Pickleball Y ’ all !
“ Everything is bigger in Texas ” proved true during the 2023 Biofreeze USA Pickleball National Championships powered by Invited and the PPA Tour where more than 50,000 attendees descended upon Brookhaven Country Club to take part in the biggest event in the history of pickleball .
by DREW WATHEY
Few , if any , would have envisioned the sport of pickleball to captivate the sports landscape as it has today back when the game was first being developed on Bainbridge Island , outside Seattle in 1965 . The growth of the game during those early years was stagnated by doubters and lack of quality equipment and playing facilities .
Fast-forward some 58 years and you now have a sport that has firmly evolved into the social consciousness of millions of players and fans across the globe .
USA Pickleball ’ s National Championships have risen like a phoenix from the original playing venues in the Southwest to the biggest event in pickleball ’ s history at the Brookhaven Country Club in Dallas .
“ These staggering figures surrounding the success of Nationals are truly a testament to the continued growth of our sport and community ,” said Mike Nealy , USA Pickleball Chief Executive Officer . “ We ’ re grateful to all of our partners for helping make an event of this scale possible and taking our National Championships to new heights across the board . We look forward to building upon this momentum in the coming years .”
“ We had extremely high expectations for the 2023 National Championships and through the hard work of our team , and with the incredible support of the pickleball and Dallas communities , we were able to shatter those expectations ,” said Connor Pardoe , CEO and founder of the PPA Tour .
Nearly 3,500 pro and amateur players played a total of 6,928 matches over the course of the tournament . On TV , more than 2.6 million viewers tuned in to catch the action across 20 + hours of coverage on ESPN , Tennis Channel and PickleballTV , the brand-new 24 / 7
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NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2023 | MAGAZINE 29