Photography courtesy of Chicken N Pickle
THE MOST ADDICTIVE SPORT IN THE WORLD by Craig Kaminer
Almost anywhere you travel in the United States, you can see people playing pickleball, waiting to play, taking lessons, competing in tournaments, or talking about the game over a beverage to anyone who will listen. In fact, the demand is so great, the majority of tennis courts in public parks, tennis clubs, country clubs, and community centers are being converted to pickleball courts as fast as you can reserve them. It’s no surprise then that pickleball is now the fastest-growing sport in America. Pickleball grew in 2021 to 4.8 million players, an incredible growth rate of 15% since 2020 and 39% from 2019, per the Sports & Fitness Industry Association’s (SFIA) 2022 Topline Participation Report, released in February 2022. Players, ranging from the occasional to the regular to tournament level, packed courts in more than 8,500 locations nationwide. St. Louis alone has more than 50 locations with dedicated pickleball courts. As background, pickleball started in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington (a short ferry ride from Seattle), when two politicians and a businessman created a game to keep their children busy on a rainy day. They grabbed whatever equipment 66 slmag.net
they had: a badminton net, some ping pong paddles, and a wiffle ball. The kids and the parents took to it so eventually they put some rules in place. Things moved quickly after that. By 1990, pickleball was being played in all 50 states. In 2008, the game received its first mass media exposure when it was featured on ABC’s Good Morning America. In 2010, the International Federation of Pickleball was established and by 2015, there were approximately two million players. In 2016, the first U.S. Open was held in Naples, Florida, (which now promotes itself as The Pickleball Capital of the World) and included the first nationally televised broadcast of pickleball on CBS Sports Network. The national championships were moved to the world-renowned Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, California, in 2018 and the Pro Pickleball Association was formed to provide professional and amateur pickleball tournaments for all ages. In 2019, there were 40,000 members of the USA Pickleball Association, a 1,000% growth rate since its formation in 2013. What started as a means to entertain bored children has evolved into a multi-generational craze which older adults, their
