When it comes to work networking, is pickleball the new golf?
Professionals are swapping golf clubs for pickleball paddles.
Over the past few years, pickleball has seen enormous growth, quickly being dubbed America’s fastest-growing sport. But instead of just being something fun to do on the weekend with friends, it’s being leveraged as a networking opportunity or even a way to spend time with clients and close deals.
Pickleball-related spending on the financial services platform Brex grew 155% year over year from 2022 to 2023, and is on track for another record year in 2024. In total, more than $75,000 of employee expenses had “pickleball” in the memo in 2023. While golf-related spending is still larger on an absolute basis (more than $1 million of golf-related spending in 2023), this category grew “only” 48% last year.
There are several reasons why pickleball is seeing much more success in networking opportunities. It has a low cost of entry, requires less skill, is multi-generational, and is faster to play than other activities like golf.
“Anytime you mention the word pickleball, it forever builds your network with other people who play,” said Laura Gainor, founder of the travel and leisure brand Pickleball in the Sun.
Why pickleball works for networking
The low barrier for entry is the number one reason why the sport works so well for networking. A pickleball session is usually only between two to three hours, it’s social, and you’re not playing with the same four people every time. Courts are largely free or inexpensive and paddles go for as cheap as $20. Additionally, the sport appeals equally to men and women, which is also different to golf.
“There’s no sport like it to where it’s fun and easy to play and you can learn and play with either your grandchildren or grandparents,” said Gainor.
It’s one way to easily meet people. That’s what happened to Erin Mantz, vp of employee engagement at Zeno Group, who joined a new pickleball community last summer and met different people while she chitchatted during warmups.
“When one older woman said she’d just retired from Disney – my dream company and dream client – in communications after 20 years, my ears totally perked up,” said Mantz. “Maybe I could get her as a client, I thought.”
Despite showing up weekly for games, she rarely ever saw her again. But, it’s a clear example of how people are approaching the game and keeping the door open.
Mary Cannon, co-founder of CityPickle, says the company has seen interest in corporate events, both geared toward employees and clients, with at least 25 corporate event requests a day for groups of 10 to 250.
“Our biggest problem is we don’t have enough court space to accommodate the corporate event inquiries,” said Cannon.
For example, CityPickle has hosted summer associate events to a financial firm that recently welcomed 80 clients. Most end up as repeat corporate clients.
Pickleball-focused events
Others are being even more intentional and branding pickleball meetups as networking opportunities. John Diloreto, a co-founder of Penguin AI, hosts Friday sessions in Brooklyn called Tech Pickleball. John and his co-host met at a traditional tech networking event and learned they both liked pickleball.
“The first Friday we played back in April there were only three of us, but we had such a good time, we figured we’d post about it on LinkedIn and try again next Friday,” said Diloreto. “A few LinkedIn posts later, the next Friday we had 20 folks show up. We provided coffee, bagels and the nets and the tech community brought the energy.”
Today, Tech Pickleball has over 600 members in the community and consistently has over 50 people that show up every Friday morning at 7:30 a.m. to play. It’s resulted in new business for his company, as well as VC introductions, and people finding new jobs.
“Pickleball is like the anti-traditional networking event (think cocktails after work),” said Diloreto. “It allows people to build an authentic connection by sharing in a game together, instead of just asking questions about what each other do.”
Gen Z is especially interested
“Gen Z is about live experiences,” said James Kirkham, CEO and co-founder of advertising agency ICONIC. “The post-pandemic rush to return to reality made real-life experiences in passions like sports, and music more important than ever.”
And that is still something that Gen Zers are feeling, especially if they remain in remote or hybrid work settings where they don’t have as many opportunities to meet new people in their industry.
“Never mind the old cliché of the best business being done on the golf course,” said Kirkham. “Gen Zers are looking to fun, ‘cool’ sports like pickleball, to be the foundation of their new business and networking strategy.”
Gainor has also seen this as a helpful tool for younger workers, with many taking advantage of it.
“Any Gen Zers looking to grow their networking, build your career, pickleball is definitely the way to do that,” said Gainor. “I always tell people once you meet on the pickleball court, go connect with them on LinkedIn. I’m constantly adding to my network and messaging.”