** 6/27/24 - The economics of the tennis v pickleball contest - Don’t hate the new players—or the new game + 7/12/24 - Companies Are Ditching Golf for Pickleball to Get Deals Done (Look out golf: Pickleball is coming for your corporate schmoozers)
Buzz Sawyer
The economics of the tennis v pickleball contest
Don’t hate the new players—or the new game
Which is the greatest rivalry in tennis? Older players might reminisce about the “fire and ice” contests between the cool-headed Bjorn Borg and the tempestuous John McEnroe; those a generation younger might rave about the all-American duels between Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras. After a two-decade-long era dominated by rivalries between Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, younger players are at last starting to shine. Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, aged just 21 and 22, respectively, produce electric tennis—and have claimed four grand-slam titles between them since 2022. Do not be surprised if they meet again at Wimbledon, which starts on July 1st.
Yet these matchups look tame in comparison with the all-out war being waged between recreational players of tennis and those of pickleball—a sport that has gained widespread popularity in recent years, and which can be played on the same surface. In 2022 police in San Diego, California, had to be called to mediate a dispute when some pickleballers staged a takeover of a local tennis club. In Arlington, Virginia, a group called “Team Pickle-nah” leafleted the area around tennis courts due to be converted into pickleball ones, accusing pickleballers of hijacking courts, bullying children and urinating in public.
The source of the dispute is a familiar one to economists: the allocation of a scarce resource. Pickleball is a hotch-potch of other racket sports. It was invented, or so the story goes, when a group of Seattleites wanted to play a game on an old badminton court, but could find only table-tennis bats and a perforated whiffle ball to knock about. They made do. The result was a sport that is a sort of tennis “lite”—it requires less power, less running and is much easier to pick up. It has gained legions of fans since the covid-19 pandemic, especially among those over the age of 55. America now has 14m pickleball players, triple the number in 2020 and not far short of the 24m tennis players. In the absence of dedicated facilities, many pickleballers have taken to bringing nets and stickers to play on public tennis courts.
It is not just the study of scarce resources that might make the pickleball-tennis rivalry noteworthy to economists. It is also the nature of how the two sports interact. Basic economics teaches students about substitute and complementary goods. Substitutes are goods that can be replaced by one another—think Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Rising demand for one will lead to falling demand for the other. Complements are the opposite. Rising demand for one stimulates demand for the other—think booze and painkillers.
It is easy to see why the two sports appear to be substitutes. Public-court space is limited. There are private clubs for tennis and pickleball, but using them can quickly become expensive. As pickleball has added more than 9m players since 2020, the number of tennis players has also shot up. Growth in facilities has not kept pace. Skirmishes are prompted by various etiquette disputes, too. Noise complaints about the loud thwacking of pickleballs are common. In America public tennis courts often dictate that a court should be used for no more than an hour if there are players waiting. But setting up to play pickleball takes time. And should eight pickleballers not be allowed to use a court for longer than the four, at most, who can play tennis on the same patch?
In the long run, however, the impact of pickleball on tennis might be rosier. There is even an argument that, rather than acting as substitutes, the two sports may end up complementary.
First, it is hard to imagine there has ever been a time in which local authorities have been keener on the provision of asphalt surfaces. Muriel Bowser, mayor of Washington, dc, went to play pickleball in March last year, having committed $750,000 in a recent budget to the sport. City commissioners in Fort Pierce, Florida, a city nestled on the state’s Treasure Coast, were asked to step in to mediate a homeowners-association disagreement over the building of five courts in a gated community. They sat through a four-and-a-half-hour hearing attended by more than 80 people. Some of this energy will result in the conversion of tennis courts. But what is really apparent is a rise in demand for hard-court spaces on which to play both sports. If provision keeps up, it will result in more suitable surfaces for both sports.
Second, consider that the act of playing either sport is probably a complement to the other. Tennis is both hard to learn and athletically demanding. Pickleball is easier for children and the elderly to pick up. As a consequence, it could easily become something of a gateway racket sport—one that encourages children to graduate to tennis once they have a little more muscle and hand-eye co-ordination. A rise in the demand for pickleball might result in a rise in the demand for tennis, too. And this process might later work in reverse. Lifelong tennis players, who find the sport too demanding as they age, might enjoy switching to pickleball.
