It was 2018. The tennis courts in Queensbury’s Jenkins Park were sitting mostly idle. Meanwhile, there was a clamoring for infrastructure on an up-and-coming sport that could take up a fourth of the space. To the community leaders, the decision was an easy one: Goodbye, tennis courts. Hello, pickleball.
Pickleball, which resembles a cross between tennis and pingpong, has shot up in popularity over the past few years. There were 4.8 million players in the U.S. in 2021 — 1.6 percent of the population — up from 2.8 million in 2016, according to a Sports and Fitness Industry Association report.
The Capital Region is squarely in the blast zone of the pickleball explosion.
Cathleen Crowley Denbeaux started Pickleball518.com in November and by February, her newsletter had more than 1,000 subscribers. She also founded a Novice Club to introduce people who are new to the sport to each other, and 70 people signed up in two weeks. The Albany Capital Center held its first Classic Pickleball Tournament in January with over 150 participants.
But as the number of pickleball players grows, the availability of court time shrinks.
“Since I started playing probably 10 years ago it has just multiplied tremendously, and unfortunately the area’s not really keeping up with it, because we don’t have courts,” said Gina Family, a local pickleball instructor.
Though the COVID-19 pandemic may have accelerated the sport’s growth in some areas because it’s beginner-friendly and can be played outdoors, Family said she’s been seeing consistent growth in the Capital Region, more linear than exponential.
Like tennis, pickleball can be played in a singles or doubles configuration in an area on a court approximately one-fourth the size of a tennis court. Instead of a strung racket,…
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