Is pickleball on the cusp of transcending the village halls and leisure centres of the shires and becoming a commercial behemoth in the UK, as it has done in the States?
That was certainly the inkling feeling I was left with after attending Pickleball England’s Pickleball Slam event at Franklin Pickleball Club in Kingston upon Thames last week.
For now, the venue is an empty warehouse next to a Post Office depot on an industrial estate in south west London. But (provided planning permission is granted by the local council – which many exasperated padel club operators will tell you is not a certainty) the venue could herald a whole new era for the sport of pickleball in this country.
Despite the heavy caveat of planning permission, the pickleball fraternity can be forgiven for getting very excited indeed about the opening of what will be the UK’s biggest commercial pickleball club.
Only one other purpose-built club exists in the UK – the three-court Telford Pickleball Centre in Shropshire. Owner Mike Lynch pioneered the concept, but the arrival of a certain Neil Rodford might be about to take it to a new level.
Rodford is a big hitter: founder of a sports and entertainment management agency, former chief executive of Fulham FC and now spearhead of MCMX who are funding and masterminding the 10-court Franklin Pickleball Club (note the title sponsorship) in Kingston upon Thames. It’s set to host a raft of community programmes, recreational play and tournaments and become a national centre of excellence. It will have an equipment shop, changing rooms with showers, food and beverage provision and more.
It will be run by two of English pickleball’s most accomplished coaches: London Pickleball’s Louise Stephens will be Director of Pickleball, with IPTPA Master professional Sam Basford as Director of Coaching and Events. Rodford says that once proof of concept is established by this initial club, plans are already in place for several more in the next couple of years.
This is totally new territory for pickleball in the UK.
Figures from Pickleball England’s February AGM showed that, despite a gradual downward trend in the average age of pickleball players in this country, 60-69 is still the dominant age bracket and the University of the 3rd Age remains a key driver of participation. This is no bad thing, of course – but the vast majority of this activity takes place in multi-use public venues which does not drive commercial investment into the sport.
Nets go up, then come down and everyone has to clear off in time for the badminton or five-a-side football session afterwards. Pickleball does not own its own infrastructure. It doesn’t have a home to call its own.
Contrast this with padel – a sport which obviously requires significant funding to erect those four glass walls and lay the specialised playing surface before a ball can be struck. That has driven an avalanche of home-grown and foreign investment into padel clubs, many of them in high-footfall urban locations. They can put roots down – filling courts round the clock, employing resident coaches, connecting with local businesses, pulling in big sponsors, forging links with schools and hosting big competitions.
Pickleball will naturally be concerned about preserving the elements that have been the bedrock of its growth up to this point – accessibility to all and a strong sense of community. Rodford provides reassurance: “I think pickleball will become very commercial but still accessible. Obviously that’s a difficult combination, but I think pickleball will have an explosion in the next three to five years. I guess as an investor I’ve got to believe that – but I really do believe there will be a lot more of these venues coming.”
Stating the obvious here, but the UK does not benefit from the favourable weather conditions that have spawned the vast outdoor pickleball centres in Florida, California, Arizona and elsewhere in North America. In the UK, we’re an indoor sport – and venues that are affordable, in accessible locations and have appropriate ceiling heights are not easy to come by.
So while it may be prudent to suspend over-excitable industry forecasts for now, we’ll be keeping a close eye on Franklin Pickleball Club and crossing our fingers. If successful, it will turbo-boost investor confidence and could usher the sport towards a prosperous new dawn.
