PETALING Jaya City Council (MBPJ) plans to build the city’s first pickleball courts at The Spine@PJKita in Kelana Jaya as the sport continues to gain interest from the public.
Mayor Mohamad Zahari Samingon said MBPJ has already appointed a vendor after a tender process took place to build six pickleball courts near the futsal courts at Dewan D’Kelana multipurpose hall in Petaling Jaya.
Demand for pickleball courts in Malaysia remain strong
This is an interesting development, because at the current time despite the amazing pace at which privately owned pickleball courts are opening across Malaysia, demand for courts is still outstripping supply. The net impact is that the price for courts is somewhat high, averaging around RM70 per hour at peak times. The price is currently sustainable with courts getting booked out very quickly wherever they open.
If public courts start to open. most likely the price per hour will be less, and it will be interesting to see the impact this eventually has on private court pricing.
Work on public courts to begin shortly
Zahari said construction for the project was scheduled to begin January next year, adding that the local council awarded the contract following the approval of the Selangor state executive council.
“The pickleball courts will be housed in covered and open spaces at the venue,” he said, adding that in Selangor, the Subang Jaya City Council was the first to have pickleball courts.
The decision to have pickleball courts came after Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari announced, when tabling the state’s Budget 2025, that the state would introduce it as a medal sport when it hosts the 2026 Malaysia Games (Sukma).
Amirudin said sports experts had also projected that the Asian region would become the world’s hub for pickleball, with the emergence of an additional 100 million players in the next five years.
