1,000 players attend the Picklr Utah Open pickleball tournament, as the sport’s popularity surges

SALT LAKE CITY — The Professional Pickleball Association is hosting a pickleball tournament at the Salt Palace Convention Center this week.

The Picklr Utah Open, part of the PPA tour, hosts both amateurs and professionals who have fallen in love with the sport.

“(The) PPA tour is really the PGA tour of pickleball, so this week you’ll have a little over 1,000 pickleball players coming here and competing on the amateur and pro level,” said the President of the PPA Tour, Bryce Morgan.

He said the PPA tour has a lot of ties to Utah and actually started in the Beehive state.

“The initial founder is from Utah,” Morgan said. “Utah has the highest number of pickleball players per capita in the whole United States, so pickleball is definitely a hotbed in Utah.”

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Since its creation, the PPA has seen a huge spike in the sport’s popularity. They said more than 12,000 Utahns have participated in PPA amateur events.

In fact, the sport has grown so much in popularity, that Morgan said pickleball is likely to be a trial sport in the 2028 Olympics, and a true Olympic sport by 2032.

Morgan said the beauty of pickleball is that it is for everyone.

“I can play with my daughter, my mom, and my grandma and it’s actually fun. There’s not a lot of sports like that,” Morgan said. “You’re going to see low-level division play this week. You can also come play with your daughter, your son, your friend. All skill levels are welcome here.”

Tickets are still available for the pickleball tournament. Professional play runs Thursday through the championship match on Sunday.