Around the World
THE IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON PICKLEBALL
By Karen Mitchell
DIRECTOR , PICKLEBALL ENGLAND
The British are known for their obsession with talking about the weather . Generally , it ’ s a polite icebreaker , but the fact is our weather changes so much that it ’ s unreliable . I am writing this article in April . At the beginning of the month , we had some sunny days that felt like early summer . Today we had snow ! I live in the far south and we rarely get snow in the winter , let alone April !
Our weather is probably why pickleball started as an indoor sport in Britain . The fact that the overall court size is the same
Chris and Karen Mitchell on their new pickleball court . as a badminton court meant we immediately had access to the right-sized courts with only a modification for the NVZ line . In England alone there are 24,000 badminton courts , so establishing clubs or places to play on badminton courts was a sound strategy . That is , until the COVID-19 pandemic , with a virus spreading more easily indoors than outdoors , leading to venues closing for many months .
There were a handful of outdoor courts lined in 2019 . Thankfully , a few enterprising individuals decided to persuade tennis clubs and councils to accept pickleball to be played on existing courts , and for many to be painted with pickleball lines — allowing a recent Facebook post to identify more than 33 venues and 90 courts . When we see pictures on Facebook of all the venues opening in the USA with 20 + courts and the development of businesses incorporating pickleball , like Chicken N Pickle , we are licking our lips , hungry for that to happen in Europe .
In England , there are a handful of venues with colored pickleball courts . There are none in my area , so my husband and I decided to build one in our back garden . The final paint job hasn ’ t been applied yet , but we have already played almost every day since the temporary lines were applied . Even in the chilly weather , I ’ m loving playing outside and firmly believe more people will try to find outdoor places to play — and we may even find that there is a preference for outdoor play , with players only seeking indoor play when the weather is bad . That will probably raise a new set of challenges !
We have been lucky in the UK to have an online pickleball shop , since equipment is not readily available in this country . Established in 2015 , last year was to be the first year the UK Pickleball Shop turned a profit . The pandemic destroyed that , which is in contrast to the sales boost that the U . S . has seen with people investing to play at home during lockdown .
The other impact of the pandemic has been on tournaments in Europe . The first European tournaments began in 2016 , and by 2019 , there were at least nine tournaments . My husband and I had a fabulous