From humble beginnings in 1965 as a backyard game for children on Bainbridge Island, Washington, pickleball has become the fastest-growing sport in the U.S. and other countries. The number of dedicated pickleball courts in the U.S. is expected to exceed 20,000 this year, as pickleball stripes are being added to tennis and basketball courts across the country.
An estimated 20 million Americans will play pickleball this year, about double the number from 2022. Once a niche sport for retirees, the average age of a pickleballer is 35 and dropping, an indication of the sport’s growing appeal to younger players.
Fans of the sport attribute its popularity to multiple factors — its physicality, its accessibility and affordability, and the camaraderie and community it creates.
“Pickleball is my priority, and it goes on my calendar first,” says Carole Maijka, 78, of Portage, who plays roughly five hours per week at the Portage location of the YMCA of Greater Kalamazoo. “The mental and physical challenge is incredibly fun, and the games move so quickly. I love how friendly the pickleball community is and find the social aspect of playing as important to me as the physical game. I have a whole new circle of wonderful friends who I can’t wait to see each week.”
More places to play
The Kalamazoo area has been swept up in the pickleball trend, as local municipalities and commercial enterprises add more and more courts. Currently, the region has 66 outdoor courts and 62 indoor courts, with 39 of those in commercial establishments.
In 2005, the Portage Y became the area’s first place for pickleball when it painted lines on its three basketball courts, creating seven pickleball courts. “We have a pool, a fitness room, a cardio room, a free-weight room and basketball, and now we have pickleball and pickleball instruction,” says Don Seibert, the Portage Y’s director of youth sports and family programs.
In 2019, the Courthouse Athletic Center of Kalamazoo, at 7365 S. Sprinkle Road, heeded the call for more places to play pickleball.
“We striped one court, then two, then four in an area also used for basketball and volleyball,” says Project Manager Ed Person.
The Pickle House in Richland, a member-supported private club, became the area’s first permanent indoor facility devoted exclusively to pickleball in 2016.
“Except for air conditioning and a ball machine, we don’t have any amenities,” says member Karon Jackson. “We just play. I mean, this place is meant for pickleball. That’s the point. I don’t know any place like it.”
The number of commercial courts has also grown. Last year saw two new facilities open: Friendly Pickle, on West D Avenue, and the Latitude 42 Pickleball Complex at West Hills Athletic Club in Oshtemo Township. The former offers eight indoor courts and four outdoor courts, and the latter 13 indoor courts and one outdoor court.
Robyn and Keith Goodrich are the franchisees of PickleRage, soon to open in the former D&W grocery store on Romence Road in Portage. They are bringing 10 new courts to a building that sat empty for nearly seven years. Of its 46,000 square feet, 38,000 will house the courts, with the remaining used for locker rooms and skill drilling areas with room for complementary businesses like massage services or a smoothie bar.
“Michigan is a hotbed for pickleball,” says Robyn, and she’s right. With more than 40,000 active players, Michigan ranks seventh in the country for states where the game is most popular, with the metropolitan areas of Grand Rapids, Metro Detroit, Kalamazoo/Portage and Troy/Ann Arbor being the hot spots.
Ruth and Michael Stoddard — she the owner of Latitude 42 Brewing Company and he a former partner in BASIC, a human resources outsourcing company — are principal sponsors of the Latitude 42 Pickleball Complex at West Hills Athletic Club. Prior to its opening, pickleball players at West Hills played on tennis courts painted with extra pickleball stripes.
“We were battling it out with tennis,” says Greg Cowles, head pickleball professional there, “but now we have room to grow and do pickleball programs, tournaments and corporate events. We can put 54 people on courts and not have wait lists.”
West Hills General Manager Betsy Sell adds that the new facility allows for expansion of pickleball at the collegiate and professional level. “For years we have hosted the men’s and women’s tennis teams at Western Michigan University. Everything in our pickleball complex was designed to accommodate our goal of collegiate play and professional tournaments,” she says.
Expanding outdoor courts
The city of Portage jumped on the pickleball bandwagon in 2017 by building its first outdoor courts at Lakeview Park, then added courts at Lexington Green Park in 2018. The city has since built 12 courts at Ramona Park, enough to host tournaments, and incorporated two indoor courts into a multipurpose room at the Portage Zhang Senior Center. Tennis courts at Haverhill, Lakeview and Oakland Drive parks have been painted with pickleball lines to encourage play.
In 2017, the city of Kalamazoo transformed a tennis court at Frays Park in the Westwood neighborhood into two pickleball courts. “The game immediately took off. The residents loved it,” says Patrick McVerry, Kalamazoo’s director of parks and recreation.
