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Mike Welter can’t wait for new pickleball courts to open. The 72-year-old Cape Coral resident has been playing the paddle sport since 2009 when he and his tennis partner participated in a local pickleball clinic and dominated the competition. After buying paddles online, he began playing on makeshift badminton courts, petitioned Lee County, Florida to build official outdoor courts, and has spent the last 15 years dinking and dunking each day with his wife and friends.
Soon, he’ll have even more opportunities to play. This summer, Cape Coral received a major boost to its recreational landscape with ‘The Courts, Cape Coral,’ a state-of-the-art 32-court pickleball complex that will grow the city’s reputation as an emerging pickleball destination. The facility also holds 12 tennis courts, a pro shop, and concessions, offering membership plans to residents eager for more access and ready to take part in larger pickleball tournaments.
“The courts are absolutely top-rate gorgeous,” Welter says. “We’re raring to go.”
Image Source: The Sports Facilities Companies
The racquet center’s addition is a testament to pickleball’s exponential popularity over the last few years. According to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association, pickleball has become the fastest-growing sport in America, boasting more than 36.5 million pickleball players in the U.S., a number estimated in a 2023 study by the Association of Pickleball Professionals. And while there are 10,000 places to play pickleball and over 44,000 courts, they aren’t enough to meet the insatiable demand for the sport. Responding to this demand presents a challenge for city leaders to satisfy the desires of residents. It also creates a great opportunity to catch a tidal wave that can pay economic development dividends.
For a look at pickleball’s placemaking potential, Cape Coral leaders and residents don’t have to look very far. Nearly an hour south of Cape Coral is Naples, which many consider as the country’s pickleball capital. Naples city leaders have spent recent years investing millions into its pickleball-dotted community parks, including the Naples Pickleball Center, which hosts 300-400 players per day. Another local venue, East Naples Community Park, hosts the Minto US OPEN Pickleball Championships Powered by Margaritaville, the largest pickleball championship in North America. The combination of courts for residents and large, tourism-driving tournaments are a part of the mix that has made Naples one of the nation’s more desirable locales (Naples has been ranked number two on the best places to live U.S. News & World Report’s Florida list).
There are a number of communities looking to establish pickleball supremacy. One of the most prominent is Macon, Georgia, whose Tattnall Square Pickleball & Tennis Center has attracted a loyal player population with its 26 recreational courts over the last several years. But it made a bigger splash last year when the city converted an unused portion of the Macon Mall into the world’s largest indoor pickleball facility. Rhythm & Rally Sports & Events features 32 climate-controlled courts, along with a pro shop and concessions, and plays host to tournaments, leagues, and training sessions.
Image Source: The Sports Facilities Companies
“We knew that we had the demand for growth in the pickleball market before we knew that Rhythm & Rally would physically work,” says Alex Morrison, Macon’s director of Planning and Public Spaces, as well as the executive director of the Urban Development Authority. “It’s really been impressive to see tournaments coming here that would have never before considered Macon and have an excellent experience.”
As Morrison notes, Macon’s decision to double down and go all-in on pickleball can be attributed to the city’s robust number of players, its own pickleball association, and the general growth of the sport. It also helped that the underused mall’s location— in the center of the community—made Rhythm & Rally a practical destination that could foster the return of surrounding businesses with tourist and tournament-player dollars. Most importantly, the sport fits in with the city’s established cultural identifiers—namely, its musical heritage, museums, and a vibrant downtown bar and restaurant scene.
“This particular facility is right next to a new amphitheater with a capacity that holds up to 12,000 people,” says Macon’s Mayor Lester Miller. “It gives [traveling players] a chance to get a little taste of Macon, but the sport is certainly a gateway into our community.”
Image Source: The Sports Facilities Companies
Macon leaders believe this commitment will pay dividends over the next couple of decades as pickleball grows into a larger national sport and projects to roll out several major tournaments, similar to “Grand Slams” seen in golf and tennis. “It’s our ambition that Macon is the home of one of those,” says Rhythm & Rally General Manager John Roberts. “I want Rhythm & Rally and Tatnall to be a pilgrimage site for pickleball enthusiasts, in the same way that Augusta National is for golf enthusiasts, or the All England Club is for tennis fans, or Lambeau Field is for football fans.”
The optimism is inspired by what Macon has already become. The city now has 59 total courts across a two-mile corridor serving a population of over 155,000 residents, and Miller notes that it has fostered great relationships between authorities, local government, and pickleball associations.
“Beyond the raw numbers, I’ve been to several different pickleball communities throughout the southeast, and there’s not one that comes close to the Macon pickleball community in terms of camaraderie and gregariousness,” Morrison says. “The communal spirit that exists specifically within Macon pickleball is unique within the larger pickleball sphere.”
Image Source: AdobeStock
Naturally, Miller has been inundated by other lawmakers and officials asking for tours of Macon to learn how their own towns can turn into pickleball-friendly communities. “I just left a convention in Savannah with 527 mayors, and probably two-thirds of them asked me about what we’ve been doing in Macon on the pickleball arena,” Miller says. A pickleball player himself, Miller often dispenses the city’s numbers and figures to them while offering encouragement, explaining the sport’s strong economic impact, its health benefits, and the continued need for more courts.
The blueprint is there.
“We don’t mind growing the sport in the state of Georgia as long as we can be one of the key places that people go to,” he says, referring to Rhythm & Rally. “Everybody has a property in their communities that they believe they can convert to this.”
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