Jupiter is planning for pickleball courts: Town council awaits county approval
JUPITER ― The town has a spring training stadium, a competition-sized swimming pool, a sparkling beachfront, nearly a dozen parks and even miniature golf — but for a municipality that prides itself on outdoor recreation, there are no public pickleball courts.
That may change if county commissioners approve a plan that Jupiter Town Council passed unanimously in a Dec. 6 meeting.
The plan would flip one of the two roller hockey rinks at Abacoa Community Park into five pickleball courts. After the new year, county commissioners will vote on whether to approve Jupiter's pickleball plans.
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What's pickleball?
Invented as a backyard activity in the 1960s, pickleball has grown in popularity in the past 20 years to become a sport played nationwide.
The game was invented by a dad who created pickleball for his bored, complaining kids one summer afternoon in Washington state. By 2001, the sport had made it to all 50 states and the Arizona Senior Olympics hosted the largest pickleball event to that point, with 100 senior players.
Four years and hundreds more pickleball players later, the USA Pickleball Association was established. The USAPA didn't hold it's first tournament for all ages until 2009, four years after its start.
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Pickleball combines elements of other sports like tennis, badminton
Today, pickleball is trending with a younger crowd. A report released this year by the Sports and Fitness Industry Association deemed pickleball the fastest growing sport in America, with a 40% increase in participation since 2020.
It combines elements of ping-pong, badminton and tennis and relies on reaction time and strategy as much as athleticism. As a result, it's become a game of choice for all ages.
Communities as diverse as public parks and the PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens have built courts for people to play. There are now more than double the number of pickleball courts in the country than there were five years ago, all to meet the demand from the sport’s 4.8 million players nationwide, the Sports and Fitness industry study found.
Jupiter's plans for pickleball focus on conversion of one skating rink
The roller hockey rinks at the park near Independence Middle School were popular when they opened about 20 years ago but have seen a steady decline in roller skaters. And Jupiter doesn’t currently have any pickleball-dedicated courts, recreation officials said in a memo to the town council.
Seven tennis courts in town could be used for pickleball, but tennis has its enthusiasts and the two sports shouldn't share a court because differing needs and features. According to Jupiter's Public Information Officer Shawn Reed, the differing net heights between the two sports cause damage to the shared nets at Lighthouse Park near the Jupiter Inlet and Jupiter Community Park off Island Way.
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County commissioners will vote to approve Jupiter's latest plans for the pickleball courts on Jan. 10. Town officials declined to comment until after the approval. The county has to approve the new plan because of an agreement with Jupiter years ago that the park would host skating rinks.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Pickleball courts are coming to Jupiter
