From the cover
Pickleball boom
BY TOMER RONEN
What’s happening?
Pickleball facilities in Sugar Land
City-owned
Imperial Park Recreation Center Landmark Community Center City Park Ron Slockett Park Park at the Levee Missouri City Recreation and Tennis Court StaMo Sports Complex
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The pickleball boom has hit Houston—and it’s only going to keep growing, said Mookie McDevitt, senior vice president of Strategic Partnerships at ACE Pickleball Club, which is set to open in Sugar Land in early 2026. “Five years ago, if you walked into any bar or restaurant and said, ‘Hey, does anybody here play pickleball?’ They would have no idea what you were talking about,” McDevitt said. McDevitt said between the incoming Sugar Land location, along with the company’s Magnolia location, he thinks there is still a “tremendous amount of growth” coming to the sport, which saw its boom during the COVID-19 pandemic. A constant stream of private pickleball courts has opened or are coming to the Sugar Land and Missouri City area, including the upcoming opening of ACE, the opening of 24 Hour Pickle in February 2024 and Life Time Sugar Land’s 13-court expansion in 2023, which brings its total to 16. Life Time sees about 6,800 individual participants playing every month, said Asia Rose, pickleball director at Life Time Sugar Land. Additional private courts are also available at the Missouri City Life Time location.
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24 Hour Pickle-Sugar Land Life Time Life Time ACE Pickleball (coming soon)
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TEXAS PKWY.
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Sugar Land
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SOURCE: SUGAR LAND, MISSOURI CITY COMMUNITY IMPACT GOOGLE EARTH PRO
Going forward
Zooming in
Number of pickleball facilities
The Greater Houston area is leading nationally in the number of pickleball businesses with 59 facilities, according to the September and October 2025 edition of Pickleball Magazine. Meanwhile, Texas is third in the nation with 854 pickleball facilities and 3,584 courts behind Florida and California, which each have 1,667 and 1,153 courts, respectively. Pickleball has seen a 223% increase in participa- tion from 2020 to 2024, with a 15-20% projected annual increase in 2025 and 2026, according to recent data from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association. The association also named pickleball the fastest-growing sport in America in 2022. The growth is expected to hit the local area, with McDevitt opening ACE in March, and Life Time planning to cover some of its outdoor courts, Rose said. Missouri City is also in the design phase of a $15 million renovation of Sta-Mo Park, where six additional outdoor courts—including two covered courts—will be built, Jamal said. At 24 Hour Pickle, which has eight courts,
Both the cities of Sugar Land and Mis- souri City have made a point of focusing on pickleball as a way to serve diverse populations of all ages, city o cials told Community Impact . “The ability to use a limited space to create joyful and exciting games makes the per square foot investment of pickleball very appealing for a recreation and parks department as it allows for us to serve a diverse population,” Missouri City Commu- nications Manager So a Jamal said.
Houston
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New York City
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Austin
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Seattle
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San Diego
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SOURCE: PICKLEBALL MAGAZINE COMMUNITY IMPACT
co-owner Kirandeep Singh said the business has already discussed expansion with the landlord, but is eyeing another option—padel, a racket sport similar to pickleball and tennis but played inside a glass box. Singh said he thinks padel could be the next big thing and believes it would be easy to convert pickleball courts for the change, if necessary. “I feel like when you play the same sport for a while, sometimes you want to explore something else as well,” he said. “If you build it, people will play it,” he said.
5 courts maintained by Missouri City 3 courts at the Missouri City Recreation and Tennis Center are transformed into pickleball courts throughout the week 12 courts maintained by the city of Sugar Land By the numbers
SOURCE: CITIES OF MISSOURI CITY & SUGAR LAND COMMUNITY IMPACT
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SUGAR LAND MISSOURI CITY EDITION
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