Anyone walking or driving by Pixel Park, located in Calgary’s Beltline in the Culture and Entertainment District, would have seen busy courts over the weekend.

Pickleball players of all skill levels took advantage of two days of good weather on May 4 and 5, along with some free coaching.

That, courtesy of the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation, which has begun their first spring activation of the park after it was opened to the public in the fall of last year.

“We built these pickleball courts in October of last year and this is our first spring–summer season in Pixel Park. So it’s a great opportunity to really bring people out, engage them in the pickleball,” said Emma Stevens, Director of Communications and External Relations for CMLC.

The sport, one of the fastest growing in the world and in Canada, has become a regular activity for over a million Canadians, according to statistics from the Sport Information Resource Centre.

Over 11 per cent of Canadian households reported at least one member playing pickleball in 2023, up from just 8 per cent in 2022.

Stevens said that interest in the sport was one of the reasons why CMLC designed the sport courts at Pixel Park to be multi-use, including for the sport.

The court space also includes an area for pickup basketball games.

“There aren’t a ton of free pickleball courts throughout downtown Calgary and so we saw a great opportunity to build one here. What we like about it is the flexibility,” said Stevens.

“Putting the two in place lets us do both so we can switch between pickleball and basketball, and we’ve actually seen great pickup. We’ve seen lots of folks coming out even through the winter on warm enough days, coming out and playing pickleball, and I think we’ll only see more and more of that through the summer.”

Weekend of activations, but more to come

Over the weekend, CMLC had coaches from PicklePerfect helping everyone from beginners to advanced players improve their game, as part of a weekend of coaching activities at the park which also included skateboarding lessons from The Compound.

PicklePerfect coach Clara Cronje said that pickleball was one of the easiest sports for people to pick up, being an easier combination of both table tennis and badminton.

“Basically pick up a paddle, you get a ball, and you get on the court. You don’t need much skill. We’ve had people that have come from racquet sports, get on the court and within one lesson, we get them playing the game. So it’s really easy to learn,” she said.

“It’s open to anyone, kids of all ages. Even we’ve got some grandparents coming. We’ve got 20-year-olds competing against 60-year-olds. So it’s really open to anybody interested to be physically active, get outdoors and just be social. That’s the big part.”

That social aspect is something that coach Sumit Chawla said drew younger demographics to the sport during the pandemic.

“We were home stuck at home, and everybody was away from each other. Then here was this opportunity to socialize beyond the courts, and just have fun with each other rather than sitting in your home and just being on social media,” he said.

“It’s so easy to learn in the beginning, and you’re on the court you’re having fun and your with your friends physically present there. rather than being away from each other.”

The sport is also less demanding in terms of the numbers of players needed and skill than tennis, said Cronje.

“It’s one of those sports where you can literally go to the YMCA, you can come here, and you can play with anybody. So it’s not as if you have to have been playing before,” she said.

“There’s always people to play with, whereas with tennis, you need to find four people. You always see people on a pickleball court so you just jump right in and go play.”

Building community, not just buildings

Stevens said building that social aspect of the sport was something they wanted to extend to other aspects of Pixel Park through the season.

“We are a master planner, we are a developer, but we’re also a community builder. I think that community part of it is critical, and the programming is really critical to that community part of it. We don’t just want to build buildings and walk away. We want to help build buildings, build public spaces, and then help make sure that they’re activated and vibrant year round,” she said.

“What we’re trying to do is bring a variety of different uses so there’s always activation, always something different going on. What’s interesting about the design of this space is in addition to dedicated sports courts and dedicated skate amenities, we also have these great common spaces that let us do different kinds of programming.”

That programming also includes an upcoming Green Fools circus day, happening at the park on May 20.

“We’re open at Pixel Park Friday, Saturday, Sunday with our regular East [Village] Team activation here. Lots of programming on weekends, and then a few weekday programs as well, and it just means that we’re able to amplify what we’ve already built in East Village and extended into the culture and entertainment district.”

For more details on upcoming events at Pixel Park, see www.cedistrict.com/pixel-park.