Since then, the city has converted a tennis court in Crane Park into two pickleball courts and added a pickleball court at the Henderson Tot Lot and this year plans to convert tennis courts at Spring Valley Park into eight pickleball courts and possibly convert one court in La Crone Park. Twenty courts have been constructed or converted from tennis courts in Parchment and the townships of Kalamazoo, Oshtemo, Richland and Texas.
Why people love the sport
Pickleball is played by two or four people on a court roughly half the size of a tennis court. The net is just 34 inches tall, and a pickleball is lightweight and perforated, like a wiffle ball. A pair of paddles and a couple of balls can be had for $20 or less.
“Pickleball is a great game because anybody can pick it up and play at any stage of life,” says Ben Ipema, who opened Friendly Pickle. Children as young as 6 and a 92-year-old man have played at the facility, he says.
“Pickleball is a great equalizer,” agrees Kristy Visser, Friendly Pickle’s general manager. “It crosses age, gender and economic boundaries. Being athletic does help, but that’s not the only aspect. As long as you can get to the ball, you have an opportunity to get the ball over the net, and then it’s up to the opponents to return the ball and try to defeat you.”
Visser tells of a mom who brought her son and his friend, ages 10 and 12, to Friendly Pickle and how they “joined right in with the adults” and of grandparents on the court with their grandchildren. “It’s wonderful to be able to bring those generations together,” she says.
The camaraderie engendered by the sport has led commercial facilities to offer corporate team building. When playing pickleball, “you no longer have the boss-and-worker kind of relationship,” says Ipema. “You’re peers when you’re on the court. And that’s a great way to get to know each other on a personal level.”
Mark Anderson, 66, of Scotts, gave up golf for pickleball after retiring in 2021. “The community is very welcoming and helpful to newbies,” says Anderson. “At most courts you can drop in to put your paddle in a rack and get in line. You play with strangers as courts finish their game, so you can go by yourself. It is the perfect level of exercise for most people, and much less expensive than golf. Pickleball is by far the most social sport I have ever played and the perfect sport for couples to do together.”
Sometimes the sense of community created by pickleball extends off the court. Seibert, of the Portage Y, taught a class of retirees, after which they invited him and his wife over to their house for drinks and food. “Then they said to me, ‘Don’t you have a pool?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ And they said, ‘We should come to your house.’ So, a week later, they came to our house, and we had a good time.”
Cowles, the West Hills professional, tells how pickleball can be therapeutic.
a game with Martin Robbins and BrieLynn Sturm. ©2026 Encore Publication / Brian K. Powers
“I have sat courtside and listened to people with so many different issues, from loved ones passing away to dealing with sicknesses and injuries,” he says, including a good friend who lost her husband.
“She said, ‘I can’t come back. It’s not that I don’t want to play pickleball, but I don’t want to come back to see all you guys. All we’re going to do is cry.’ I said, ‘Just let me know when you’re ready and we will take care of this.’ One day she walks in. She’s in her street clothes. She’s not there to play. She’s there to get all the emotion over with. And today she’s just back to being herself and playing pickleball like crazy.”
Pickleball also has obvious physical benefits. “You play pickleball on a smaller court, but you’re still getting a lot of movement. It’s still good cardio,” says Siebert, of the Portage Y.
The sport is also playable by those with disabilities. People have learned to play — and even serve — with one arm. For the visually impaired, pickleballs are available with a jingling bell inside. Taylor Nichols, a national champion wheelchair pickleball player, attended Friendly Pickle’s grand opening and played with people not in wheelchairs.
Economic impact
What’s good for pickleball players is also good for the economy. Friendly Pickle’s Ipema has invested more than $3.5 million to purchase 5.4 acres of land and construct his 24,000-square-foot facility. The Goodriches are paying $1.3 million to revamp their PickleRage space, which they rent from the Kalamazoo-based PlazaCorp real estate development company.
Pickleball tournaments also bring dollars to the community. When the Latitude 42 Pickleball Complex hosted the Zoo City Smash in November, 258 players participated, many of whom dined in local restaurants and stayed in area hotels. The 2026 Pickleball Fever in the Zoo, set for May 1–3, is expected to draw 300 players to the same venue.
The future of pickleball
Projections for pickleball look like the upward arc of a high lob. Forty million Americans are expected to be playing the game by 2030, according to Steve Kuhn, founder of Major League Pickleball. The National Collegiate Athletic Association will recognize pickleball as a varsity sport when at least 40 colleges or universities sponsor the sport. Currently, more than 125 have club teams.
Pickleball could become an Olympic sport by 2032 if the number of players around the globe increases to minimum requirements and if rules are standardized. Hybrid enter-tainment and social clubs combining pickleball with food and spirits can already be found in Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids.
This forecast resonates with the Portage Y’s Seibert, who gives this advice to those who haven’t yet tried pickleball: “Play. Just go out and play the game. Have fun.
Enjoy it.”
