Player Survey Results: More Courts, More Playing Time in Big Demand
Additional courts, especially indoor, and increased play time/days are the most important activities for EPC to focus on, according to responses to the EPC 2019 Player Survey. Other activities that rank high are: instruction/skills development, grouping players by level of play, social events, and competitive events. These priorities give the EPC board and its members direction for making pickleball play more enjoyable. The survey also identifies issues such as how stacking works, controversy around grouping by skill level, Sunday “inequities,” opportunities to play up and player attitude/courtesy.
We will address many of these issues through communication to members, collaboration with EPRD and revising/adding times/days of play. More courts are, obviously, a long-term challenge requiring significant capital expense and planning.
Fast Growth, Large Intermediate Group Add to Number of Paddles Down
The fast growth of pickleball is captured in the fact that 13% of players are new this year. And, 29% of players started in the last 2-3 years. We’ve added roughly 25-30 new players each year over the last 5 years. This points to the frustration with wait times and the need for more courts.
Contributing to the sense of overcrowdedness is that 70% of players rate themselves intermediate (2.5) or upper intermediate (3.0), which means Social/Intermediate play draws on a large group of players. Conversely, Advanced (3.5+) play draws from about a quarter of players. We feel we can alleviate long lines of paddles down by revising the schedule with EPRD to add times/days, provide some time for play by skill level and encouraging upper intermediate players to “play up” during Advanced and Mixed play.
Counterintuitively perhaps, almost three-quarters of us play 3 or fewer days a week on average. Better distribution of players across days would help minimize the few days of the week that are truly crowded, especially Sundays.
Silver Sneakers Pays the Way
Silver Sneakers is how 68% of us pay to play pickleball. Be aware that some health insurance providers are dropping Silver Sneakers in 2020. UnitedHealthcare, for one, is replacing Silver Sneakers with their own similar program, Renew Active. Fortunately, Ellen O’Connor, EPRD Director, was able to negotiate a contract with UHC, so we shouldn’t miss a day of pickleball at Wulf. Click here to find out if your favorite rec facilities are accepting Renew Active in place of Silver Sneakers..
Wulf Best Serves a Majority of Players
Wulf Rec Center is most convenient to 58% of players (those living south of Hiwan Hills), while 38% (Upper Bear Creak and north) would be better served by courts at/near Buchanan Rec Center. That 18% of players come from Conifer/Bailey/Pine Junction makes Wulf the closest facility by far for a significant number of players.
The EPC 2019 Player Survey was conducted online Oct. 9-30 and had 90 respondents.