America's Fastest-Growing Sport

indianpublicmedia.org

Editor's Note: A few years ago as my wife and I walked around the track at our local prak district, on the floor below us —usually used for volleyball and basketball—people (mostly seniors) were setting up what looked like tennis nets, then began batting a ball back and forth using what appeared to be oversize ping-pong paddles. That was our introduction to pickleball, which Shannon Mullen of NPR describes in a Feburary 19 article as America's fastest-growing sport. Here is an excerpt, with "the rest of the story" available through the link at the end of the page.

For the rapidly decreasing number of Americans who've never heard of pickleball, the obscure paddleball game is one of America's fastest-growing sports.

Invented in 1965 by three middle-aged fathers in Washington state, pickleball is a quirky cross among tennis, pingpong and badminton, played with a paddle and a perforated plastic ball. The founders are said to have named the game after a family dog called Pickles.

With 4.8 million people now playing — almost double the number from just five years ago, according to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association — some of the sport's devotees are capitalizing on pickleball's spike in popularity.

The game now has two national professional tournaments, both formed in the last four years, and pickleball organizers are courting corporate sponsors to help grow the sport in the U.S. and abroad as part of a bid for Olympic inclusion.

"We're still small and scrappy, but we're not so innocent anymore," said Stu Upson, who was hired in late 2020 as the first CEO of USA Pickleball, the sport's official governing body. The organization was formed in 2005 to set rules and promote the sport.

Upson believes pickleball can keep growing without losing the accessibility that's fueled its rise over the last decade.

"People are looking for avenues to have some fun, get some exercise, but do it in an environment that's not divisive," he said. "That's a pretty important thing in our society today I believe."

An 'addictive' game that won't stop growing

Most of pickleball's core players — those who play more than eight times per year — are over age 65, but the game is getting younger, with the strongest growth among players under 55, according to USA Pickleball.

But with so many new players, the U.S. is struggling to keep up with demand for courts.

The country has only about 10,000 places to play, by USA Pickleball's count, but that continues to grow by several dozen every month. Sports clubs and hotel groups, including Marriott and Omni Resorts, are converting tennis courts to or building new courts for pickleball, while a restaurant chain called Chicken N' Pickle that has locations in four states has said it will double its footprint within the next year.

Municipalities nationwide are trying to meet the demand for pickleball venue — so many that USA Pickleball is putting together a toolkit for community planners with guidelines and cost estimates for building courts, which can range from $300 for a temporary net, equipment and tape to mark lines, to $30,000 for a permanent court.

In Meredith, N.H., the town's Parks and Recreation Department offers indoor pickleball in a multipurpose gym that's also used for basketball, tennis and other sports.

The program is capped at about 50 people with dozens on the waiting list, and some pickleball players got so serious that their sessions are now supervised and players are separated by skill level.

"It's addictive so we just started playing and now with our other friends and relatives — actually everybody we know now plays pickleball," said Freida Yueh, who joined the Meredith program with her husband two years ago after they retired in the area.

This spring, the couple is traveling with two others to a pickleball training camp in North Carolina.

"It's going to be six days of intense video instruction and games," Yueh added. "I'm hoping that I learn just one skill that improves my game."

Pickleball is going from amateur to pro

Read the full story to find out how pickleball organizers are not only going professional, but hope to bring pickleball to the 2028 Olumpics.