[Bill14564]

Not a pickleball player but live close enough to a rec center to know the courts get used a lot.

$143,000 for either 563 doz/month or 5,400 doz/year (the calculator says those are not the same). Yearly total of either 81,072 or 64,800 pickleballs with a price between $1.75 and $2.20 each.

The best price I could find on the internet, even buying in bulk, was $2.50 which makes this look like a pretty good deal.

Using 81,072 pickleballs for a year means replacing 222 balls every day which sounds like a lot.

46 rec centers with pickleball courts and six courts each make 276 courts. 222 balls per day means replacing less than one ball per day for each pickleball court.

I have no idea what the expected life of a pickleball is but given how much use the courts seem to get, I'm a little surprised there aren't even more lost, stolen, stepped on, or worn out in a day.

[garrykolb]

+1 for all the factual answers about pickleball being an amenity and the difference between golf and pickleball. Plus, $145K annually comes out to 87 cents per year per person across The Villages. You can't even get a soda or a cup of coffee for $0.87. The amount of computing power used to maintain this thread cost more than $0.87. Time to move along.

[justjim]

As somebody once said, “if you are going to dance, somebody has to pay the fiddler”. Lots of different activities in TV and lots of “fiddlers” to pay.

[Rodneysblue]

Originally Posted by Pugchief

Golf courses are waaaaaaay more expensive to maintain than PB courts.
Why don't swimmers have to supply their own chlorine?

Because the pools are salt water. 🤣

[Marathon Man]

Originally Posted by kcrazorbackfan

Seriously? Pickleballers don’t supply their own pickleballs?

Hmmm 🤔. Why aren’t golf balls supplied to golfers?

Why the comment? You have lived here for quite a while, you already knew this. A little pot stirring perhaps?

[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by kcrazorbackfan

Seriously? Pickleballers don’t supply their own pickleballs?

Hmmm 🤔. Why aren’t golf balls supplied to golfers?

The same could be said for tennis balls for tennis players.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by HappyTraveler

Why aren’t golf balls supplied to golfers?
1 - Some golfers are particular about which brand of balls they use.
2 - Many golfers would probably leave the course with them.
3 - Golf balls are more expensive and they get "lost"

Pballs
1 - Not brand specific
2 - We leave the balls at the courts
3 - They don't get "lost" (but, some eventually crack)

If that was completely true (or even mostly true) you wouldn't need to spend over a hundred thousand dollars on replacements this year. Fact is, those balls aren't always left at the courts, and many people take them home.

[Pugchief]

Originally Posted by kendi

Maybe because golf ball are not hit at other people. Supplying pickle balls ensures no one gets hurt from harder balls that some might naively bring to the court.

This is nonsense. Dura Pballs, which TV has been supplying as long as I've been here, are probably the hardest ball on the market.

And if you don't think golf balls are hit at other people, we have obviously never played golf together.

[michgary]

As every one knows, or should know, tennis players bring their own tennis balls. They often play with older balls that do not bounce well. Until someone coughs up a can.
Pickle balls must be the dirtiest objects in TV. Never washed and played with for months, with sweat and snot all over them.
You can wipe off your own golf ball every hole.

[Laker14]

Originally Posted by garrykolb

+1 for all the factual answers about pickleball being an amenity and the difference between golf and pickleball. Plus, $145K annually comes out to 87 cents per year per person across The Villages. You can't even get a soda or a cup of coffee for $0.87. The amount of computing power used to maintain this thread cost more than $0.87. Time to move along.

thanks for doing that math for me.

At least some part of the value of every home in TV is favorably impacted by the availability of pickleball as an amenity. Probably even more than 87 cents.

[Topspinmo]

Originally Posted by jimjamuser

The same could be said for tennis balls for tennis players.

Tennis balls are provided in equipment shack if you like playing with old flat tennis balls that lost air months and years ago. So, that’s why avid golfers don’t want play with old golf balls and advanced tennis players don’t play with flat balls…..

[Topspinmo]

Originally Posted by michgary

As every one knows, or should know, tennis players bring their own tennis balls. They often play with older balls that do not bounce well. Until someone coughs up a can.
Pickle balls must be the dirtiest objects in TV. Never washed and played with for months, with sweat and snot all over them.
You can wipe off your own golf ball every hole.

The present pickleballs they are buying don’t last very long before they get soft or crack. Ruff surface applied courts surface increase wear factor. The Vulcan pro balls are little softer should last longer and retain bounce. Duralast 40s are about as expensive and are harder plastic which can in-cure defects like out of round, gets soft it heat and brittle cracks in winter which makes them unplayable in short time. So in theory they might be saving money in long run and getting better product… we should appreciate village recreation effort trying to supply better product.

[HappyTraveler]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

If that was completely true (or even mostly true) you wouldn't need to spend over a hundred thousand dollars on replacements this year. Fact is, those balls aren't always left at the courts, and many people take them home.

Obviously, I can't speak for the conduct of every player in this giant place.
But, I play probably 150 times per year and none of the those in the groups I play with take the balls for themselves.

The balls do eventually wear-out, however. Meaning, they crack and have to be tossed. With the huge volume of players here annually, that would account for most of the loss. People don't need to steal them....because there are always balls at the courts to play with.

[JMintzer]

Originally Posted by Pugchief

This is nonsense. Dura Pballs, which TV has been supplying as long as I've been here, are probably the hardest ball on the market.

And if you don't think golf balls are hit at other people, we have obviously never played golf together.

Golf balls are not INTENTIONALLY hit at other people, unlike Pickleballs, which most certainly are...

[Pugchief]

Originally Posted by Topspinmo

The present pickleballs they are buying don’t last very long before they get soft or crack. Ruff surface applied courts surface increase wear factor. The Vulcan pro balls are little softer should last longer and retain bounce. Duralast 40s are about as expensive and are harder plastic which can in-cure defects like out of round, gets soft it heat and brittle cracks in winter which makes them unplayable in short time. So in theory they might be saving money in long run and getting better product… we should appreciate village recreation effort trying to supply better product.

Yep. Never understood why they used Dura balls, which are inferior to many other brands. Dura is hard to see due to yellow color vs neon green and they are not durable. Franklin or Vulcan is the way to go.