The Sports Fitness Industry Association (SFIA) recently issued their 2025 report. They found that pickleball growth continued to far outpace every other sport. There were 24.3 million pickleball players, up 22.8% from 2024. The number of pickleball players has increased 172% over the past 3 years. SFIA once again found pickleball was the “dominant multi-year growth leader across all tracked sports.” SFIA reported there were 27.3 million tennis players in the US, up 6.2% from 2024. By the end of 2026, at current growth rates, more Americans will be playing pickleball than tennis. But in Utah, that has already happened. Utah is the most pickleball-obsessed state in the country, with 36% more pickleball players per capita than the No. 2 state, Minnesota. The explosive growth in Utah has been fueled by BYU (a hub for collegiate pickleball); the “St George effect” (a top national pickleball destination); the rapid growth in private indoor facilities (like the Pickler); the adoption of pickleball in many high schools; and the popularity of pickleball in the Mountain West and in retirement communities. Even that fails to tell the full story. Utah has more than twice the per capita number of 4.0 players than the next closest state. Utahns love pickleball, and they are very good at it. Park City has a new mayor, a new city manager, and two new City Council members. But we have the same director of parks and recreation. He continues to operate the PC Municipal Athletic Recreation Center (the MARC) like a private tennis club — and the mayor, city manager and City Council continue to allow it. The MARC has four beautiful indoor tennis courts. They are reserved exclusively for the use of tennis players. No pickleball allowed. The MARC also has three indoor courts (the “bubble”), and even there tennis gets more hours than pickleball. And when pickleball players use a tennis court, they pay double what tennis players are charged for the very same space. Perversely (but intentionally), it costs more to play pickleball at the MARC than it does at a private facility! Neither the mayor, the City Council, the city manager, the Recreational Advisory Board (RAB) nor the MARC has ever conducted a survey of the MARC’s patrons to ask how they want indoor court time allotted.  The recreation director won’t allow it. He decides how much court time goes to tennis, what crumbs get tossed to pickleball, and at what price? No one dares question his decisions. Long-time residents will remember that the PC MARC was once a private tennis facility — the Racquet Club. It went under because there were simply not enough tennis players to sustain it. The Park City Municipal Corp. bought it, rebranded it, and has operated it ever since. And the rec director continues to run it for the primary benefit of a relatively small number of tennis players. Meanwhile, the far greater number of local pickleball players must drive to Salt Lake City or Heber. Will the new mayor, the new city manager, and the two new City Council members do anything? Or will next winter just be more of the same? Gene DeSantis Kamas The post Only growing appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less