Pickle Ball Scandal

I swear six months ago I had never even heard of pickleball now it’s everywhere
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MASON, Ohio — The public address announcer’s voice boomed as balls flew amid the chaotic symphony of plastic pops and thwacks.

So many greats had played and won here at the Lindner Family Tennis Center outside of Cincinnati: McEnroe and Agassi, Djokovic and Federer, Nadal and Serena. But center court was suddenly the stage for something very different.
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“We love tennis, and this is an incredible tennis facility,” the announcer bellowed, “but for today we are piiiiickleball!”


All eyes were on Anna Leigh Waters, 15, and Ben Johns, 23, a mixed doubles team and perhaps the brightest stars in the rapidly expanding pickleball universe, phenoms changing the way the game is played and perceived.

Competing in the Baird Wealth Management Open, one of the biggest events staged by the Professional Pickleball Association, Waters and Johns are torchbearers for a young sport with a future as promising as it is unpredictable.

Quaint and complex, the game has been likened to chess on concrete and is most commonly compared to tennis, badminton and table tennis.

It also has exploded into a big business with no shortage of deep-pocketed investors and eager opportunists.


“We’re going to see way more growth in the next three years than what we’ve seen in the previous three years,” said Connor Pardoe, the founder and commissioner of the PPA.

“It seems like every day there’s something new and exciting and someone else that wants to get involved. It’s really hard to even predict three years out.”


Pickleball isn’t a sport at a crossroads as much as it’s a five-lane highway with everyone trying to merge while careening against the guardrails at top speed.

There are three professional leagues battling for players, customers, sponsors and superiority. Communities are racing to build courts to satisfy an ever-growing appetite, and investors are finding new ways to monetize the sport.

Meanwhile, the tennis community is trying to save its courts and safeguard its future.

There’s no blueprint for this kind of growth. Pickleball, with its quirky name and humble roots, was invented in 1965 and has long been popular in retirement communities. But it went mainstream only in the past few years.

Aided by a pandemic boom, there were 4.8 million players last year, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, though many in the industry suspect the real number is much higher, based on equipment sales and online activity.

There are now 10,000 facilities nationwide registered with USA Pickleball, with three new venues opening every day on average.


“A year ago, it was like the wild west,” one industry insider said. “Now it’s like World War III.”…….

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/20/pickleball-growth-tennis/