Pickleball is the fastest growing sport in America — and Florida has become quite the hot spot.
Across the state, cities and clubs are converting their tennis courts into pickleball courts. It’s attracted high profile athletes, like LeBron James, who recently invested in a Major League Pickleball team.
The country club model is coming to the sport of pickleball.
A group of investors, among them a rear admiral who served 30 years in the U.S. Navy, is investing $180 million to build 15 private, indoor pickleball clubs in Florida. The first location for the venture – known as The Pickleball Club – will open this December near Sarasota’s Lakewood Ranch, one of the nation’s top-selling master planned communities. Additional locations are in planning or the land acquisition stage for Bonita Springs, Port St. Lucie, Fort Myers, Venice and The Villages in Sumter County, with Florida being the prime target, at least to start.
Developers opt for cheap to build, highly popular paddle sport in amenities arms race.
Real estate loves to be in on the next big thing. And lately, it’s the meteoric rise of pickleball.
If the insurance industry hasn’t noticed, the sport known as pickleball is exploding across the country, especially in Florida, where more than 15 indoor clubs, replete with air conditioning, cafes, locker rooms, video training and other amenities are planned or are under construction.
The growth has brought new opportunities but some tricky challenges for carriers, insurance agents and property developers in Florida’s expensive and distressed insurance market.
SARASOTA, Fla. – As the sport grows in popularity, pickleball clubs are popping up throughout the Bay Area and it means big business for investors,
Across The Pickleball Club in Sarasota, you’ll hear the fierce sounds of friendly competition.
Naples no longer is the only hot spot in the state when it comes to the booming sport.
As Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer opened the pickleball session at the United States Conference of Mayors winter meeting Jan. 19 in Washington D.C., he asked his audience to say the name of the sport out loud.
“Doesn’t that make everybody smile to say it?” Dyer said. Just that morning, Major League Pickleball named Orlando one of two cities for an expansion team.
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