Note: For the full experience, we recommend listening to this interview.
With over 48 million Americans reporting playing at least once in 2022, pickleball has now been . Courts are popping up everywhere, including the repurposing this summer of Connecticut's Stamford Town Center into 鈥淧ickleball America,鈥� the nation's largest pickleball complex.
Longtime Guilford, Conn. resident Patrick Smith has written a new book called 鈥淧ickleball! The curious history of pickleball.鈥� He has a theory on why Pickleball is so popular.
鈥淧eople are realizing that this is a very sustainable game as they move into their later adulthood,鈥� Smith said. "Now the range of players in age of course now is from preschool kids almost to their grandparents, who are playing with them across the court.鈥�
In 2022, the number of . That increasing popularity has attracted rich investors. . Smith said the benefits of Pickleball鈥檚 new higher profile outweigh any negatives.
鈥淎 lot of people play golf, and they're not all Tiger Woods,鈥� Smith said. 鈥淭here are a lot of people playing pickleball who are never going to make it onto the competitive circuit. I think it's [attention from celebrity investors] good for the sport to the extent that it will become more and more popular.鈥�
Of course, Pickleball is not popular with everyone. Residents living near Pickleball courts have made from racquets hitting the sport鈥檚 plastic balls. And, tennis players lament that .
鈥淭here are going to be more and more pickleball courts built than there are tennis courts,鈥� Smith said. And so it's a reasonable argument on the part of the tennis players to want to maintain the status that they have had for decades. But at the same time, time moves on, the sport moves on, and maybe it's time [for tennis] to move over.鈥�
