Michael Internoscia played at a new indoor pickleball court Tuesday night and now plans to buy a membership for the perks of being inside and the social crowd that comes with it.
Though he already has a pickleball court in his backyard, “when you go to these public facilities, you meet every walk of life,” he said. “You can play with an 80-year-old dude who will whoop you.”
The lure is strong with all-things pickleball, the popular paddle sport that’s a mishmash of tennis, badminton and pingpong. Even though Internoscia lives in Davie, he’s eager to head to Coconut Creek, where a new indoor pickleball center opened on the north campus of Broward College. The college partnered with Diadem Sports, a company that manufactures and sells sports equipment and apparel to wholesalers and the public, to open the center in its Omni Auditorium, 1000 Coconut Creek Blvd.
“Me and my wife, we play every single day,” said Internoscia, a real estate broker.
Playing indoors is an appealing option, especially during South Florida’s rainy season that’s underway and all the hot weather that comes with it.
In Palm Beach County, the Life Time gym in downtown Palm Beach Gardens offers indoor pickleball. And the Palm Beach County’s Parks and Recreation department is offering indoor pickleball at its air-conditioned gymnasiums at three locations through Aug. 5. Play at the West Boynton Park and Recreation Center in Lake Worth, the Westgate Recreation Center in West Palm Beach and the West Jupiter Recreation Center in Jupiter is $5 per day.
In Broward County, Pick A Ball Sports Complex in Deerfield Beach started offering indoor pickleball late last year.
And more indoor sites are coming: Pompano Beach Mayor Rex Hardin said an indoor tennis and pickleball court is now in the city’s site-plan approval process to open at 3100 W. Atlantic Blvd. on the site of a former Palm-Aire golf course. “It’s a really cool thing: climate-controlled,” Hardin said, adding it will be a great attraction in Pompano Beach’s lineup of activities. “What a neat concept.”
Florida Indoor Racquet Club president and general manager Neal Feinberg said he expects the Pompano Beach location to open in about a year with “guaranteed anytime court access.”
“The real fanatics don’t want to wait at all,” he explained. The Pompano Beach facility will be members-only, with the highest tier able to play 24 hours a day. The advantages: “No rainouts,” Feinberg said. “And it’s painfully hot outside. Some people can’t actually take it.”
He called indoor pickleball an “exploding and competitive market.”
In Coconut Creek, the courts recently opened to the public — for a fee. Annual membership costs $1,500; a six-month season membership in the winter as the “snowbird special” is $900. But membership isn’t required: open play for a three-hour window is $10 for guests and $5 for members. Classes and lessons are extra.
The college said in a statement it’s “a move to leverage underused space and generate income.”
An April report by the Sports & Fitness Industry Association says pickleball “continues to be the fastest-growing sport or activity in the United States.” And USA Pickleball reports 10,724 known locations in North America, at a rate of about 130 new locations per month.
The demand for opening indoor courts has endured.
A TV station in Arizona reported that a startup going by “Picklemall” is recycling unused mall space to open indoor courts. A location at the Arizona Mills mall in Tempe is expected to open in July. A company spokesman could not be reached for comment.
There are others: Chicken N Pickle is a chain of indoor and outdoor pickleball courts — with a side of food — that has locations in Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas. Another in Arizona is opening this summer. Six more locations will open in 2024 including Nevada, Indiana and Colorado.
But in Broward, the founder of Pompano Beach-based Diadem Sports said he doesn’t look at the rising number of indoor locales as competition “because there’s a shortage of total courts.”
“With the amount of interest and demand for pickleball you could open 100-plus new facilities and all that would do is grow the sport,” said Michael Manglardi, who named his company after the Biblical badge of royalty. “The challenge in South Florida is space is very limited.”
He touts the indoors as a way to avoid wind. The facility, with high ceilings and no columns or pillars, offers private lessons, group reservations or open play. He recently opened an outdoor court in Germany, and another in South Africa opened in the spring on a former tennis court, he said.
Julie Talenfeld and her husband, Howard, are recent members of the Coconut Creek center and admitted “addicts or fanatics.” Although their homeowner’s association in Plantation built two courts and started an outdoor league to add to the list of amenities, Talenfeld says the indoor option is “more enjoyable.”
“People want to play all day and they don’t want to be limited by the fact it’s raining and too hot outside,” she said. “While the temperatures are hotter and hotter, 98 degrees feels like 108, people are playing pickleball and addicted.
“The answer: indoor, air-conditioned courts,” she said. “I love to play but as it’s getting hotter and hotter I can’t take it, you think you’re going to drop dead. And now it’s like, bingo.”
Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at lhuriash@sunsentinel.com. Follow on Twitter @LisaHuriash