Pickleball Is the New Timeshare

By Bob Deakin

Who told you in August of 2024 that Pickleball Is the New Racquetball? That was me. 

In my story, I identified “the precise moment of the end of the innocence” in the pickleball craze: When you start building expensive facilities to play a trendy sport, no one wants to play anymore. Racquetball anyone? Nautilus? Pickleball is the new timeshare.

Pickleball is fun, especially at the local school gym or somewhere your friends gather. It’s fun until you have to drive across town to a big, official pickleball facility. Then, the innocence is gone and it’s an investment you’re compelled to use.

Remember when your school replaced clunky old fun playground equipment with shiny new, plastic stuff? Around the same time, kids left the playgrounds to play video games.

Invest in the Timeshare Lifestyle!

Like pickleball, timeshares began as innocent fun when family and friends jointly owned properties and used them throughout the year for vacations. Real estate opportunists then seized upon the idea, selling properties to total strangers to share. What could go wrong with that?

Many people bought timeshares in the 1980s only to find it was a nightmare investment. They received gifts or free trips while being given the hard sell to invest, along with plenty of food and drinks. What quickly happened was the price of property upkeep skyrocketed while resale values plummeted. 

The cocaine-fueled parties blasting Van Halen and U2 became visits to attorneys’ offices and Xanax prescriptions.

State legislation, HOAs and maintenance fees complicated matters. In addition, resale values of developments riddled with timeshares plummeted. Not everyone wants to party.

Pickleball is the New Timeshare

Would you invest in a pickleball facility? It costs more money, but the sales pitches are eerily similar.

The Pickleball Club stipulates that an accredited investor “have $1 million net worth, not including the value of your primary residence (but including everything else, art, real estate, jewelry, business interests, investments, retirement accounts; OR (ii) you earn at least $200,000 per year alone or $300,000 including the income of your spouse.”

It’s comforting to know someone values my art, jewelry and spouse as much as I do.

Chubby Checker does The Twist

Do the Pickle Sensation That is Sweeping the Nation

Pickleball Magazine calls pickleball the “phenomenon sweeping the nation.” Sounds like a line from a 50s dance song. Speaking of trends. Maybe I’ll invest in a malt shop instead.

According to Pickle Rage, “with such a ripe, burgeoning market, some investors see pickleball as a golden opportunity to tap into a sport that’s growing in popularity and has the potential to generate substantial financial returns.”

Just like what happened to racquetball in the 1980s. Those old courts are now buried in the foundations of your local Planet Fitness or Chuck E. Cheese.

What’s the Score?

USA Pickleball is the national governing body in the U.S., sporting 62,000 members. Its database shows 68,458 known courts with 18,455 added in 2024. The organization awarded $45,350 in grants last year, supporting 33 community programs, 4 collegiate initiatives and 102 youth-focused projects.

According to Market.us, pickleball was estimated to generate $450 million in the U.S. in 2024. That’s more than Van Halen and U2 combined but not as much as cocaine. See you at the Jai Alai fronton.

###