Opinion: Pickleball pop-up at CityPlace in West Palm Beach a sign of the times for sport

If you go to CityPlace these days, you'll hear a new clicking sound and see something that is emblematic of our times.

Thirteen pop-up pickleball courts – operated by the same entrepreneurs who brought seasonal pickleball to Central Park in New York – opened for the season last week in a vacant piece of property within the popular West Palm Beach development.

From now through March, a razed parcel within CityPlace that used to house a movie theater, comedy club and restaurants, is home to pickleball courts.

"The real estate can be hard to find in cities," said Mary Cannon, who along with her business partner, Erica Desail, are the founders of CityPickle. "We couldn't imagine a more beautiful location than to be in the middle of CityPlace."

Pickleball courts are popping up all over South Florida as this sport, which went viral during the COVID-19 epidemic, reacts to the problem of too many players and not enough courts.

At first, pickleball pioneers had been content to play on tennis courts that were lined for the smaller pickleball courts, or on indoor gyms with hardwood floors already lined for basketball and volleyball.

But over the past few years, the growing number of new pickleball players and the sport's sudden visibility in pop culture, have persuaded luxury real estate developers, city governments and private entrepreneurs to make big investments in creating pickleball-only courts.

We are experiencing the first tremors of the coming explosion in pickleball courts.

The most dramatic addition is called The Fort, a public-private partnership with the City of Fort Lauderdale that is opening next month in a public park near the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

The 43-court facility, with a first-ever pickleball stadium for pro matches, will double as a place for local players to play and the headquarters for the Association of Pickleball Players (APP), which runs professional pickleball tournaments around the country.

The facility includes 14 weatherproof covered courts, locker rooms, food and beverage service and leagues, tournaments and clinics aimed for all levels of play.

Closer to Palm Beach County, one of the popular pickleball paddle manufacturers, Diadem, which is headquartered in Pompano Beach, has leased an auditorium on the north campus of Broward Community College. Diadem converted the college auditorium to a top-notch indoor facility with nine pickleball courts.

The auditorium's stage serves as an observation area over the courts as well as a lounge for players to drink beer and wine after playing.

In suburban Boynton Beach, the residential developer GL Homes is marketing its 11th Valencia community, Valencia Grand, by pointing out that it won't only have 11 outdoor pickleball courts but will include four indoor courts.

Indoor courts, particularly in South Florida, where the summer temperatures can be brutal, can be an enticing amenity for the large number of older players drawn to the game.

Pickleball Kingdom announced last summer that it is expanding its Florida operations with 15 new indoor facilities on Florida's East Coast between Miami and Indian River counties.

Meanwhile, The Pickleball Club says it will be opening its 9th Florida location next year in Greenacres. The facility is expected to include 16 indoor courts, three covered outdoor courts and a players lounge overlooking the courts in Greenacres.

It's hard to keep up with the accelerating supply of new courts.

On the municipal level, the City of Palm Beach Gardens recently opened a 24-court outdoor facility at its Lilac Park, where players play from dawn to 9 p.m., and rates are discounted for city residents.

The City of Boca Raton made room for pickleball at its tennis center in Patch Reef Park a few years ago by converting two tennis courts to six pickleball courts.

The demand for those pickleball courts was so high that the city converted another two tennis courts to pickleball courts at the tennis center.

But with 12 pickleball courts there, players still found the demand too high. So, this fall, the city began clearing land for a pickleball facility next to the tennis center at the park. When it opens next year, it will have 18 covered pickleball courts to go along with the 12 existing courts at the nearby tennis center.

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All these new pickleball courts come with a price tag for players.

This takes the form of seasonal memberships, priced-per-hour play, and resident/non-resident dual pricing for public courts.

I paid $25 for two hours of "open play" at the CityPickle courts in West Palm Beach, where rental of a private court for one hour can be as much as $80 – which would be $20-per-person if you're playing doubles, which is customary.

When The Fort opens in Fort Lauderdale next month, it's offering a $139-per-month membership that still requires a 20-percent discounted payment for a private court rental.

The Lilac Pickleball Court in Palm Beach Gardens sells a six-month pass for city residents that is just $35, and $350 for non-residents. Those fees apply to players who want to play between the hours of 8 to 11:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. The courts are free for the other afternoon hours.

Like many pickleball entrepreneurs, the founders of CityPickle see a future of pickleball being integrated more into food and dining, as well as being the backdrop for celebratory social events such as birthday parties, corporate team-building gatherings and wedding brunches.

Once CityPickle is dismantled to make way for construction at CityPlace after March, Cannon and Desail hope to replace it with a permanent facility somewhere in the area.

Meanwhile, people who just happen to walk by the pickleball courts at CityPlace will stop for a moment to watch the games being played.

That's part of the plan.

"The largest market of people are still people who haven't tried pickleball," Cannon said. "We want to offer something for everybody but we also want to attract people who have seen it, and are curious about learning to play."

Frank Cerabino is a news columnist with The Palm Beach Post, part of the Gannett Newspapers chain.