Pickleball players in Waterloo region, Guelph press for dedicated courts as sport popularity swells

Pickleball players in Waterloo region and Guelph hope to one day have dedicated courts in their communities to play the popular, growing sport.

Right now, both the Pickleball Guelph Association (PGA) and Pickleball of Waterloo, Wellington Region (POWWR) spend their time playing on courts they pay to rent that are designed for tennis and badminton. They say if courts are built, more people will join.

Both groups are making accommodations that require different court lines to play the game, which is a cross between tennis and badminton, with a few differences. 

The PGA said it has access to a number of outdoor courts and recently, they were able to rent indoor gyms at local schools. Meanwhile, POWWR has the opposite problem. They have the indoor space but could use a few more outdoor courts to play.

"I think when COVID hit, people realized there weren't any dedicated Pickleball courts outside and people were stuck, if you want to say, playing on tennis courts where the nets are not the right height," said Fiona McGregor, the president of POWWR.

"There weren't any lines. They had to chalk them themselves. The cities put some lines in the KW area and Cambridge but it's not the same designated Pickleball courts that you get in other towns like Kenora or St.Thomas where they've got ... courts and they're strictly for Pickleball," she added.

MacGregor said the group, which has about 200 members, organizes tournaments, and leads clinics for coaches, referees and players.

Pickleball continues to grow

Karen Rust, president of Pickleball Canada, said a recent Ipsos survey indicated there are about 900,000 households in Canada playing the sport, up from an estimated 350,000 two years ago.

In the U.S, where the sport originated, there are 4.8 million players, according to the 2022 Sports and Fitness Industry Association. And it has a league of its own with athletes like Lebron James investing in an Austin Texas based team in Major League Pickleball.

A number of clubs have cropped up in various municipalities in southern Ontario including Stratford, St. Marys, Fergus, London and St. Thomas.

Call for more courts

Elden Morais, a member of the PGA and sits on the board, points to Tecumseh near Windsor, which opened 10 dedicated Pickleball courts in June and saw membership rise from 400 to 615 in mere months.

Morais thinks the same will happen locally and help advance the game and the player.

"When players want to sort of progress and become very competitive and they've played on dedicated courts, they're not really willing to play too much on these outdoor courts," said Morais.

"So having dedicated courts where they have the net at the right size, they have the right kitchen line [non-volley-zone] and the flooring is good, it increases the professionalism of the game and it attracts the good players," he added.

For MacGregor, she's putting a call out for space that could help advance the game.

"Anybody out there that has a warehouse they'd like to fill it with a bunch of Pickleball courts, we would love to run it," she said.