Decatur adding more pickleball courts as sport's popularity grows

“I’ve never played any kind of sport, and Steve and I started playing last spring,” Moore said. “It’s just great to get out and do some kind of activity.”

She is one of a growing number of pickleball players sharing space with basketball inside Decatur's recreation centers and soon to be sharing dual-use outdoor tennis courts as the city adjusts to create more opportunity for the sport. 

The city recently added three indoor pickleball courts at Fort Decatur Recreation Center, and scheduled pickleball times at the Aquadome and T.C. Almon are usually as busy as they can be, Parks and Recreation Director Jason Lake said.

“I didn’t know pickleball was a thing until recently,” Lake said.

The City Council approved in January spending $310,000 to redo several of the city’s outdoor tennis courts, and lines for pickleball courts will be added as part of the project. 

Parks and Recreation Maintenance Supervisor Aaron Lang said the department will create two pickleball courts at Walter Jackson Elementary, two at Julian Harris Elementary and three at Austin Junior High.

Lower Bros., of Birmingham, won the contract to resurface the city’s tennis courts, but Lang said it will likely be late spring before the work can be done.

“The temperatures have to be in the 70s, and it can’t be below 60 at night,” Lang said.

Invented in 1965, pickleball is a cross between tennis, Ping-Pong and badminton, played with a paddle and a perforated plastic ball. Pickleball uses a smaller court and lower net than tennis, but courts can be designed to serve both sports with a portable pickleball net. Lake said pickleball lines will be painted across half of a tennis court at some of Decatur's outdoor facilities. In gyms, lines for pickleball are marked on the floor. 

Lake said pickleball is so popular that he expects it to grow in the city. The Aquadome will soon be demolished as the result of a legal settlement with 3M Co., but the city is planning to build a replacement recreation center at Wilson Morgan Park.

An architect hasn’t been hired to create a plan for the new center but it will include indoor pickleball courts, Lake said.

The Sports and Fitness Industry Association says more than 4.8 million people are now playing pickleball. Participation has almost doubled the number from just five years ago, making this paddleball game one of America's fastest-growing sports.

Residents like sport

David Easterling, a regular player on Tuesday and Thursday mornings at the Aquadome, said Decatur is really just catching on to the sport.

“Decatur doesn’t have any outdoor courts,” Easterling said as he waited his turn for a game. The Aquadome gym was full one day recently with doubles games on all three courts and players waiting their turn like Easterling was.

Scott Shirley, who recently played in a national pickleball tournament with 1,300 players in Mesa, Arizona, said he uses pickleball as a good break from running his CrossFit business.

Shirley said Opelika has a pickleball-only complex that routinely holds tournaments with 400 to 500 people. He said those tournaments bring in a lot of visitors who create additional sales tax revenue for Opelika.

“Pickleball doesn’t dot the landscape here yet, but demand is really growing,” Shirley said.

Mike Vickery is a former president of Decatur’s tennis association. He has a tennis court at his Southeast Decatur home that the 50-year-old said he changed to a pickleball court.

“I always played an aggressive style of tennis and I can’t run like that anymore,” Vickery said. “Pickleball is not as demanding.”

Vickery said pickleball is still a good workout, but it doesn’t require as much aerobics. He said his wife, Weety, now sometimes plays pickleball with him even though he couldn’t get her to play tennis.

“It’s really easy on the body, but I’m still sweating when I go out there,” Vickery said.

Pickleball ages well

Pickleball is particularly popular among the older demographics, ages 40 to 65, but the players are diverse in age, Vickery said.

“You don’t have to chase the ball as much as you do in tennis when you can’t keep the ball in play,” he said.

Easterling said he likes pickleball because there’s not as much running as tennis.

“I almost always play doubles because it’s just easier,” Easterling said.

Avid tennis player and former City Council member Paige Bibbee said she’s OK with the expansion of pickleball because both sports can share a court. She said she hopes the pickleball lines are a different color from the tennis court lines.

“There’s room for both sports,” Bibbee said. “And, to be honest, it might save some of those outdoor courts in the city that aren’t well used.”