Canadian championship in this fast-growing sport will be held in Mississauga

Canada’s top 32 pickleball players will be in Mississauga later this month to battle for the national title in one of the fastest-growing sports and activities in all of North America.

The Canadian National Pickleball League finals will take place Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 at One Health Clubs, on Cliff Road.

Organizers say the finals weekend will showcase nearly three dozen of Canada’s top players in the relatively new sport of pickleball, which is played using a wiffle ball on a badminton-size court with a racket larger and more durable than a ping pong paddle.

Some 300 to 350 guests are expected to attend the finals each day, organizers say. The action runs from 10:30 a.m. until 8 p.m. on both days.

“This event promises to be a fantastic opportunity for our community to
come together and enjoy some thrilling sportsmanship,” event organizer and One Health Clubs member Kyle DaCosta wrote in correspondence with City of Mississauga officials.

“Who doesn’t love pickleball. All I hear (from people) is ‘more pickleball, more pickleball. Cricket and pickleball’,” Mayor Bonnie Crombie said at city council last week, referring to the fast-growing popularity of both sports in the city.

Ward 1 Councillor Stephen Dasko, in whose ward the Canadian finals are being held, echoed the mayor’s sentiments, noting he also hears many people clamouring for more pickleball opportunities and facilities.

He added that the name of the sport piqued his curiosity.

“Apparently, the person who came up with the name, it was named after their dog,” Dasko chuckled.

Known in some circles as the fastest-growing sport in North America, pickleball seems to have found its place in Mississauga the last few years.

And its place in Canada’s seventh-largest city is getting bigger and bigger, Mississauga officials and advocates of the game say. 

City officials have in the last year or two increased the number of locations across Mississauga where people of all ages can play a game or several of pickleball.

However, the game’s roots in the city go back quite a bit longer, to 1993, when the Pickleball Mississauga Association was formed. It served as the centre for advocacy of the game for years and in 2022 became Mississauga Pickleball.

Today, that group seeks to “promote the game of pickleball to all ages as we consider this game to be a multi-generational sport.”

Advocates for the sport say the game is a lot of fun, has significant physical and social benefits, and can be played by people of all ages. 

“It keeps people active and keeps youth off the streets, and it’s easily learned. This is a sport that you can’t ignore,” a PMA official told Mississauga City councillors back in the fall of 2021 in a push to get more pickleball facilities in Mississauga. 

New to pickleball or have you been playing it for a long time?

Grab your friends to play pickleball at one of our courts this summer.

Find a pickleball court near you: https://t.co/sIPfo6fz5E@saugaparksrec #NationalPickleballDay pic.twitter.com/fgqFmgmi8B

— City of Mississauga (@citymississauga) August 8, 2023