Brooklyn tennis enthusiasts Charlie Dulick and Michael Nicholas have recently been into another racquet sport, pickleball.
They are not interested in joining those who have started gaming in recent years. Rather, they have become a mixture of mistrust and anger as pickleballs grow in popularity.
Tenant organizer Dulik and city planner Nicholas are the founders of Club Leftist Tennis. Substack Newsletter Cover their favorite sports through a progressive lens. In a recently published manifesto, “against pickleball‘, they called on tennis players to ‘oppose the spread of pickleball gangrene everywhere’.
Dulik, 27, and Nicholas, 28, adopted a semi-satired tone in their essays. But they’re serious about disrespecting pickleball, which combines badminton, ping-pong and tennis. In fact, the two of them are now participating in a cultural battle that’s raging from New York to Hawaii. Pickleball players look for a place to play, tennis players defend their positions.
Officials in Asheville, North Carolina submitted plan Tennis players rebelled to convert Murphy Oakley Park’s three tennis courts into eight pickleball courts. In Arizona there was so much bad blood between the two factions. a law office Provided guidance to homeowners associations on how to avoid lawsuits. A Hawaiian tennis player complained that the organizers of her Pacific Rim Pickleball Cup created a potential safety hazard on the court. “sticky glue” They lined the pickleball line with yellow tape and then left it behind.
Tensions rose at a town meeting called by one resident when pickleball players in Exeter, New Hampshire, petitioned to convert three of the town’s eight public tennis courts. “The Great War of Tennis vs. Pickleball in 2022”Martina Navratilova, winner of 59 Grand Slam tennis titles, weighed in on the ruckus in Exeter. on Twitter.
Tennis advocates have expressed frustration at the spate of reports documenting the sport’s rise. “Is pickleball the next great pastime?‘ asked the New York magazine just before the NPR article called it “America’s Fastest Growing Sport” The New Yorker said, “Can Pickleballs Save America?The New York Times asked the question under the headline, “Why Pickleball is So Popular?”
Dulik lamented the media response. “It’s always the exact same phrase: ‘Pickleball is much more accessible and fun than tennis.'” “Pickleball is the fastest growing sport,” he said. “I’m tired of being blatantly sold on something.”
Pickleball devotees say their sport is the people’s sport. It can be played by young and old alike and is actually popular. retiree communityThey strengthen their case by describing tennis as an elitist country-club pursuit.
The Growing Appeal of Pickleballs
A mashup of tennis, badminton and ping pong, the sport has long enjoyed a cult following. Now it’s becoming mainstream.
Tennis enthusiasts will rave about the sport’s elegance, captured in the poetry of Galway Kinnell and Robert Pinsky and the dreamy documentary John McEnroe: In the Kingdom of Perfection by French filmmaker Julien Farrow.
There are more than 10,000 registered pickleball facilities in the United States, according to. american pickleball, the national governing body of sport. “We added about 1,000 sites last year,” said Carl Schmits, his Pickleball executive in the United States, up from 938 the year before.
With the boom coming so quickly, many new players are struggling to find places to play. Schmitz said he regularly consults with local officials who have to deal with seemingly irreconcilable differences between pickleball players and tennis players.
Long Beach, California, a city of 460,000, has one dedicated pickleball court and 57 tennis courts in the park. This discrepancy led the authorities to “Pickleball Master PlanSuggestions include adding bright orange or yellow lines to tennis courts to allow pickleball to be played.
However, sharing can be tricky for both groups. Many different nets are used in the sport, and tennis players complain about cluttered lines. There is also the question of who controls court time.
“The trend is towards dedicated facilities,” Schmitz said.
In Florida, a group of real estate developers is spending $180 million to build 15 private pickleball clubs, including a 33,000-square-foot facility in Sarasota with 12 indoor courts, cafes and retail stores. increase. This is one of dozens of private and public sectors. ongoing project Nationwide. Florida venture partner Matthew Gordon said: told the press: “We plan to be the market leader at the very important land acquisition stage of this industry.”
Pickleballs have been around since the mid-1960s, invented by a vacationing father of three on Bainbridge Island, Washington, who was trying to entertain his bored kids. But for decades it had little ripple. Even today, the number of US players is estimated to be around 5 million. 2022 report From the Sports & Fitness Industry Association.By contrast, about 21 million Americans started playing tennis In 2020 alone, according to the Physical Activity Council.
