www.fastcompany.com
Until recently, David Friedman and his friends braved New York City parks and playgrounds to get their pickleball fix. They brought their own nets and line tape, avoided the broken glass, and adjusted to the weird bounces the ball took on cracked concrete. We were competing with kids on scooters, he says. Pickleheads in other cities think nothing of setting up on tennis courts, but Friedman knew better than to try that in Brooklyn. Tennis players here will murder you, he says.For a time, his group got their dinks in at some newly constructed handball courts, until those got too crowded. This October, Friedman did what a handful of New York City entrepreneurs have been doing lately: He opened a private pickleball facility of his own, called PKLYN, which added five bookable courts to the citys rapidly growing total.Pickleball is Americas fastest-growing sport, as youve no doubt heard by now. According to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association, a trade group, participation has increased by more than 220% since 2020. As the game has swept the country in roughly counterclockwise fashion, beginning in the Pacific Northwest and arriving in the Northeast by way of the Sun Belt and Southeast, the shortage of courts has been acutely felt in densely populated New York, where indoor and outdoor space are both at a premium.Thats beginning to change, because some of those new players have become entrepreneurs focused on building new facilities. Everyone sees that as the primary [business] opportunity, says Eric Ho, cofounder of NYC Pickleball, an online guide to the citys pickleball courts and player communities.[Photo: courtesy CityPickle]And its an opportunity that businesses large and small are seizing on. CityPickle opened New Yorks first pickleball club in 2022, a four-court indoor facility in the Queens neighborhood of Long Island City. This past summer, it operated 32 courts around the city and sold a minority stake to ex-Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasrys Avenue Sports Fund. In another sign that serious investors consider the game more than a passing fad, CityPickle has expanded its partnership with the Related Companies, the real-estate developer that also owns SoulCycle and Equinox, in glamorous locations like New Yorks Central Park and West Palm Beach. Life Time, the national fitness chain, has also bet big on the sport and recently built courts alongside swimming pools, fitness studios, and other amenities in its New York City locations. Meanwhile, smaller operators (especially in Long Island City, site of two recent openings) are also pinning their hopes on New Yorks ongoing love of pickleball.PKLYN, which occupies a converted warehouse in the postindustrial Brooklyn neighborhood of Gowanus and charges up to $110 an hour, is aiming for more of a cool factor than most, with canned beers from nearby Threes Brewing and sandwiches by Alidoro. (Friedman, the facilitys operator and majority owner, says that two-thirds of his funding came from individuals, including local pickleball players, and that one-third was debt-financed.)[Photo: courtesy PKLYN]The courts are sleek gray and black, the exposed-bricks walls eggplant purple, and painted that shade not just for style points, either. Friedman notes that the dark colorsand the pointed absence of banners and other loud brandingmake it easier to track the neon-green ball. And whereas other converted spaces around the city can feel cramped and awkward, he points out that PKLYN has abundant room between courts and 23-foot-tall ceilings that allow for real lobs.[Photo: courtesy PKLYN]Pickleball entrepreneurs in other cities have faced fewer architectural constraints. In Los Angeles, the organizers of an open-air weekend flea market have added three courtsto their space on the roof of a parking garage.In Arizona, a company called Picklemall has set up in a 280-acre sports and entertainment complex. In hypercompetitive New York City, though, that kind of innovation can be harder.[Photo: courtesy PKLYN]New Yorks a pain in the ass, says Friedman, a former real-estate lawyer. Securing the real estate is one of the hardest parts, and being a great operator doesnt mean youre going to get a lease. Though he eventually scored one, for 10 years and with a pair of five-year optionsin a Brooklyn neighborhood, Gowanus, that is poised to become the next Williamsburg, no lessit wasnt easy. Many of the landlords he approached were skeptical of leasing to a business built around a potential fad, he says, especially to a tenant with no track record.Those obstacles have been less of a problem for CityPickle, which has made a name for itself with seasonal courts in highly visible and heavily trafficked spots like Central Parks Wollman Rink. The Manhattan-based company calls its 14-court complex therewhich operates from April to Octoberthe largest pickleball installation in the Northeast. (The new season begins on April 4.) It operates a total of six venues around the city, including the indoor club in Long Island City. Private courts there start at $40 an hour, whereas during peak times at Wollman Rink they go for $120. [Photo: Justin Steele/courtesy CityPickle]CityPickle has found the spotlight and some powerful partners in just two yearsincluding Related Companies, the developer of New York Citys Hudson Yards (where CityPickle also has a showcase court) and part of the joint venture managing Wollman Rink. In November, CityPickle activated 13 new seasonal