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The racquet sports craze sweeping the nation is creating neighborhood drama on the streets of New York as neighbors claim pickleball enthusiasts are taking play space away from kids.
The recently popularized sport that combines Ping-Ping, badminton, and tennis has sparked controversy among concerned parents and tennis players alike.
The sport has also amassed a huge following of celebrities, including reality royalty the Kardashians, Leonardo Dicaprio, Stephen Colbert, Bill Gates, and George and Amal Clooney.
Sports legends Tom Brady and Lebron James have even gone so far as to invest in Major League Pickleball, which started last year.
Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates said he has long been a fan of the sport invented in 1965 by three fathers in Washington State.
But in New York’s West Village, citizens worried on neighborhood app next-door have gauged their frustrations at the increasingly popular pastime.
“Anyone else tired of Pickleball at home?” wrote one palpably irritated user.
“The sound is so piercing and unblockable, it gives me PTSD every time I hear a ball when I go around town.”
Another apparently concerned neighborhood observer described the impact the pickle ballers have on youth.
Even the kids who go to school next door (where the posted video is set) are taking their break from pickle ballers. The kids have nowhere to play,” the user wrote.
The original post showed a short video of dozens of adult pickleball players occupying almost the entire neighborhood playground, while a group of children settle in a very small area of the public park with nowhere to play.
Mark Borden, father of two and writer, recently got a change.org petition to get the city’s parks department to throw pickle balls from Seravalli Park in the West Village.
“There seems to be a lack of awareness among the pickleball players,” he told the New York Times.
“They are blinded by their passion for the sport,” he said, calling the players the “lantern flies of the sporting world — an invasive species that takes over and destroys a natural ecosystem.”
Local West Village parents launched a petition to get pickle from a neighborhood playground that their kids currently have significantly less access to due to the rise of the sport
New York City residents have grown increasingly frustrated with the space pickle ballers take up on both tennis courts and local playgrounds
An illustration shows pickleball courts completely overtaking Horatio Park in the West Village
The current conflict exists largely because there are not many established places for pickleballers to practice their sport.
In New York in particular, space is limited and while there are a handful of public tennis courts, tennis players are hardly a fan of the idea of sharing.
Tennis players say, among other things, that the different sized nets and the extra chalked lines that create the smaller pickleball field are confusing.
During a spring debate in Exeter, New Hampshire about converting some of the city’s tennis courts into pickleball courts, tennis great Martin Navratilova weighed up the controversy.
“I say if pickleball is so popular let them build their own courts,” she wrote Twitter.
Pickleballers in New York City are said to be oblivious to the amount of public funds seized of late — from whacking whiffle balls on the hour to preventing kids from using playgrounds
The sport was invented in 1965 by three fathers vacationing on Bainbridge Island, Washington State, trying to amuse their children.
Bill Gates, who owns a mansion on Lake Washington in Medina, Washington, has been a longtime fan of the sport.
The billionaire posted a video of himself on Instagram explaining the rules with the caption: “Fifty years ago I started playing this little-known sport with a funny name. Now it’s all the rage.’
For years, the sport barely made a dent and was played largely in retired communities and by the elderly.
Even now there are only about five million players in the US. By contrast, more than 20 million Americans started playing tennis in 2020 alone, according to the Physical Activity Council.
People play pickleball on a public court in Brooklyn, New York on September 29, 2022
While shared spaces may not be the way forward for the sport, further expansion seems likely as celebrities with millions and business ventures become more involved.
According to an New York Times A group of Florida real estate developers drops $180 million to establish 15 private pickleball clubs.
The project includes a 33,000 square foot facility in Sarasota, Florida with a dozen indoor courts and a cafe and retail store.
In Florida, a group of real estate developers is spending $180 million to build 15 private pickleball clubs, including a 33,000-square-foot facility in Sarasota with 12 indoor courts, a cafe and a retail store.
As big and bigger money jumps into the pickle game, there’s a good chance the market for the accessible sports will become more optimistic.