For several years now, pickleball has been the fastest-growing sport in Florida and the rest of the country.
Also increasingly popular the last year or so, amid blazing hot temps? Indoor pickleball.
Pickleball Kingdom, the self-proclaimed "largest indoor pickleball entity," announced in a release Thursday a major expansion along the east coast of the Sunshine State with 15 new indoor facilities planned for Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Brevard, St. Lucie, Indian River, and Martin counties.
"We're thrilled to introduce Pickleball Kingdom to the vibrant communities of the East Coast of Florida through our multi-location deal," said Ace Rodrigues, Founder and CEO of Pickleball Kingdom. "The pickleball community in Florida is one of the greatest."
Pickleball Kingdom facilities offer climate-controlled indoor courts, lounge areas and training programs, the release said.
Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.
No dates or specific locations have been announced. Sanjay Patel and Dhaval Patel of Pickleball X Equity are inviting inquiries from potential franchisees.
Indoor pickleball sprouting across Florida
When you live in a state with regular triple-digit heat indexes, an air-conditioned sport sounds pretty good. In just the last few months the following indoor pickleball facilities have opened up:
- Boynton Beach: GL Homes added an indoor pickleball facility to its 659-unit Valencia Grand development in April.
- : The 27,000-square-foot Pickle Pad opened in June.
- Satellite Beach: Pickle Beach is expected to open this winter.
There are indoor courts coming to Jacksonville, the Villages and Pinellas Park. One company, The Pickleball Club opened in Sarasota in May last year and is planning at least 15 locations over the next few years, average 34,000 - 40,000 square feet each.
What is pickleball?
Pickleball contains elements of tennis, badminton and ping-pong and can be played one-on-one or in doubles. Players use non-stringed paddles that are somewhere in size between a ping-pong paddle and a tennis racket to hit a plastic ball, which is larger than a tennis ball and has holes in it like a wiffle ball.
The court is much smaller than a tennis court (you can fit a pickleball court on each side of a tennis court, in fact) with a lower net. Seven feet from the net, on both sides, is an area called the "kitchen" where players are not permitted to volley the ball. Scoring is closer to racquetball than tennis: only the serving team can score, and the game goes to 11.
Gameplay is similar to tennis, although, unlike tennis, on the serve the ball must bounce once on each side of the net before it is returned, after that one bounce on both sides players may volley without a bounce or with one bounce per side. The result is a fast-paced, low-impact sport that can be played indoors or out.
Who invented pickleball?
According to USA Pickleball, the game was invented in 1965 by three dads — state Rep. Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell and Barney McCallum — after Pritchard and Bell arrived at Pritchard's home and saw their families sitting around bored. They had a badminton court but not enough equipment, so they improvised with ping-pong paddles and a wiffle ball. McCallum was shown the game the next weekend and the three men created new rules.
Pritchard went on to become a state senator, a U.S. congressman, and the lieutenant governor of Washington, but his historical legacy may be his contribution to weekend activities.
Why is it called pickleball?
There have been two official stories. One is that the game was named after the Pritchard's dog, Pickles.
But Joan Pritchard has long said she came up with the name "pickle ball" after the leftover rowers who would race for fun in local "pickle boat" crew race competitions, and her family has backed her up.
In 2021, Pickleball Magazine decided to get to the truth and in true journalistic form, tracked down the records proving the "Pickles" the dog was born three years after the game was created.
Why does Florida like pickleball so much?
The obvious answer is that pickleball is a low-impact, easy-to-learn but exciting game that doesn't require a lot of running or athleticism. Pickleball appeals to seniors, and Florida famously has a lot of those. And when pickleball began to really take off a few years ago, as we were settling into a pandemic and needed outdoor things to do, that may have been true.
Almost 20% of all pickleball players in 2021 were ages 55 and up, according to the Association of Pickleball Professionals (APP).
But as of this year, the largest age group of pickleball players is between 18-34, 28.8% of all players, according to pickleheads.com. Pickleball player growth was the fastest among players under 24 years of age. In 2023, there were an estimated 48.3 million pickleball players in the U.S., the APP said, with 13,969 pickleball courts around the country.
Pickleball has become cool.
Pickleball also can be played year-round here, which certainly helps. Local communities have invested millions in new courts and facilities.
Florida has the second-highest number of pickleball courts in the U.S.
Of the 10,320 pickleball courts in the U.S. in April 2023, Florida had the second-highest number with 770 known locations, according to pickleheads.com, falling just short of California's 794. Texas is third but way behind both states, with 519.
The 1st U.S. Open Pickleball Championship was held in Florida
The inaugural U.S. Open Pickleball Championships were held in Naples, Florida, in 2016, which also marked the first nationally televised broadcast of pickleball — a one-hour prime-time special — on CBS Sports Network. It attracted 860 players and 10,300 spectators.
Most Popular
Comments / 0