Pickleball… at the mall? Babe, that’s Picklemall

Ah, the mall… piercings at Claire’s, delicious-smelling pretzel samples from Auntie Anne's, and – what’s that sound? That’s the signature “pop-pop-pop” of a pickleball match.

Across the US, businesses are converting shuttered department stores into locations where people can gather to play the sport that’s one part tennis, one part ping-pong, and one part badminton.

A few recent examples:

• A group called Pickleball America is taking over an 80,000-sq-foot mall space in Stamford, CT, which will become one of the largest indoor pickleball venues in the US once it opens this summer.
• The Meadows at Lake St. Louis, an outdoor mall in Missouri, plans to replace its Bed Bath & Beyond store with a new athletic club dedicated to pickleball.
• A new pickleball facility recently opened in a former Burlington store at Shore Mall in New Jersey, while a pickleball club took over a former Old Navy space at a New Hampshire mall.

In a report this week, investment firm JLL said the new trend offers benefits to both mall owners, who need new and exciting tenants to fill vacant spaces and draw customers, as well as pickleball players, who are increasingly being driven out of neighborhoods due to the loud noises associated with the sport.

🏓📈 Zoom out: Like Abercrombie & Fitch for that weird spell, the US pickleball scene has exploded in popularity. More than 36.5 million Americans played the sport during the year-long period ending in August 2022, a 630% increase from the start of 2021.