If you’d never heard of it before 2020, you might be surprised to see all these courts popping up and major names like LeBron James putting their money behind pickleball. What is this sport and when did pickleball become so popular?
With an estimated 14% of Americans participating in the sport (taken from a report done by the Association of Pickleball Professionals) as well as several corporate and celebrity investments including the likes of LeBron James, Tom Brady, and Mark Cuban, pickleball is undeniably booming within the sports industry.
What Is Pickleball?
Pickleball existed for a few decades but has seen a rapid spike in popularity in recent years. The paddle sport was first thought up by Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell, and Barney McCallum in the summer of 1965.
It’s often described as a hybrid between tennis, badminton, and ping pong. Although certain rules can be difficult to understand at first, you’ll have it down once you go a few rounds on the court.
The history of pickleball is an inspiring story of how a community can grow as long as it’s inclusive, friendly, and shares a common interest.
Nowadays pretty much every major city in America has a slew of pickleball courts for you to choose from, and you’re sure to find a willing partner to volley with or someone to show you the ropes as you go through your first pickleball game.
When Did Pickleball Become Popular In The United States?
After Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell, and Barney McCallum invented pickleball, the new racquet sport had its first media exposure thanks to The National Observer after they published an article about it in 1975.
In this time, they’d set up the first permanent pickleball court in Joel Pritchard’s yard, something that’s still there today.
America’s newest racquet sport then got another article published about it in the following year by Tennis magazine. It featured in many more articles after this which gave fuel to its growing popularity.
The first official pickleball tournament was held during the springtime of 1976, at ‘South Center Athletic Club’ located in Tukwila, Washington. Most of the tournament’s participants were college tennis players. Their participation likely spread awareness of pickleball amongst people who played tennis.
While it started out as a makeshift activity using table tennis paddles on a badminton court, it grew into a national and international sensation.
The First Pickleball Association
The first pickleball association, known as the United States Amateur Pickleball Association (USAPA), was founded in 1984 by Sid Williams who was the first executive director and president.
The USAPA was created to grow pickleball on a national level. The first pickleball rule book was published during this time. This is probably one of the most important moments in the history of pickleball, as it’s the point when the sport became formalized and uniform, allowing it to grow and spread across the country.
Sid Williams began playing pickleball two years prior and also organized multiple tournaments before taking the position of founder and president of the first pickleball association. Sid Williams is considered a pioneer of pickleball and directed over 90 pickleball tournaments during his career.
By 1990, pickleball was being played in every state and by 1999 USA pickleball was introduced to the internet on a website called ‘Pickleball Stuff.’ The website provided players with information and pickleball kits.
The Steady Rise of Pickleball in the Early 2000s and the USAPA
In 2001, a pickleball tournament was added to the Arizona Senior Olympics for the first time. The pickleball event drew over 100 players and was the largest of its kind up to that point in time.
This was the first time pickleball was (kind of) recognized as an Olympic sport, even if it wasn’t yet likely to draw crowds of millions.
A new professional pickleball association was formed in 2003, known as the USA Pickleball Association (USAPA). The USA Pickleball Association would increase the game’s popularity in the following years. In 2005, they cooperated with several websites to create a reliable resource for finding USA pickleball sites. This resource would be known as places2play.org
By 2008, pickleball was featured in the National Senior Games Association (NSGA). That same year, ABC’s Good Morning aired a live, in-studio segment on pickleball. This was the sport’s first mass media exposure, and it would increase pickleball’s popularity even further.
In 2009, the first USAPA national tournament was held in Buckeye, Arizona.
Because it’s easy enough to convert a tennis court into a pickleball court, organizing tournaments is relatively easy and, most importantly, cheap.
This meant that as long as you could wrangle a handful of skilled players and find a place to set up at least six pickleball courts, you could set up a tournament in your city and generate some interest in the sport.
The Rise of Pickleball In The 2010s
A pickleball book for beginners was written by the USAPA and author Mary Littlewood in 2015. At this point, pickleball already had over 2 million players according to the Sports Fitness Industry Association (SFIA).
The first US Open Pickleball Championships were held in Naples, Florida, in 2016. It was also the first nationally televised game of pickleball on CBS Sports Network. By 2018, they had more than 2,200 participants and over 7 hours of live content, receiving 1.5 million views on Facebook.
By 2018, over 7,000 pickleball sites were listed on places2play.org.
USA Pickleball
In 2020, the USAPA got rebranded as ‘USA Pickleball’, along with a new logo and website.
The following year, pickleball had an increase in media coverage from the likes of The Today Show, BBC News, Forbes, and many more.
Modern Pickleball
According to a report by the Sports Fitness Industry Association, pickleball now has up to 8.9 million players in the U.S. Additionally, places2play.org now has over 11,000 sites listed.
Pickleball remains the fastest-growing sport, being included in PE classes, community centers, YMCA facilities, and the like. If it keeps up this momentum, I don’t see pickleball losing its hard-earned popularity anytime soon.
With the rise of large organizations like Major League Pickleball putting in serious money and getting large brand deals, the sport is only going to keep growing.
The sport has grown so popular that others are beginning to eye it uncomfortably, as it’s nipping at the heels of some giants that have been established for centuries. Tennis courts are being replaced and many big names from the sport are beginning to move over and set up their own professional pickleball teams.
Pickleball Popularity
What started as an afternoon of fun between friends on a badminton court has today turned into America’s fastest-growing sport.
There are pickleball courts all across the country and tens of millions of people willing to play pickleball with you.