courts in downtown West Palm Beach, Florida, in a development built by Related ex-chairman Stephen Ross.In June, Lasrys Avenue Sports Fund acquired a significant minority stake in CityPickle. Cofounder Mary Cannon says that the companys balance sheet and operational track record have positioned it to win contracts. Its in the licensing process with the New York City Parks Department to convert a 60,000-square-foot former construction site under the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge into a recreational space that will include 14 pickleball courts, food trucks, and a dog run.Cannon describes it as the sort of regenerative, place-making project that city-dwellers crave. Coming out of COVID, people want to connect, be social, put their phones down, move their bodies, she says. In five to seven years, we could see supply meeting demand in the suburban marketbut in urban areas, she sees it taking longer to fill that gap. She and Desai say theyd like to expand internationally, starting with Toronto and London.[Photo: Jane Kratochvil/courtesy CityPickle]The challenges of operating in New York City may be offset by the market for corporate events, especially as pickleballs relaxed reputation and accessibility have made it a popular alternative to networking at bars or golf courses. Weve gotten good at offering top-tier events to top-tier firms, says CityPickle cofounder Erica Desai. She adds that CityPickles dozens of New York City venues give it unmatched flexibility: When a Meta launch event for Threads at Wollman Rink was rained out earlier this year, CityPickle simply moved the event to its indoor facility in Industry City, Brooklyn.At around midday on a fall Mondaynot exactly prime timemost of CityPickles Central Park courts were in use for lessons or casual play. A group of girls in uniforms from a neighborhood private school dashed on, but others were almost certainly out-of-towners. The spectacular location, with the Plaza hotels mansard roof just visible over the treetops, makes playing here something a visiting Texan or Arizonan would do between shopping at FAO Schwartz and catching a Broadway musical.Pickleball tourism is a thing, Desai says.[Photo: courtesy CityPickle]Meanwhile, on weekends, younger crowds would spread out on the courtside cabanas to drink mango tipsy pickles, a house variation on a margarita. When it is suggested that this sounds like a moderately more active version of the West Village brunch scene, Desai and Cannon nod in agreement. We think of ourselves as a hospitality company. Its about the experience, leaving people with a certain feeling, says Desai.The feeling theyre chasing at the Life Time at PENN 1 is a bit more intense. Open since April, the 54,000-square-foot gym and health club in midtown Manhattan offers seven pickleball courts, 11 coaches, and many of the performance-enhancing perks and accoutrements enjoyed by tour-level pros.There are treadmills and Stairmasters for a pregame warm-up. Theres an app that will have a whey-protein smoothie waiting for you the minute youre done playing. There are also stretch specialists, cryo-beds, hydromassage beds, and Normatec compression boots available for worn-out muscles. As Ryan Brister, a regional vice president of operations for Life Time, puts it: Recovery, stretch, nutrition, all under one roof.Life Time founder and CEO Bahram Akradi, an avid player, has vowed to make the company the national leader in pickleball courts and programming. The upscale fitness chain has more than 700 courts nationwide and aims to achieve 1,000 by the end of 2025. Akradi has also helped to engineer a faster, more durable pickleballwhich was inaugurated at PENN 1 this past summer by retired tennis star (and Life Time advisor) Andre Agassi.We want to attract, and have attracted, the best pickleball players in the area, Brister says, adding that Life Times Manhattan two pickleball locations draw a younger crowd than its suburban one in nearby Westchester. This is a competitive crowd that has the will and the wealth to get better fast, he explains. Only the top-tier membershipwhich starts at $359 a monthincludes pickleball, but it comes with unlimited pick-up or open group play, as well as private courts for $60 an hour.[Photo: courtesy CityPickle]The free city parks are at the other end of the cost spectrum, but according to Ho, the founder of NYC Pickleball, they have become less beginner-friendly. On the public courts it used to be easy to hop in and learn the game. Now the lines are long and people dont want to wait for someone who doesnt know how to hit the ball. Its more harrowing, he says. His companywhich he left his finance job two years ago to manage full-timecaters to new players by booking indoor basketball courts at schools and elsewhere and charging between $12 and $25 an hour for court time.Ho considers pickleball a new third place between work and home, and has been struck by the amount of community organizing it has elicited, in the form of WhatsApp groups, communal gear bins, and more. But hes also watched the attitudes of New Yorkers change as more private courts have opened.At first, everyone was like, So expensive! But more and more people have come in, the free infrastructure is so limited, and it has become such an integral part of peoples liveshealth-wise, mentally, socially, Ho says. Even people who are unemployed have to keep their membership! Because what else are they going to do? Pickleball keeps them sane and active. Its worth it.
