A telling indication of where pickleball is commercially and within America’s zeitgeist can be found in Walmart’s selection of Black Friday merchandise. There, amid the usual holiday assortment collections of oversized TVs and endless toys and appliances, is a two-ball/two-paddle pickleball set marked down from $100 to $25 from Franklin Sports, the company that invented MLB’s first batting gloves 40 years ago.
Franklin has been selling pickleball equipment for seven years and now offers more than 300 pickleball SKUs, not including apparel. Like many looking to capitalize on the sport’s boom, President Adam Franklin is embracing the participation numbers (SFIA research indicates 223.5% growth from 2020 through 2023) and trying to assess the commercial opportunity in a market that’s already crowded.
Walmart’s e-com site lists 25 pages of pickleball products. Other large retailers, including Target, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Academy Sports + Outdoors, have made big holiday commitments. Finding the ongoing opportunity is getting more difficult, but with somewhere north of 13.8 million people playing a least once annually, there’s still a number of businesses trying to figure out their angle.
“We’re still seeing sales growth,” said Franklin. “From a participation aspect, the boom is still on; from a retail aspect, it’s maturing fast. I see a consolidation of brands and product selection coming next year.”
‘Sportainment’ venues such as Chicken N Pickle, which operates this location outside St. Louis, are mining food and beverage opportunities.getty images
It’s a 59-year-old sport that in many ways is still a startup, with a variety of leagues and scattered media exposure that seems discordant with the number of players. Pickleball’s grassroots base is expected to keep growing. Is that enough to make it a viable spectator sport, supported by TV and sponsorships?
That’s the question being paddled across the industry.
“In a lot of ways, we’re building the plane as it’s heading down the tarmac,” said Anne Worcester, a former tennis pro and executive, including a stint as CEO of the WTA. Worcester is now a strategic adviser for the United Pickleball Association, parent of merged and formerly competing Major League Pickleball and PPA Tour properties.
“Some numbers say there are as many as 40 million playing pickleball,” Worcester said. “So, the biggest question for us is how do we convert them to television viewers? Our top priority is making the most viable TV model and how to package what we have into a two-hour window.”
Stu Upson’s pickleball CV includes being commissioner of the 50-plus National Pickleball League, adviser to PBX Pickleball, president of the Pickleball Hall of Fame (33 members, no building — yet) and 2.5 years as CEO of USA Pickleball.
“From the start, I felt the real opportunity was on the recreational side,” he said. “That’s where the real growth has been. PPA has the best players certainly. But does someone like Ben Johns matter to a TV network or potential sponsor? Until pickleball has a Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan, are the people that aren’t fans yet going to want to watch? I think we’re years away.”
Franklin Sports now has more than 300 pickleball SKUs.franklin sports
At the top of the pro sports evolutionary ladder, real estate development is one of the most significant opportunities. Construction is also central to the most immediate business opportunities surrounding pickleball. There’s universal agreement that there aren’t enough courts. A recent SFIA study noted a 55% increase of dedicated pickleball facilities, yet added that at least an additional $855 million was needed to construct courts over the next five to seven years.
That’s catalyzed “sportainment” concepts like Chicken N Pickle, a combination pickleball facility and sports bar that also offers table tennis and cornhole, along with indoor and outdoor courts. The company’s 11th facility (38,000 square feet) just opened near Las Vegas. It hopes to open five more next year. Like Topgolf, the F&B side of the house is where the margins are.
“Whether it’s public or private, there just aren’t enough courts,” said Chicken N Pickle President Kelli Alldredge, a former WTT pro. “People think that public courts are our competitors, but there’s such a shortage, that’s not true.”
Further demand is expected. “One son has pickleball in 7th grade and the other tells me that the pickleball club in high school is the largest one,” said National Pickleball League CEO Paul Bamundo. “It’s coming at all ages.”
The pickleball/tennis rivalry is a lingering issue. There are still lots of tennis purists.
“I’ve been accused of going to the dark side,” laughed Worcester. “But I’m more optimistic than ever that we can work together.”
Noting growth across all racket sports, USTA CEO Lew Sherr said pickleball’s gains are not hurting tennis participation.
“It’s not a zero-sum gain,” he said. “Where pickleball and tennis are in conflict is largely in public parks, because it’s so much cheaper there to repaint a tennis court than build new pickleball courts. Figuring out how we work together is important and we’re on that.”
The tennis/pickleball contention brings to mind the snowboarding/skiing rivalry from a quarter century ago. Devotees of those two sports detested one another. Eventually, snowboarding helped save a foundering ski industry.
“Snowboarders brought new technology and new participants,” said Andrew Judelson, the former chief revenue and marketing officer at U.S. Ski & Snowboard, now CCO at Diamond Baseball Holdings. “The snowboard industry peaked and then skiing started to grow again. The same thing will happen with pickleball and tennis.”
Terry Lefton can be reached at tlefton@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
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