New Castle County opens eight more pickleball courts.
Pickleball is a racquet game that combines tennis, badminton, and ping pong.
These newest courts are at Glasgow Park on Pulaski Highway, making it the fifth park in New Castle County with pickleball courts -- joining Deacon’s Walk, Bechtel Park, Bonsall Park, and Greenbank Park.
The county expects to add more pickleball courts below the canal starting next year while county officials look to add more courts at the existing parks.
Why more pickleball courts? County Executive Matt Meyer says it's a response to the public asking for more.
"About 9 months ago we did parks town halls across the county that turned into pickleball town halls because every town hall meeting we'd hear about the need for pickleball courts across the county,” said Meyer. “So it was directly in response to what we heard from the overwhelming number of players. We think numbering over 1,000, now they need somewhere to play. If today is any evidence, we built 8 courts and soon we got to start building a lot more."
Meyer explains why he believes the sport’s growing popularity over other racquet and paddle sports like tennis and ping pong.
"It's a way to maybe play a racquet game a little bit more safely. You can get better exercise than just standing around a ping pong table, but a lot less stress on the body than playing tennis. I think that's one reason why people in their older years, seniors tend to really enjoy playing it. It's social as well. A small enough court so you can have a conversation. Maybe it's the 21st century golf. We'll see," said Meyer.
Meyer notes the courts at Glasgow Park cost about $300,000 with much of that an internal county expense since the work was mostly completed by the County Public Works Department.
