Talk about an overnight sensation.
More than 18,000 new pickleball courts were added across the country last year, bringing the grand total to 68,458, according to USA Pickleball, the sport’s national governing body.
Currently, San Antonio’s Parks and Recreation Department lists eight publicly available pickleball courts in parks across the city, and multiple commercial ones dot the landscape. The city’s most recent court opened April 23 at the Walker Ranch Senior Center off Wurzbach Parkway and West Ave.
It’s easy to see why the sport — something like tennis but played with smooth-faced paddles and a hollow, perforated ball — is gaining momentum. It’s easy to learn and is accessible for people of all skill levels.
“Pickleball continues to grow in popularity in San Antonio, and we’re adding more courts in response to public feedback,” said Connie Swann, marketing manager at San Antonio Parks and Rec. “We’ve recently added courts at Walker Ranch Senior Center, Heritage Neighborhood Park and Piazza Italia Park.”
The 2022-2027 Bond Project has allocated $1.5 million for pickleball recreational improvements. The funds will allow for new pickleball courts at Tejeda Park, New Territories Park and Pickwell Park.
Overall, it seems like pickleball has blown up overnight. Nonetheless, the sport had to start from somewhere, which is where the documentary Dreambreaker: A Pickleball Story begins. Directed by Ashley Underwood and written by Craig Coyne, Dreambreaker tells the origin story of pickleball and how it evolved so quickly.
During an interview with the Current, Coyne, who’s the son-in-law of George W. Bush, and Underwood, who’s the wife of Curb Your Enthusiasm star Larry David, talked about the cultural differences between tennis and pickleball, the financial investment in the sport and its potential as an Olympic event.
Dreambreaker: A Pickleball Story is currently streaming on Max.
I’ve never played pickleball before. What am I missing?
Craig Coyne: You’re missing fun! Unlike with most sports, you can have fun with anyone. You can have a child and a grandparent on the court at the same time and still have a competitive game. It’s unique in that respect.
Pickleball courts have been popping up across San Antonio. We even have a San Antonio Pickleball Association. Is that the kind of growth you’ve seen across the country?
CC: It’s growing immensely. Going back to 2019, it was still fairly underground. It hadn’t really transcended the public consciousness. People wanted to play pickleball, so they were going to their local municipal parks and local governments and converting these underutilized spaces. People are evangelical about this sport. They’re not going to take no for an answer.
You mentioned “underutilized” tennis courts, but the ones that are utilized are probably where the tennis players are not happy that their courts have been overtaken by pickleball players.
CC: It’s brought communities together and torn communities apart at the same time. I think it’s a complicated relationship between tennis [players] and pickleball [players].
Ashley Underwood: [The sports] are culturally very different. Pickleball is all-inclusive, and tennis has a bit more of an air of elitism to it.
Why do you think now is the perfect time to tell the origin story of pickleball?
AU: We actually started filming this back in November 2021 … so, I think we were a bit ahead of the curve. But I think this documentary follows the birth of a professional sport. That’s a unique moment in time that can’t happen again. If you wanted to [make] a film about the phenomenon or how it’s changed people’s lives, those themes could always be made, but we chose to go this angle [and] to focus on the professional sport of pickleball and how it materialized in a very short amount of time.
Imagine if documentary films existed 130 years ago when James Naismith invented basketball.
CC: Yeah, [inventing a new sport] isn’t something that happens very often — the birth of a pro sport. We were trying to tell a story in real-time, which presented a host of challenges. We didn’t know what was going to happen, but we expected it was going to get a little wild. It became this earnest, quixotic quest to bring this thing to life and to give it a bigger stage. And then it became this Shakespearean tragedy [with] rivals and revenge and ego and all sorts of themes at play.
AU: We likened it to the Gold Rush. You get all these characters who come out of the woodwork. You have your legitimate entrepreneurs and ambitious people who are going to be successful, [and] you have your con men.
Do you think people look at pickleball and think, “How is this a sport?” I know I’ve done that with things like curling and slap fighting.
AU: One of the league owners in our film had this great line where he just said, “As a former hedge fund person, I look for things that are undervalued.” Now, you have billionaires and celebrities investing. Tom Brady and LeBron [James] are buying teams. Marc Lasry, who is a former owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, was one of the first to come in and buy a major league pickleball team. He bought his team for around $100,000 and two years later, it was worth $10 million. It’s an investment strategy.
Do you think pickleball will become an Olympic sport?
CC: If I had to bet right now, I would bet that it’ll be in the Olympics.
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This article appears in Apr 30 – May 13, 2025.