Writing about pickleball at The Landings in the dead of summer is at best a challenging task. A lot of our players – the smart ones - travel north to escape the oppressive heat. With court surfaces hot enough to melt the soles of one’s shoes, the heat is a primary reason we don’t have many, if any, tournaments during the summer months. What this means is it is difficult to find much to write about. That said, on occasion a good story drops in my lap.
Online magazine, The Dink, ran an article today about pickleball economics. In short, the article states that money spent annually on pickleball equipment has jumped 500%, from $50.8 million to $304.2 million in just the last two years. To be fair to our diehard tennis players, revenues from the sale of tennis apparel jumped 15% for the twelve months ending in June, proving that a rising tide does indeed lift all boats.
Is this to indicate that pickleball is more popular than tennis? Not at all. But nearly half of US-based racquet sport sales can be attributed to pickleball, indicating that as a new and rapidly growing sport, pickleball is setting the bar very high for all court sports. As the article notes, “…. the overall racquet sport equipment category has increased by 27%, to $684 million, in the last 12 months. This growth is primarily being led by an estimated 20% more buyers compared to a year ago.
According to Chris Kader, The Landings court sports pro shop has seen an increase in sales of pickleball paddles and court shoes. Shoe sales increases can be attributed to the fact that pickleball is played on a hard surface and regular players might go through a pair of shoes every three months. A plethora of new paddles, which promise dramatic improvement in our game come out regularly, creating a stampede to the pro shop for instant gratification.
While on the subject of money, I spoke with Elison McAllaster about the Special Pops Charity Open, which The Landings Club will host in November. It is a three-day tournament beginning on November 3rd. As always, the tournament features men’s, women’s and mixed doubles. This year, for the first time, there will be a separate men’s Open Challenge event offering prize money of at least $6000. Entries are open to players with ratings of 4.5 and above. The winning team pockets 50% of the purse with the rest distributed to the second and third place teams respectively.
The Special Pops tournament is always a terrific event that raises money for an important cause. It’s not too early to sign up for the tournament, and all players are urged to play, or support the tournament by volunteering to help. This year’s Open Challenge event is an added attraction so all 4.5+ Landings Club players should take notice. This a chance to strut your stuff in front of the hometown crowd. There are limited spaces available so sign up now. For questions, contact Elison McAllaster at elisonmcallaster@gmail.com.