Pickleball Craze Sweeps America: Demand Soars as Public Courts Struggle To Keep Up

It might seem like pickleball is an overnight sensation but the sport actually got its start back in 1965, when it was invented by three middle-aged dads outside Seattle on Bainbridge Island.

That history might explain why Seattle now boasts the highest number of pickleball courts per capita in the United States.

It remains to be seen how long the Northwest metropolitan area can retain its crown. In the past three years, pickleball participation has grown 158.6%, emerging as the nation's fastest-growing sport with over 36.5 million players in the country, according to the Association of Pickleball Professionals in 2022.

To accommodate the surging demand, there's been an increase of public pickleball courts in the 100 largest cities, yet despite the expansion, the demand still far outweighs the available supply. Only 15 cities have more than 10 pickleball courts per 100,000 people.

After Seattle, St. Petersburg, Florida, ranks second in terms of pickleball court availability, followed by Lincoln, Nebraska.

The nation's three largest cities, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, have 34, 32, and 35 pickleball courts, respectively. While these figures place them among the country's 35 cities with the most pickleball courts, data from Trust for Public Land, a park non-profit, reveals a disparity in court accessibility. In New York City, for instance, a staggering 100,000 individuals struggle to find even a single pickleball court. In Los Angeles, the ratio stands at a mere 0.8 pickleball courts per 100,000 people.