Pickleball’s next phase is getting easier to spot: it is showing up not just in participation charts, but in the way cities, landlords, and sports institutions are making decisions around it.
Banking off our recent discussions surrounding the placement of courts: this week, we look at the sport as a real estate strategy, a legitimacy fight turned governing breakthrough in France, and one very entertaining reminder that even elite athletes can get clipped.
→ This Week: Vacant space, full courts | France makes pickleball official | Even Kyrgios isn’t safe
From Vacant Space to Full Courts
PICKLEBALL IS BECOMING A REAL ESTATE STRATEGY
For years, pickleball looked like a space problem: too many players, not enough dedicated places to put them. Now, it is starting to look like a space solution.
Seattle has allocated $2.1 million for a dedicated pickleball facility at Magnuson Park by 2026, while Sterling Heights, Michigan is turning an existing commercial building into a municipally operated indoor pickleball hub, with a $10 million total investment and a July 2026 target opening.
That is a meaningful shift. Cities are no longer just squeezing pickleball into leftover space; they are repurposing real estate around it.
Private operators are making the same bet. Pickleball America took over a former Saks Off 5th at Stamford Town Center for an 80,000-square-foot indoor venue, while Pickleball Kingdom opened a 15-court club at Holyoke Mall in the former Bob’s Store space and says it has more than 400 U.S. locations awarded across its franchise system.
The broader retail logic is getting easier to see. NRF says indoor mall visits rose 1.8% in the first half of 2025 and visit duration rose 3.3%, while ICSC says experience-and-service tenants help create longer dwell times.
Meanwhile, service-oriented businesses leased just over half of U.S. retail square footage in 2025 for the first time. Pickleball fits that shift almost perfectly: it is social, repeatable, hard to digitize, and big enough to matter now that SFIA says 24.3 million Americans played in 2025.
This is especially relevant in the U.S., where billions of square feet of empty malls need tenants before they crumble from disuse; but really, it’s a model for anywhere in the world where large buildings are underutilized.
The story now is bigger than court growth: pickleball is increasingly being used to make dead or underused space work again.
Could you keep this pace?
This is a special highlight of the week because it’s a rare glimpse into what it’s like to win a point against a pro athlete — in this case, tennis pro Nick Kyrgios.
It’s OK if tennis is more your sport, Nick. But that tweener was pretty rad.
JOOLA Pro V: Five Shapes, One Very Real Question
The new JOOLA Pro V line is built around a simple idea: not every winning style looks the same.
Perseus brings the classic elongated shape Ben Johns made famous. Scorpeus offers the wider standard profile for players who want stability and fast hands. Hyperion adds an aero-curved elongated feel for speed through contact. Agassi leans into a racket-style elongated shape with real tennis DNA.
And then there’s Kosmos, JOOLA’s new hybrid silhouette, trusted by Federico Staksrud and Tyson McGuffin, blending reach and forgiveness in one very intriguing package.
Number You Should Know
$10 million
That is the scale of Sterling Heights’ planned investment in a municipally funded indoor pickleball facility. It is a strong sign that some cities now see dedicated pickleball space as real civic infrastructure, not just a recreational afterthought.
Source: City of Sterling Heights.
FIGHTING FOR LEGITIMACY IN FRANCE
France’s pickleball story is not really about surprise growth as much as overall legitimacy.
In January, the French Tennis Federation (FFT) received the sport’s official ministerial delegation, giving it the authority to organize, structure, and grow pickleball nationally. France is now treating pickleball less like a novelty and more like a real racket-sport category, with rules, licenses, rankings, and competition pathways.
What makes the story more interesting is that this did not happen quietly.
Le Monde reported last year that pickleball had become the subject of a fight between the French tennis and badminton worlds over who would control it, a sign that the sport had grown important enough for established federations to want it. France now appears to have its answer.
The Bulletin Board
Interesting tidbits from within the pickleball community:
NEXT WEEK…
Can you guess where we’re headed? Respond to this email with your guess. First one to get it right will receive something nice!
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Letter from the Editor
FROM TREND TO INSTITUTION
One of the most interesting things about pickleball right now is that the sport is starting to affect decisions far beyond the baseline. Pickleball has become a story about land use, municipal planning, retail reinvention, and institutional control.
When cities put money behind dedicated facilities, landlords fill former anchor space with courts, and national federations fight over who gets to govern the sport, that is a sign pickleball has moved well past novelty.
It is no longer just whether people want to play or watch pros play. In more and more places, the question is what pickleball can do for a property, a city, or a governing body. That is a much bigger story, and probably a much more global one, than the old “fastest-growing sport” framing by itself.
Do not hesitate to email Adam or connect with him on LinkedIn with questions, concerns, or story ideas!
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