Sports facility and community events · 1700 20th St, Oakland, CA

How many courts fit around the columns?

A tenant wanted space for a multi-sport facility that also hosts large community events. We laid out six sports around the column grid of one block, tested every court with the columns at their worst possible spots, and checked the listed ceiling height and the parking.

By Obia · October 26, 2026

6
sports laid out around the real column grid: 76-80
car stalls on the whole shared lot, if all of it can be used (need 60): No
tennis, which needs 29.5 ft of ceiling over the net

The east block seen from above in the 3D model, with five volleyball courts drawn between the column lines, green markers on the courts that work and amber markers on the ones that are tight, and orange roof girders and yellow roof joists overhead. — The picture opens the 3D model from our analysis in a new tab: drag to turn it, scroll to zoom, and click a check to see how it was measured.

The question

A tenant wanted a multi-sport facility that also hosts large community events. The space was the east block of 1700 20th St in Oakland, a warehouse with two lines of pipe columns. We needed to know how many courts of each sport fit around the real columns, with enough ceiling and parking.

We tested six sports, one tab each in the model above. Each court had to keep 4 ft from its lines to any column or wall, or 8 ft all around for volleyball. Parking had to reach 60 car stalls. Our broker set these rules.

How we worked it out

1. Where are the walls? The floor plan in an older listing flyer for this block prints them: the main hall is 161'-6" by 112'-9", the wing below it 102'-2" by 73'-10". We pinned the plan to the building's north roof corner, found in a USGS airborne laser scan (LiDAR).

2. Where are the columns? The plan prints only rough column spacing and does not tie the columns to the walls, so our code measured their positions off the drawing. Column line A sits 46.8 to 53.5 ft from the west wall, line B 97.6 to 106.1 ft. That leaves three column-free strips: west 46.2 to 52.9 ft clear, middle 47.2 to 53.9 ft, east 55.7 to 62.7 ft.

3. Does each court keep its distance? Our code slid every column and wall through its whole range and measured the room left. Works means a check passes even at the worst end of the range. Tight means the answer flips inside the range, so a measurement on a tour decides it. Fails means it fails even at the best end.

4. Is the ceiling high enough? Nobody has measured it. The listing claims ±23'-25' and the older flyer 24'. The model reads a height claim as up to 3 ft lower, never higher, so the two overlap at 21 to 23 ft. Lights, heaters and the main roof beams hang below the rest of the roof framing, so the true low point may be under 23 ft. A laser reading on a tour settles it.

5. Is there enough parking? The listing claims ±78 stalls for the whole site, read as 76 to 80. Our row-by-row count on the listing's aerial photo gives 70 to 86, which agrees.

The answer

Pickleball: 11 courts, all Works. Nine sit in the main hall in three rows of three, 8 ft apart end to end, and two sit in the wing. Each keeps at least 7 ft from the nearest column in the worst case. The ceiling Works against the 18 ft we used.

Badminton: the same 11 courts, ceiling Tight. The 44 x 20 ft court matches pickleball, so the floor Works, but badminton needs 22 ft.

Volleyball: 3 courts Work on the floor, 2 more are Tight, and the ceiling is Tight. The three keep 8.2 ft or more all around. The two in the middle strip get as little as 6.7 ft with both column lines at the worst end of their range. They pass if the two lines tape 45.5 ft or more apart, face to face. Sanctioned play needs 23 ft of ceiling.

Basketball: 1 court, Tight. A 94 x 50 ft court can only go in the east strip, with 1.3 to 4.1 ft to the nearest column or wall. Where column line B really sits decides it. The other strips are too narrow for the 58 ft it needs.

Futsal (indoor soccer): Tight at best. A 30 x 15 m pitch in the east strip and two youth pitches in the middle strip all come out Tight. In the west strip, youth pitches Fail. A 40 x 20 m pitch fits nowhere.

Tennis: Fails. Three courts Work on the floor and two are Tight, but tennis needs 29.5 ft over the net.

Parking: Works, 76 to 80 stalls against 60, if the tenant can use the whole shared lot. Only 11 to 19 stalls sit next to this block.

The counts assume, until a tour confirms them: the walled east annex stays out (the listing brochure likely puts its ±5,600 SF mezzanine there), columns are 1.2 ft wide with their bases, none stand east of line B, and no floor is held for a lobby or restrooms. Event crowd size was not tested.

Sources and method

Floor plan, older listing flyer for this block, page 3: walls (±0.5 ft), rough column spacing, column positions measured off the drawing, 24' clear height.
LoopNet listing: ±23'-25' clear height, ±78 auto stalls.
Listing brochure, page 3: the ±5,600 SF mezzanine.
Listing aerial photo and an Esri satellite image from June 16, 2025: stall stripes. Each stall count gets ±2.
USGS 3DEP LiDAR (CA_AlamedaCo_2_2021) and Alameda County parcel lines: the building outline and its north roof corner.
Sports standards: court sizes from NFHS and NCAA (basketball), USAV (volleyball), FA 2019 (futsal), BWF via sportscotland (badminton) and LTA (tennis); heights from USAV, BWF via sportscotland and LTA. Basketball's 20 ft and futsal's 16 ft are working minimums from our past sports deals, not published standards. Pickleball has no official ceiling-height standard, so its 18 ft rests on weak sources.