One of the most frustrating things about the rate that tennis courts are being cannibalized for pickleball is that many spaces can be converted into a pickleball court that simply won’t work for tennis. While tennis courts are the “easiest” targets for pickleball, converting alternative spaces doesn’t create the need for a costly long-term capital project to replace the lost tennis court space. Replacement projects are usually not even a consideration, anyway.
In an emerging trend that is long overdue, Pickleball clubs and associations are starting to pop up in retail space that has languished vacant since the decline of shopping centers. A group called Pickleball America is taking over an 80,000-square-foot anchor space in a Stamford, Connecticut mall. A space once occupied by Bed Bath & Beyond is set to open as a pickleball club at Lake Saint Loius. Shuttered Burlington Coat Factory and Old Navy stores are also sites for new pickleball facilities.
While pickleball is attracting jaw-dropping levels of commercial investment, there is no reason why municipalities can’t consider leasing arrangements for retail, warehouse, and even office space that has become available post-Covid. Pickleball can be accommodated in many of those locations. The sport requires less contiguous floor space and lower ceiling height than tennis. Tennis cannot fit into the majority of those spaces, but Pickleball can. Those alternatives should always be considered.
More efficient projects for the collective stakeholders can emerge when Parks and Recreation departments and facility planners step back to take a holistic view that accommodates multiple constituencies. For example, the city of Grapevine, Texas, converted a sand-volleyball court in a local park into four pickleball courts. That project simultaneously built three new sand volleyball courts at a much more desirable location for that sport in a lakeside park.
That was a win-win-win for Pickleball, Sand Volleyball, and Tennis. While the entire project was a little more expensive than simply converting existing tennis courts, the city emerged with better recreational infrastructure across all three sports for its residents.
This weekend I decided to have lunch at a “Chicken N Pickle” that recently opened in my local area. The food is basically on par with Applebee’s but served in a fast-casual setting. At lunch on Friday, the entertainment complex was filled with corporate off-site groups. The bar was hopping. I am certain that Chicken N Pickle earns much more revenue from food and beverage sales than the (exorbitantly expensive) pickleball court fees.
As I was walking around the venue, it struck me that the “Pickleball” lifestyle is a thing. There were a lot of people on site that clearly had no intention of playing the sport that day. Jeans and high heels are both a dead giveaway. Chicken N Pickle is essentially an entertainment center that happens to have some pickleball courts.
I doubt that tennis could ever work in the same way. While the racquet sport certainly enjoys some of the same lifestyle aspects, the footprint of a tennis court requires too much space and ceiling height. The best-case scenario would be one or two tennis courts attached to an entertainment complex similar to Chicken N Pickle.
At a minimum, with all the commercial investment pouring into Pickleball, municipalities should consider if the demand for facilities for that sport will eventually be sated without the investment of public funds. Converting tennis courts for the instant gratification of Pickleball players should be the solution of last resort, and only in conjunction with a long-term plan to replace the lost capacity.
- America’s fastest growing sport is coming to your mall. Nathanial Meyershon, CNN, May 15, 2023.
