As more pickleball courts continue to pop up around Johnson County, one website says Overland Park is the most “pickleball-obsessed” city in the nation in 2023.
Offers.bet, a sports betting and online casino guide website, recently released a list of “America’s Most Pickleball-Obsessed Cities,” which compared the results of data sets from the 150 most populous cities in the country, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Overland Park searched the most for ‘pickleball’
- To determine the most “pickleball-obsessed” cities, Offers.bet analyzed Google volume for 921 search terms related to pickleball, such as “pickleball courts near me” and “what is pickleball game,” between January 2020 and January 2023.
- For the analysis, Offers.bet also surveyed more than 1,000 Americans to get their feedback directly about the sport.
- Based on that data, Overland Park came out on top, followed by Salt Lake City, Utah, and Grand Rapids, Mich.
The sport has exploded in popularity
- Offers.bet said pickleball really started growing in popularity at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, with 83% of current pickleball players starting to play in 2020 or later.
- In Offers.bet’s survey, the website found nearly 1 in 6 respondents currently play pickleball, and 1 in 3 non-pickleball players say they plan to try it out in 2023.
- The survey concluded the most popular reasons people play the paddle sport are because it is fun, affordable and easy to learn.
Pickleball courts keep showing up in Overland Park
- Most recently, pickleball entertainment facility SERV opened in February near 91st Street and Metcalf Avenue in the Promontory development.
- Another pickleball entertainment venue, Chicken N Pickle, also grew the sport’s popularity in Overland Park when it opened at Prairiefire in 2021.
- Eight pickleball courts are also planned for the new youth and amateur sports complex at Bluhawk, which has been under construction since December.
- In June of last year, the Aspiria development on 115th Street and Nall Avenue also received approval from city officials to bring pickleball courts to the site.
Go deeper: SERV, Overland Park pickleball venue, opens this week
