Pickleball Has Won the Participation Battle. Now It Has to Win the Attention Battle.

In the latest World Pickleball Podcast, fandom strategist Calvin Innes explains why the sport’s next challenge is not getting people on court, but making them care what happens beyond it.

Pickleball has millions of players, but participation does not automatically create fandom
Calvin Innes argues that storytelling, personalities and access are now central to the sport’s next phase
The English Open, pro tours and global events all need stronger narratives if pickleball wants a wider audience

The problem pickleball has not solved yet

Pickleball has solved the first problem.

People want to play it.

That is not a small thing. Most sports spend years trying to reduce barriers, simplify access and persuade people to give them a chance. Pickleball has done that part unusually well.

Courts are busy. Clubs are growing. New players become committed quickly. In many places, the game no longer needs to explain why it is enjoyable.

But there is another problem sitting underneath the success.

Playing pickleball is not the same as following pickleball.

Players are not always fans

That is the central tension in the latest World Pickleball Podcast, where Chris speaks to Calvin Innes, an award-winning creative director, fandom strategist and co-founder of The Forge.

The conversation starts with a question that should matter to every tour, federation, tournament organiser and media outlet in the sport.

How does pickleball turn millions of players into a true global fanbase?

Not just people who play once or twice a week. Not just people who love their local club. Fans. People who follow players, recognise rivalries, watch events, share clips, debate storylines and feel that the sport is part of their wider identity.

That is still a gap.

Chris makes the point bluntly during the episode. You could put 30 regular pickleball players in a room and many might not recognise Ben Johns if he walked through the door.

That is not a failure of those players. It is a sign of where the sport is.

Pickleball has participation.

It is still building attention.

Why fandom is different

Innes draws a clear line between an audience and a fandom.

An audience consumes what it is given. A fandom carries the message without being asked.

That distinction matters because much of pickleball’s current media output still behaves as if attention follows automatically from participation. Tournament results, event announcements and highlight points all have value, but they are not enough on their own.

People do not only follow sports because of results.

They follow characters. Tension. Style. Rivalries. Backstories. Strange rituals. Shared language. Moments that mean more because they sit inside a larger world.

That is where pickleball has work to do.

If you’re following how the global game is shifting week by week, the World Pickleball Report breaks this down every Wednesday.

The sport’s quirks may be its advantage

One of the strongest ideas in the episode is that pickleball should not be too quick to smooth away its oddities.

The scoring system confuses beginners. The kitchen sounds ridiculous to outsiders. Even the name of the sport can feel like a branding problem.

But Innes argues that these are not just weaknesses.

They are ingredients.

Other sports have built culture around stranger things. Tennis has a scoring system that makes little sense until it becomes familiar. Cricket has formats, rituals and language that make it feel like a world of its own. Formula 1 expanded when it stopped presenting itself only as machinery and strategy, and started letting people into the personalities, tensions and wider culture around the sport.

The lesson is not that pickleball should copy any of them directly.

The lesson is that sport becomes easier to follow when it feels like a world, not just a rulebook.

Why the English Open matters now

This is where the episode becomes more than theory.

The English Open at the NEC in Birmingham is moving towards a scale that should make the sport pause. A 60-court indoor event, staged at one of the UK’s major venues, gives pickleball a platform that is bigger than a results sheet.

It gives the sport a chance to build stories before the event starts.

Every player entering has a reason for being there. Some are chasing medals. Some are travelling from overseas. Some are former tennis players. Some are late starters. Some are playing the biggest tournament of their lives.

Those stories should not be treated as decoration.

They are how an event becomes followable.

For all the talk about growth, this is where pickleball media, federations and tournament organisers need to become sharper. The next stage is not just announcing who won. It is making people care before anyone steps on court.

No quick fix, but a clear direction

The full conversation does not pretend fandom can be switched on overnight.

Innes is clear that the quick-win mindset is usually the wrong one. Fandom takes time. It needs repetition, access, trust and personality.

That means more behind-the-scenes content. More player-led storytelling. More honest, imperfect clips. More tournament build-up. More attention on the people inside the brackets, not just the brackets themselves.

It also means giving fans more room to shape the culture.

That is uncomfortable for sports bodies because control feels safer. But fandom rarely grows from control alone. It grows when people feel they can belong to something, argue about it, adapt it and carry it into their own lives.

Why you should listen

This is not a coaching episode. It is not about improving your third shot drop or choosing a paddle.

It is about the bigger question facing the sport.

Pickleball has courts. It has players. It has awareness. What it does not yet have, at global scale, is the kind of emotional attachment that turns a sport from something people do into something people follow.

That is why this conversation matters.

For media, tournaments, brands, clubs and federations, the message is direct: the participation boom is not the finish line. It is the starting point.

The next battle is attention.

Listen to the full World Pickleball Podcast episode with Calvin Innes for the complete conversation on fandom, storytelling and what pickleball needs to build next.

For a clearer view of where the sport is heading each week, you can join the World Pickleball Report here.