Kamloops Pickleball Club Pushes for More Indoor Courts Amid Rapid Growth
Kamloops Pickleball Club capped membership at 625 while demand hit 700, and the proposed Build Kamloops facility's nine courts would still fall short of the 12-16 the club needs.
The Kamloops Pickleball Club has capped its membership at 625 after demand reached roughly 700 this season, and club president Shannon Flannery says even the city's proposed new sports complex won't be enough to meet it.
Membership has grown more than 50 percent over three years, climbing from about 400 in 2023 to 525 in 2024, then 575 last year, and now sitting at a capped 625. Flannery said the club had to stop accepting new members despite the overflow of interest. "Everybody's playing pickleball. Everyone wants to try it," she said.
The club currently patches together indoor court time by renting from the Kamloops Tennis Association and from the municipality at the Tournament Capital Centre. It works, but only barely. "We just don't have enough resources to give everybody play time, and that's our biggest struggle," Flannery said. The club is also preparing for an April 1 start to its outdoor season, though outdoor play in Kamloops comes with its own complications.
Extreme summer heat and wildfire smoke are part of the reason Flannery is pushing hard for a permanent year-round indoor home. "It's hard to be active outdoors when those are the conditions, and that's why we're looking to move indoors to a facility at some point," she said.
The most promising path forward is the Build Kamloops project, a proposed curling and racquet sports complex planned for the 700-block of Victoria Street that would replace the existing Kamloops Curling Club and Memorial Arena. The proposed facility could include nine courts. Flannery said the club has a seat at the planning table: "We are included in the [planning] discussions and we're thrilled about that." But nine courts would still leave the club well short of what it needs. Flannery put the club's requirement at 12 to 16 courts to meet current demand.
The sport is also pulling in a different crowd than it once did. "We now see a whole bunch of younger, working people coming down, lots of little kids on the sidelines," Flannery said, a shift that only adds pressure to find space that can accommodate the club's next wave of growth.
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