait stays at one game or less while no more people are waiting than playing. In doubles, that is up to eight players per court.
Courts for a one-game wait
| Players (doubles) | Courts for a wait of one game or less |
|---|---|
| 12 | 2 |
| 16 | 2 |
| 20 | 3 |
| 24 | 3 |
| 32 | 4 |
| 40 | 5 |
| 48 | 6 |
If you can’t add a court
- Shorten games. The wait moves with game length. Badminton to 15 instead of 21, or pickleball to 9 instead of 11, cuts it by roughly a fifth to a third.
- Cap sign-ups at eight per court, and keep a waitlist.
- Rotate all four off every game so nobody holds a court; see 4 on, 4 off.
The averages assume a fair rotation where whoever has played least goes next. With a winners-stay court, the wait for everyone else is longer. More on running the night in the badminton open play guide.
Questions people ask
How many players per court for open play?
For doubles, up to about eight players per court keeps the wait between games at one game or less. Beyond that, people sit out more than one game at a time.
Try it at your next session
PaQueueKa runs the queue, the rotation and the fee split for badminton and pickleball. Hosting and joining are free on iPhone and Android.