Are There Too Many Courts in New Jersey?

New courts are popping up everywhere as the pickleball community continues to rejoice at the sport's viral growth. But non-pickleball playing locals are getting a bit frustrated.

As of June 2023, New Jersey is home to more than 250 pickleball courts, ranking 22nd for states with the most pickleball courts despite being the 4th smallest state by land area. That means that New Jersey has an exceptionally high density of pickleball courts. Nowadays, you would be hard pressed to find a town that without a pickleball court. 

The pickleball community loves that getting access to court time is becoming easier and easier. Especially with the problematic overcrowding of courts in recent months, players need more places to play to avoid wait times.

But, locals who have yet to pick up a paddle don't seem to share the same positive sentiment. In fact, they are becoming increasingly frustrated with the seemingly incessant building of new courts.

For example, Montclair Pickleball's Atlantic County branch in Galloway, NJ recently converted an unused basketball court into four dedicated pickleball courts to run their programs on. Upon the announcement on Facebook, Galloway locals expressed frustrations at getting another set of courts with grievances such as:

"Don’t we already have a huge new pickle ball court? We can’t just go turning everything into pickle ball!

 "I feel like we're turning into 'The Villages' in Florida"

"So uhhhh what they gonna do with all this pickle ball s*** in 3 months when no one ever plays again? Atleast disc golf is jus a couple fence posts in the ground" 

Are these locals just resistant to change, or is pickleball really becoming too popular for its own good? For now, empty pickleball courts are a rarity, as the number of courts can't keep up with the demand of players. But only time will tell if these locals are correct, and we are eventually left with empty courts, and the skeletons of this manic pickleball craze.