Pickleball plus: Turning America’s fastest-growing sport into a night out (2024)

Nick Holman stood in front of a wooden picnic table surrounded by friends, family and a few beers. Across the fence, the thwack, thwack, thwack of the pickleball intermingled with laughter and perhaps a few curse words.

Holman, 38, of Lake St. Louis, was at Chicken N Pickle in St. Charles with 10 family members, ready to give pickleball a try for the first time. He said his wife had been trying to talk him into it for a while, even buying him paddles and balls. Holman and his crew rented the court at $20 an hour for two hours. If he didn’t already have his gear, he could have rented that, too.

“Oh yeah, this turns a workout into something a lot more fun,” Holman says with a laugh. “Pickleball offsets the beer, a little less guilty for the pleasure. You can use the carbs for energy.”

It was his sister’s idea to combine pickleball with a party. Holman loved it. “We can get in and kind of relax and still have an activity we can rotate through,” Holman says.

Mike Wardell, the general manager of the St. Charles Chicken N Pickle (there are currently 10 throughout the country) says having fun is the whole idea. “Yes, we have pickleball. We love the game, our owner loves the game, but it’s not our central focus. We are a chef-driven kitchen with games for everyone.”

Indeed, on the large turf lawn you will find bocce ball, table tennis, Connect 4, Battleship and bean bag toss. A stage will welcome live music this summer. But surrounding all of that are six indoor and five outdoor courts for playing pickleball.

Pickleball, a paddle sport with an initially high popularity among seniors, is a natural combination of tennis, table tennis and badminton. On a badminton-style court, players use a wide paddle made of carbon fiber, wood or other material to rally a perforated plastic ball (similar to a Wiffle ball) over a short net.

The sport grew in 2023 to 13.6 million players in the United States, according to the 2024 Sports & Fitness Industry Association’s Topline Participation Report. It continues to be the fastest-growing sport in America, having grown 51.8% from 2022 to 2023, and an incredible 223.5% in four years since 2020. And though initially popular with older adults, now kids, teens and young adults all over the country are playing.

Wardell says the mornings at Chicken N Pickle will have more seniors, often there for $5 open play, but on the weekend days “it’s really more kids, teens, family driven.” On weekend evenings, “it’s more of an adult setting with people in their 20s and 30s.” Multiple bars there serve beer, wine and liquor.

And though Chicken N Pickle is a one-of-a-kind place in the St. Louis area, there are plenty of other places to pair your pickleball with a pinot.

Katy Willen, 45, of Old Monroe wanted to spend a Saturday with her friends and family. But having just started a diet and exercise program, she wasn’t sure what options she had.

Her son, 26, is into fitness and suggested pickleball. “I knew I could get him to go out if I included fitness,” Willen says. “He doesn’t really go out a lot, so I knew we could do this.” They were joined on the courts at Frankie Martin’s Garden in Cottleville by a group of friends and family.

“This has been just great,” Willen says. “We are out, enjoying the sunshine, enjoying each other, and I’m getting in my workout.” Frankie Martin’s has six outdoor courts you rent online for $10 an hour. Willen and her party had grabbed a covered picnic table by the Beer Barn and the courts. On the other side of the barn is a huge lawn lined with food trucks. A giant screen played college basketball, but later, a band would take the stage. Willen and her friends brought a change of clothes and lawn chairs to be able to stay and watch the live music.

“It’s such a great way to combine exercise and socializing,” she says. “And it’s like a day’s worth of entertainment.”

Even places not made for pickleball are getting in on the action. A new outdoor pickleball court complements the go-karts, laser tag and video games at locally owned Amp Up Action Park. There’s a bar with draught beers, co*cktails and wine, and tavern food. You can reserve the court for $5 per person per hour and rent paddles there.

Westport Plaza also recently added an outdoor pickleball court. The entertainment complex has a variety of bars and restaurants, making it easy to add pickleball to a night out.

St. Louis’ pickleball growth has been exponential. The area’s first complex of permanent outdoor courts was off Hampton Avenue at Tilles Park, which began construction in 2016.

Tower Grove Park quickly followed with eight permanent pickleball courts in 2017. Today, more than 60 area parks and rec centers offer courts where you can pick up a game, according to a listing by St. Louis Metro Pickleball Club (stlpickleball.com).

Now, in addition to party places like Chicken N Pickle, Amp Up and Frankie Martin’s, pickleball clubs are coming into the game.

If those places are more like a Top Golf for pickleball, places like the Missouri Pickleball Club in Fenton, Padel + Pickle in Olivette and Paddle Up in Lake St. Louis are more like a golf country club. You pay monthly membership fees to gain access to the indoor courts there. You’ll find pro shops, socializing areas and small concessions or bars, serving alcohol and snacks.

Ryan Leslie, general manager of Padel + Pickle, which opened in February in Olivette, says socializing is something they planned for and count on. In addition to its eight indoor pickleball courts and six padel courts (more of a fusion of tennis and squash), there is a bar smack dab in the middle of everything.

The bar seats 30 and serves beer and wine, plus several high-top tables surround it. Four 75-inch TVs show sports.

“We are a membership-centric club,” Leslie says. “It creates a level of exclusivity to be a member of the club, and that goes to the socialization aspect of it.

“Most of our members do tend to play pickleball for 90 minutes to 2 hours and most will tend to hang out at the bar — sit and chat and cool down for a bit.

“The way I see it is that we created this club and a common theme we saw in the beginning is a lot of people didn’t know the other members. ... They heard about the place and came to check it out. ... People were looking to us to help them to get connected in the community and within the club.”

To that end, the club hosts leagues, theme nights, tournaments and Tuesday intermediate open play in which you change courts, partners and opponents and in between talk to people or maybe grab a drink.

Leslie says pickleball lends itself to socialization. “The game and the style of it ... people are more communicative and talk to each other during the game.” He also notes that pickleball doesn’t require extreme athleticism or skill.

“You can get in a good workout and can play for an hour and half or two hours and feel like you really did something, but you are also having fun.”

For more info

Chicken N Pickle: 1500 South Main Street, St. Charles, chickennpickle.com

Amp Up Action Park: 13901 Manchester Road, Town and Country, ampupactionpark.com

Missouri Pickleball Club: 747 Gravois Bluffs Boulevard, Fenton, mopickleballclub.com