Get Ready for National Pickleball Day!

SAN ANGELO— Pickleball is gaining popularity in San Angelo especially at Bentwood Country Club, but San Angelo didn't make the list of best cities in Texas for the up and coming sport. 

Which cities are making a racket in the scene of pickleball, the fastest-growing sport in America?

To mark National Pickleball Day on Aug. 8 and the upcoming debut of the first-ever pickleball reality show, Lawn Love ranked 2023's Best Cities for Pickleball Lovers.

We compared the 200 biggest U.S. cities based on three categories. We factored in access to pickleball courts and tournaments, the size of the pickleball community, and local interest in the sport, among 11 total metrics.

See the 10 best (and 10 worst) cities for picklers below, followed by key stats from our report.

The Top 10 cities for Pickleballers are:

1. New York, New York
2. Austin, Texas
3. Las Vegas, Nevada
4. Chicago, Illinois
5. Orlando, Florida 
6. St. Louis, Missouri
7. Mesa, Arizona
8. Charlotte, North Carolina
9. Tucson, Arizona
10. Cincinnati, Ohio

The 10 worst cities for Pickleballers are:

1. Paterson, New Jersey
2. Laredo, Texas
3. Joliet, Illinois
4. Miramar, Florida
5. Oxnard, California
6. Pasadena, Texas
7. Hampton, Virgina
8. Bridgeport, Connecticut
9. Kansas City, Kansas
10. Rancho Cucamonga, California

New York has the most pickleball facilities with 75 and 279 courts and features the most free-to-play courts. St. Louis has the second highest number of facilities with 52.

Mesa, Arizona has the most courts designed for just pickleball with 166. 

As far as Texas goes, Laredo has the fewest number of pickleball facilities and is on opposite sides of the spectrum with the most Google searches for Pickleball in the last 12 months as Houston and Dallas sit at two and three overall and Laredo, Brownsville, and Pasadena all tie for the fewest Google searches for Pickleball.

The Texas cities rank as follows:

• Austin- 2
• Houston- 16
• Dallas-18
• San Antonio- 28
• Fort Worth- 41
• Plano- 78
• El Paso- 95
• McKinney- 96
• Arlington- 100
• Denton- 102
• Frisco- 103
• Amarillo- 109
• Corpus Christie- 123
• Grand Prairie- 128
• Waco- 143
• Lubbock- 145
• Irving- 147
• Brownsville- 154
• Garland- 161
• Carrollton- 170
• Killeen- 182
• McAllen- 183
• Mesquite- 186
• Pasadena- 195