Pickleball

Pickleball Embraces Golf’s Country Club Model With New $180 Million Florida Venture (Forbes SportsMoney) The country club model is coming to the sport of pickleball.
A group of investors, among them a rear admiral who served 30 years in the U.S. Navy, is investing $180 million to build 15 private, indoor pickleball clubs in Florida. The first location for the venture – known as The Pickleball Club – will open this December near Sarasota’s Lakewood Ranch, one of the nation’s top-selling master planned communities. Additional locations are in planning or the land acquisition stage for Bonita Springs, Port St. Lucie, Fort Myers, Venice and The Villages in Sumter County, with Florida being the prime target, at least to start. 

Gov. Jay Inslee shares his love of pickleball with ESPN (AXIOS Sports) Washington Gov. Jay Inslee appeared on ESPN SportsCenter on Sunday waxing poetic about pickleball.
Driving the news: The increasingly popular sport was invented on Bainbridge Island, which is not only Inslee's hometown, but "what is known as Mecca to pickleballers," Inslee said during the video.
Earlier this year, Washington lawmakers voted to make pickleball the state's official sport.
What they're saying: "People do come from all over the world to this court, to see where pickleball was invented," Inslee said, referencing the court at the former home of the late U.S. Rep. Joel Pritchard — one of the sport's inventors.

Pickleball takes off in Detroit (AXIOS Sports) One of the country's hottest sports is finding new devotees in Detroit.
State of play: Pickleball has exploded in popularity recently — participation grew 15% last year to nearly 5 million players nationwide.

Pickleball advocates want more dedicated courts (AXIOS Sports) Considered "the fastest growing sport in America," pickleball — a mashup of tennis, badminton and ping-pong — has made its way to San Francisco.

• But while the city's rec and parks department tells Axios it's working to meet the growing recreational demand of residents, local enthusiasts say there still aren't enough reliable places to play.

Life Time Leans On Pickleball in Post-Pandemic Push (Front Office Sports) Life Time Inc. opened its first pickleball-only destination in February, but the venue is just a small part of a growth strategy projected to bring the company $1.88 billion in revenue this year.
The health club operator, known for its country club culture, is committed to becoming the largest indoor pickleball provider in North America. Life Time plans to have 600 pickleball courts by 2023 — more than doubling the current 250.