Move over, tennis, the fastest growing sport in America, is sweeping through Santa Fe.
Pickleball, a sport that is played with an oversized paddle and a baseball-sized whiffle ball on an area about half the size of a tennis court, has found a permanent home not far from the plaza.
On Wednesday, more than 50 people attended a ceremony to welcome six new pickleball courts in Fort Marcy Park, places that take the place of the seldom-used tennis court that stood there for years. With a little luck – and a little money from a public-private partnership brokered by the city – the area will soon double and eventually host regional and national tournaments.
“Can you imagine a tournament that would get people from all over the country to play this wonderful sport right here downtown?” Said Cindy Lawton, founder and president of the Santa Fe Pickleball Club.
Lawton estimates that about 450 people regularly play in Santa Fe. Of these, 318 (and more) are members of Lawton’s Club. The group shares information about seat availability, the location of specific players, and general discussion topics in an app that is accessible to all members.
One of the most recent additions to the club is Allan Benitez from Santa Fe. At 30 he is certainly one of the younger members. But in a narrative that resonated around the club, he said it wasn’t long before the sport became part of his routine.
“When I was young, my dad played a little tennis and I played ping-pong, but this – it’s definitely addicting,” he said, remembering the day he saw a group of people playing pickleball about a year and a half ago.
“I went and asked about it; Next, I’ll play it all the time, ”said Benitez. “Now that we have dishes and a place to meet, it’s the real deal. I can’t wait to see how it grows from here. “
Lawton, a physical therapist who often encourages her patients to try it out, said the typical pickleball player is older and not necessarily a retired tennis star. She estimates her club’s median age at the 60s, but as players like Benitez show, it’s starting to appeal to the younger generation.
“It’s not nearly as strenuous as tennis because the area is so much smaller, but it’s a sport that is more appealing to the elderly as it requires some mobility without requiring much physical exertion,” she said.
Melissa McDonald, the interim director of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, helped find support from the city. Remodeling the Fort Marcy courtyards, which included repairs to existing cracks, new finishes, and paint, cost less than $ 30,000.
McDonald said the city is seeking to continue a public-private partnership with Lawton’s Club to further build Fort Marcy’s footprint, with plans to find other locations in the city for pickleball.
“There has been a lot of demand for this, and it’s a reasonable request that the city can handle,” said McDonald. “We were able to identify the Fort Marcy site as a place where we can take an unused space and give it to the people who need it.”
In 2017 there were an estimated 500,000 pickleball players across the country. A recent study found the number is now close to 3 million – and counting.
It reminds Lawton of the early days of her club. In 2019, a group of local enthusiasts came up with the idea for a Santa Fe organization. In a very short time, the sport had a real pull in a city with skyrocketing demand.
“It came out of this small group of people who got together, and now it’s big enough for us to make a difference,” Lawton said. “The problem with those early days is that we couldn’t really play anywhere. The private clubs had their own courts, but for the not rich people – you know, the teachers, the cops, the common people who can’t afford these country club memberships – they all had to somehow fight for their own place . ”
The process of claiming their own public domain centered around Fort Marcy. It started with groups of people occupying tennis courts for a few hours, which led to negotiations with the city about painting lines on the existing surfaces, then formal requests to the city to convert these courts into permanent pickleball spots.
Players were able to find enough spots to get things going. They took up space here and there in gyms and on open spaces.
That’s right around the time the pandemic hit, eliminating indoor access, and pushing the growing number of pickleballers into the same tight outdoor space as tennis enthusiasts.
As snowboarders penetrated the slopes traditionally occupied by the two-planers, it took a certain amount of cooperation to have both sports side by side – often at the same time and in the same place. Lawton said she saw a case or two of territorial disputes, but nothing that wasn’t immediately resolved.
“As long as everyone is having fun, that’s all,” Lawton said.
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