Still, the hunger for court space seems to be insatiable, and the tales of pickleball as the next big thing are endless. Its newfound popularity is often framed as a grassroots revolution fueled by nothing. in pickleball magazine It is described as the “unique transformative power” of sports.
The word fits the ecstatic tone used in sports marketing. It is often touted as a uniting force that can bring men and women of all ages, Republicans and Democrats together. paper described the sport as “comfortable and exhilarating”.
“It’s more than the sheer thrill of gaming,” the story continues, “causing bigger, happier, healthier, kinder things in players’ lives.”
For some tennis enthusiasts, everything is a pot. Durik and Nicholas argue that pickleball is not a grassroots sport, but was pushed into the United States by wealthy entrepreneurs looking to make money from the fad.
Many of the sport’s most influential boosters are seasoned investors.Conor Pardeau, who created Professional Pickleball Association Tour is the descendant of Utah real estate developers.Tom Dundon I currently own a PPA, is a Texas billionaire who made his fortune with subprime car loans. Self-promoting marketing His executive Gary Vaynerchuk is the latest to jump on the bandwagon.he bought a professional pickleball team And the game says “save people’s lives. ” This sport is LeBron James and Tom Brady I recently invested in a pro team.
Co-founder Kaitlyn Thompson racketA publication and retail brand that celebrates the style, history and culture of tennis, likened pickleball to an NFT or cryptocurrency. “It’s like the ‘Watch the hockey stick grow!’ sales pitch you see at some VC firm,” he says Thompson. “The same energy permeates.”
“I remember playing pickleball in middle school in Atlanta and thinking, ‘Oh, that’s tennis for non-athletes.'”
such slanderous comments Dinkheads.coma website for pickleball fans owned by conservative commentator Michelle Malkin.anti-pickleball waris unfolding in the tennis world.
Journalist and author Ann Helen Petersen recently took aim at the discontent of tennis players, writing: on Twitter: “Pickleball has a low barrier to entry and is a lot of fun. If you’re mad about people playing on your court, ask for more courts.”
Tennis seems to be losing out to public image campaigns. Case in point: Tennis magazine, which has covered the sport since 1965, featured pickleball star Ben Johns. on the cover of that summer issue. And the Bobby Riggs Racket & Paddle, a Southern California club named after the tennis legend, is now Nike Pickleball Camp And we are promoting it with a new slogan. Players dream. The Tennis Channel View professional pickleball games — Including the date Roger Federer announced his retirement.
“There are few things more depressing than turning on the tennis channel and watching pickleball,” Thompson said.
Tensions are particularly high in Manhattan, a part of the country where space is at a premium. The problem started last spring when Corporal John A. Serravalli’s playground in the West Village was invaded by a pickleball his player.
For 60 years, Selavali Park has been a neighborhood children’s playground with swings and jungle gyms. This year, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation approved two pickleball courts there. Many more players could get the site’s open blacktops with just a cell net and chalk or tape to make the court. At times, up to 12 unsanctioned courts were held.
Most of the athletes at Selavali Park were men in their 20s and 30s, not older people who enjoy light exercise. And far from the happier, healthier, kinder nature that pickleball was supposed to bring, Serravalli players muscled their kids out of the way to play a hotly contested game. By September, parents and pickleballs were yelling at each other while the kids watched in confusion.
Writer and father of two, Mark Borden Change.org petition To have the Parks Department finish the pickleball at Serravalli Park. “There seems to be a lack of awareness of pickleball players,” he said. “They’re blinded by their passion for their sport.”
Carefree, pickleballers kept popping up.
“Suddenly it just becomes a nightmare” Katherine Heddenwas the U.S. pickleball ambassador in Manhattan and was at the center of battles at Selavali Park and other pickleball hotspots.
Hedden, 66, retired from the TV news industry, said the competition for public space was predictable. Since 2019, she has been lobbying the city’s parks department, community committees, and indoor tennis club owners to install more pickleball courts.
“I kept saying, ‘Get ready for the boom,'” she said. “It’s like a movie where you see a meteor coming.”
At the William F. Passanante Ballfield, another playground in lower Manhattan, Hedden, who often attends pickleball games on Sundays with permission from the Parks Service, said some players crossed the line. admitted. Recently, while she was playing a game on Sunday, a group of young men showed up with nets and tried to force her off the court.
Nonetheless, her solution to the pickleball war might sound like a war of words to tennis players.
“We need a facility like the Central Park Tennis Center,” Hedden said, referring to the 30-court complex with locker rooms and pro shop. “Because the two sports are equal.”