OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — From public parks, to restaurants, community centers, and apartment complexes, pickleball courts are popping up all over the Kansas City area.
Information from the USA Pickleball’s 2022 factsheetshowed the average age of a pickleball player dropped below 40 in 2021. The estimated number of players in the United States increased 39 percent in 2021 compared to 2020, reaching nearly 5 million. Experts said those trends mean the sport is only going to grow.
“I wanted to come and check it out, just see what it was all about,” Shelia Sommers, who first played at a Life Time gym in Overland Park six months ago, said. “It only takes coming once or twice and you’re hooked.”
Kat Tomlin has been playing longer. She coaches the sport and co-hosts a podcast about pickleball called “In a Pickle.” She said the COVID-19 pandemic is one reason the sport grew. She pointed out it’s relatively safe from COVID transmission as it’s contact-free and mostly played outdoors.
“All your worries and your problems are just kind of far away [when you’re playing],” Tomlin added.
There are several other reasons why the sport is gaining popularity: it’s easy to learn, it’s fun to play, provides good exercise and creates a social environment.
“Once you plant the seed, it’s word of mouth and it spreads very, very quickly,” Casey Parnell, pickleball coordinator for Life Time in Overland Park, said. “I’d like to take credit for it, but I think it’s just the natural state of pickleball. It grows like that on its own.”
Life Time, formally known as Life Time Fitness, is fully committing itself to pickleball. Nearly all of its locations around the country now have some sort of pickleball program.
“We want to be the ones who just shamelessly promote pickleball,” Ajay Pant, Life Time’s senior director of racquet sports, admitted.
He said Life Time is working behind the scenes to help create a uniform accrediting process for pickleball coaches and to make the sport even more accessible.
Right now, both the International Federation of Pickleball and Professional Pickleball Registry offer coaching credentials. Two different groups, the Pro Pickleball Association and Association of Pickleball Professionals run tournaments. USA Pickleball is seen as the country’s governing body for the sport.
“You can’t leave it up to chance, that's where you can totally mess up the entire industry before it even gets going,” Pant said of his team’s involvement.
From Lenexa, Kansas, to Liberty, Missouri, several municipalities have added outdoor pickleball courts to their parks since 2019.
Chicken N Pickle, a restaurant and pickleball venue, which first opened in North Kansas City in 2016, opened a location in Overland Park in November 2021. It has four other locations across the country, with three more under construction. Leagues play at their venues almost five nights a week.
“We have plans for so many more in the next year,” Cole Thompson, Chicken N Pickle’s pickleball manager, said. “We’re thinking probably 20 stores in all.”
Others have caught on to Chicken N Pickle’s success. SERV is under construction at Overland Park’s Promontory development. 54th Street Grill & Bar added pickleball courts to its Zona Rosa restaurant in 2021. The Sandbox, known for volleyball, now provides space for pickleball at its location near the old Metro North Mall. The Oak Ridge Family Social Club is slated to open in Kansas City’s Northland this summer with six pickleball courts. Overland Park rezoned land this month for a new apartment building, and Block Real Estate plans to build at the old SouthGlen movie theater near 121st Street and Metcalf Avenue. Included in the preliminary drawings is a pickleball court for apartment residents.
Each new venue provides more space for the sport to grow.
