Pickleball: A New Frontier

Ryan Heshmati

August 23, 2024

Pickleball mania. That just might be the only way to describe the current craze surrounding the sport. In the Bay Area, it is common to have packed courts until the lights shut off to force players to conclude for the evening.  Pickleball is quite new to the world, considering it was founded in the 1960s by Washington politician Joel Pritchard. However, it has amassed a major following in the decades since its creation.

The game is often played on repainted former tennis courts (to the dismay of tennis fans) and has its fair share of idiosyncratic rules. For instance, each side of the court is split into three sections, one of which, referred to as the “kitchen,” can only be stepped into and swung from in certain circumstances. Nevertheless, the sport has grown quite popular. The Association of Pickleball Players (APP) reports that, in the twelve months ending with August 2022, 48.3 million American adults played pickleball. While having played once a year is far from being an avid fan of the sport, the numbers are significant anyway.

Further, the APP also notes the average age of those who played pickleball declined to under 35 years old. Due to the smaller court and limited space for movement compared to many other sports, pickleball gained a reputation as a sport for older Americans and retirees but the decline in average age indicates widespread pickleball adoption could change popular perception.

Pickleball is far from competing in the same arena as major racket sports like tennis. Prize pools are not even in the same universe between the two sports, and pickleball has yet to receive approval as an Olympic sport. ESPN’s Michele Steele reports that while many have optimism for pickleball’s introduction into the Olympics, there are several challenges to getting there, including a requirement of only one supreme governing body for the sport (pickleball currently has no clearmain authority).

It is not tennis, badminton or ping pong, it’s pickleball. Pickleball is the sport with momentum on its side at the moment. While sometimes seen as an eccentric little sister to tennis, pickleball has certainly gotten popular and it may very well move even further in that direction soon. If pickleball qualifies as an Olympic sport, that change will likely add fuel to pickleball’s run. Until then, at least with Bay Area pickleball courts, the game looks like it is already on fire.