What do Jamie Foxx,
Drew Barrymore, Bill Gates,
Belinda and I have in common?
We all love pickleball.
It is the fastest growing sport
in the country and it just
keeps getting more popular.
The sport that combines tennis,
badminton,
ping pong is not only big fun,
it is now big business.
When you think of a truly
Minnesota sport, sharp skates and
a big slab of ice come to mind.
As any hockey parent will tell you,
it's notoriously hard to
book ice time. In our state.
But a comparatively new sport in
town is gaining its own notoriety.
Just try to get time on a pickleball court.
Pickleball is exploding
at a rate that I don't think
any business has really seen.
David Detrell is the national
pickleball director for lifetime.
By the end of next year, he says,
Lifetime will have invested more
than $25 million in the sport,
and even that likely won't meet demand
if we were to take the same numbers.
Year to date last year from this year,
we've seen over a 9000% increase. Wow. Yeah.
Chances are, either you or
someone you know has been
bitten by the pickleball bug.
Here we go, including Belle and me.
You don't have to be a tennis
star like Belinda to place you
don't even have to be athletic.
Which I attempted to
demonstrate again and again.
Again. We didn't keep doing
it till I actually hit it.
I got time. You got time. Lots
of things make this game
accessible to nearly anyone.
The rules. Simple.
And the court is small,
1/4 the size of a tennis
court. The paddle is light and the ball
is less buoyant than a tennis ball,
making it easier to control. I've
played with kids that are 8 years old.
I've played with people that are 70.
It's just really an adaptable sport.
But the thing that really keeps
people coming back, it is social.
I've never laughed so much
as during pickleball.
You just hit bad shots and everyone
just laughs and has fun and everybody's
there rooting each other on.
It's. Had it up, but it's so
fun and have make great friends,
and we just have only played together
a couple of times and awesome.
Yeah, it's great fun.
Like lifetime parks departments across
the state are hustling to keep up,
adding courts and announcing plans for more.
And then there are pickleball only clubs,
like lucky shots in northeast
Minneapolis, where you
can rent a court for 22 to $45.00 an hour.
They just opened last October with 12 courts.
And already wished they had more.
All winter long we had crazy wait
lists for getting on the court.
So yeah, we definitely could have done more.
But this space wouldn't wouldn't fit more,
so we did as much as we could here.
Lucky shots will soon have competition
from pints and paddles in Maple Grove
and Smash Park in Minneapolis, all
catering to fans of the country's fastest
growing sport and its fastest growing
demographic, people 18 to 54. We
have paddles that will
address beginning players.
Even the iconic tennis store
Michael Lins in Saint Louis Park
made the pivot to pickleball.
They kept coming in and saying,
why don't you have pickleball
like you need to have pickleball.
And we finally got so tired of hearing
it that Mike said let's do it.
Pickleball now accounts for
about half of their sales.
At this rate, the Lindsay they might
need to change the sign out front.
So, Minnesota,
we know we love our hockey, but
let me introduce you to this thing
called pickleball. Who knows? Come on.
This new game may soon have
us singing another tune.
That was basically telling me, we out.
If you want to learn more about pickleball,
go to usapickleball.org.
There you'll find courts near you,
groups you can join.
The rules of the game, of course.
Lifetime has an extensive pickleball clubs
and lessons and things like that, too.
And just a lot of neighborhoods and
community groups are just saying,
let's get together and grandpas playing with,
you know, grandkids. Yeah.
A lot of basketball courts,
tennis courts play where you live, right?
Converted.
And you know what Randy said?
Not laughing very much when you're
playing it with me.
In my neighborhood, you guys like,
there are people that are real
serious and good and we play singles,
so double s is a little bit different
than singles.
Singles,
you're so you're
getting a workout without,
but you're competing and it doesn't
feel like working. It's just fun.
That's why I like Julie had the pro,
so obviously that's there's a lot of,
you know, she called you the tennis star.
These are the people that I play, went what?