Up in rackets
There is a parallel with what happened to skiing after the invention of snowboarding in the mid-1960s. The rival sport fast became popular. At first, there was a backlash. Skiers were disinclined to accept baggy-trousered, young interlopers taking up space on their pristine slopes. Many resorts banned snowboarders, forcing them into dangerous backslopes. Yet in time their existence emerged as a boon for the resorts that did allow them in. They used the extra revenues to invest in expansion, new lifts and slope-grooming technology. This made both sports more appealing, inducing even more demand. The sports turned out to be complements and today only three American resorts maintain snowboarding bans. Having more winter-sport enthusiasts was good for winter sports. Despite the squabble, having more racket-sport players is probably good for racket sports, too. ■
Companies Are Ditching Golf for Pickleball to Get Deals Done
Corporate bookings at pickleball clubs are surging as companies realize the sport is cheaper, less time-consuming — and easier to play.
Look out golf: Pickleball is coming for your corporate schmoozers.
While golf courses have long been hailed as the premier venue for closing deals and wooing clients, a growing number are finding that pickleball saves them time and money — while being more inclusive and easier to play for newcomers. Corporate bookings at pickleball clubs across the US spiked in June from the previous month, according to PodPlay, a sports venue booking platform.
Individual pickleball club operators back this up, saying that company events are increasing exponentially. Ace Pickleball Club, with locations in various states, has had a steady flow of corporate gatherings, co-founder Joe Sexton said, with event requests at new locations piling up even before they open. Greg Raelson, chief marketing officer of Pickleballerz club in Chantilly, Virginia, said corporate bookings have roughly tripled since 2021. New York’s Life Time health club is fielding 10 to 20 corporate booking inquiries per week — more than five times last year’s volume.
The court is becoming especially popular among lawyers, bankers and realtors looking to expand their professional circles. In Rochester Hills, Michigan, pickleball instructor Robert Dunn said he sees lawyers with clients, business types talking shop and auto industry executives bringing suppliers and purchasers to play. “Even if the intent isn’t business, business is often a topic of conversation,” Dunn said.
Pickleball courts inside of the Penn 1 building in New York.Photographer: Stephanie Keith/BloombergChicago-based real estate broker Colin Hebson said he’s observed a similar trend and has become a convert himself after using the golf course to entertain for 25 years. A key part of the appeal is that pickleball is much less intimidating than golf for those who haven’t played before.
“If you’ve never golfed before and I invite you on the golf course because I want to network with you and do business, it’s almost impossible to be able to keep up,” he said. “I can take someone onto the pickleball court who has never touched a pickleball paddle before, and I can show them how to play and they would have a good time in under 10 minutes.”
It’s also much more efficient: Hebson can finish a couple of games of pickleball in under two hours, versus taking half the day to golf. To top it off, two hours at Hebson’s pickleball club cost $80, versus $600 to $700 to entertain on the golf course.
Mathew Norman, senior director of events at a South Carolina pickleball club called Crush Yard, said companies are seeing a greater return on investment with pickleball. “Everyone involved spends more time with each other under one roof and the event time is a max of three hours instead of five,” he said. This allows executives to schedule events starting around 4 p.m., so staff can still work most of the day. So far this year, Crush Yard said it has already put on 10 events for companies that normally do golf.
Golf, of course, isn’t going anywhere. The sport experienced a surge in popularity during the pandemic, and the National Golf Foundation said recently that on-course golfers have increased for six straight years and golf is gaining popularity with women and people of color. Even with these inroads, 74% of golfers are still men and 78% are white, according to the foundation. This has prompted some die-hard golfers to shift to pickleball in order to tap into a broader and more diverse pool of clients, according to Richard Green, co-founder of pickleball club SPF Chicago.
After noticing that some of their colleagues seemed less than jazzed about an afternoon on the green, executives at one Chicago-based marketing company decided to host a pickleball tournament this year.
“They saw pickleball as a way of reaching out to get more engagement out of employees who don't like to golf,” Green said.
Minneapolis-based life coach Jasna Burza began inviting clients to play pickleball when she realized it would help them to loosen up. Burza, who works with executives, lawyers and entrepreneurs, said it’s a welcome alternative to the golf course for many of the women she coaches. “A lot of my women clients are like, ‘I have kids, I don't have time to spend seven hours on the course,’” she said.
It’s also been transformative for her relationships with clients who do golf, many of whom she used to walk the green with. “There are no pretensions. You see them miss a point. There’s so much vulnerability on the court,” she said. “What I love is that you see adult men and women engaging in trash talk. People are competitive, but it’s not as serious as golf.”