The Saskatoon pickleball community is about to have a lot more space to play.
A total of eight new pickleball courts have officially opened at the Granite Curling Rink in Saskatoon in time for the winter season.
Organizers say the sport has been growing fast and they are having trouble keeping up with demand for court space.
“Right now there’s a dearth of pickleball courts in Saskatoon,” said Ray Greenwood, a Bridge City Pickleball Hub organizer. “So now there will be games in the evenings, on weekends, basically 24/7 you can play in this facility.”
With the curling rink closed for the rest of the season, Bridge Pickleball Hub decided to turn the space into new courts.
“There’s limited places to play indoors in the winter, and nothing during the evenings or weekends for young people or working people, so this has been something we’ve been looking for and it’s tough to find a good facility but this kind of fell on our lap,” said Larry Owen, a Bridge City Pickleball Hub co-ordinator.
To help launch the new courts, the Pickleball Hub held an open house Saturday for anyone to come and play a few games.
“Free pickleball all day, getting more people involved in the sport, showing people our facilities and introducing them to the game and hoping everyone has fun,” said Greenwood.
Owens says there are roughly 900 pickleball players within the city, and he hopes with new courts even more people will try out the sport.
“Everybody that starts can learn this game within half an hour, give or take,” Owen said. “If you’ve played any kind of racquet sport before, it’s much quicker, but even without that you can play fairly quickly”
Anyone wishing to sign up for the season and experience the new courts can contact the hub at bridgecitypickleballhub@gmail.com
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