I play tennis here in the Villages and yes, we do buy our own balls. However, it also is not a drop in sport. You set up a group and know who you are playing with. Balls can be assigned and you are playing on the same court with the same balls for the entire set. Balls also have markings so you know if the ball you are playing with is one you started with.
Pickle ball here in the Villages is mostly drop in. You change courts and partners every game, which often means every 10 minutes. Assuming everyone brought their own ball, keeping track of whose ball it is would rival scoring in challenging people’s memory. I’ve occasionally been playing when there is one court that has their own ball, and their game just stops hoping someone will send the ball back down when it rolls to the other end of the courts. The only time I’ve heard less than friendly exchanges between groups has been over a ball someone owned. I wouldn’t want that to be the norm.
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