There's been a sixfold increase in the number of public pickleball courts in the 100 biggest U.S. cities since 2017 — from 420 to 2,788 — but municipal leaders say they still can't come close to meeting demand from pickleheads.
- There's now about one pickleball court for every 24,000 residents in these cities, according to the Trust for Public Land (TPL), a pro-parks nonprofit.
Why it matters: Cities are in a love/hate relationship with pickleball.
- America's fastest-growing sport is a boon for players who are aging out of tennis — and others who dig its vibe — but it's noisy and draws nonstop complaints from tennis players who've been kicked off their turf.
- Meanwhile, cities can't build courts fast enough — and they're tapping everything from COVID-19 relief funds to municipal bonds to raise the necessary cash.
Driving the news: While pickleball has become a way of life in Florida, California and Arizona, even cold-weather cities are busy building dedicated courts or converting tennis courts to dual use, per TPL's list of U.S. cities ranked by pickleball courts per capita.
Seattle is #1, probably because the sport was invented on nearby Bainbridge Island in 1965.
- Lincoln, Nebraska is #3 on the list — which surprised even the city's parks & rec facilities manager, who chalked it up to the dedication of some local snowbirds who caught pickleball fever in Phoenix and lobbied their hometown to build courts.
- #6 on the list — St. Paul, Minnesota — is also #2 on TPL's list of the best U.S. cities for public parks.
Details: The top 10 pickleball cities on TPL's list include hot-weather locations like St. Petersburg, Florida (#2); Honolulu (#4) and Plano, Texas (#7).
- But they also include Madison, Wisconsin (#5); Omaha, Nebraska (#8); Boise, Idaho (#9) and St. Louis, Missouri (#10).
- No cities in the Northeast or California made the top 20. The closest were Washington, D.C. at #23 and Riverside, California at #29.
What they're saying: "The cities that have really good park systems tend to be the ones that have a lot of pickleball courts," says Will Klein, associate director of parks research at TPL.
- "Those are also the same cities that we found are the healthiest places to live," with the best measures of mental health and physical activity.
Case study: Lincoln, Nebraska, was introduced to pickleball in 2016 when a group of retirees came home for the summer and approached the city about refurbishing some underutilized tennis courts for pickleball, says J.J. Yost, planning & facilities manager for Lincoln Parks & Recreation.
- They formed a nonprofit — Pickleball Lincoln Inc. — and started raising private money to build six courts.
- "Very quickly they were a huge success," Yost tells Axios. "The usage was amazing, right off the bat."
- A few years later, they raised more money to build four more courts — and they're still at it.
Yes, but: Tensions between Lincoln-area tennis players and pickleballers prompted a summit meeting and the development of a master plan for outdoor racket sports.
- "Hardly a week goes by that we don't hear about some kind of concern [or] some conflict between competing uses," Yost says. "They'll say, 'I can't ever get on this tennis court because it's always dominated by pickleball' or vice versa."
- "We kind of joke around here about, how long into the day will we go without hearing about pickleball?" he added.
By the numbers: Carl Schmits of USA Pickleball, the sport's governing body, tells Axios there's a critical shortage of pickleball courts given the numbers — 23 million tennis players and 9 million pickleball players in the United States.
- So, "for every 100 tennis courts, there should be 37 pickleball," he says. "If you ever drive by a combo pickleball/tennis facility, you'll see a difference right before your eyes."
- Instead, there are about 250,000 tennis courts and 44,000 pickleball courts of record in USA Pickleball's 11,000-site database — or about 17.6 pickleball courts per 100 tennis courts.
Follow the money: While some cities are (controversially) using COVID relief funds to build pickleball courts, which qualify as a public health amenity, others are issuing bonds or relying on public-private partnerships to fund construction.
- Some noteworthy municipal projects include a 30-court facility in Wichita, Kansas; 24 courts in Evansville, Indiana; 49 courts in Daytona, Florida; and 22 courts in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Schmits says.
Between the lines: Most pickleball courts are privately owned and developed.
- They're a hot real estate amenity in upscale residential developments and resorts.
- Dilapidated shopping malls are being ploughed down and rebuilt into pickleball courts — as are defunct Bed Bath & Beyond stores.
- Schmits sounded a note of caution against overbuilding, which happened when tennis and racquetball were all the rage: "We do advocate a crawl-walk-run strategy" when it comes to building courts.
What's next: Padel, a racket sport from Mexico with a different court configuration from tennis and pickleball, is now on the rise in the United States.
- "Though there are only about 200 padel courts in the United States — most of them in private residences — the sport has begun to attract significant investment, and the pace of court construction has accelerated," the New York Times reported last month.
