Counting courts once is a story. Scoring communities every quarter is a standard, and that starts now. The Court Quotient, from Quick Pickle Intelligence, scores a community 0 to 100 across five dimensions: court access, public private balance, public investment, growth velocity, and affordability.
The weights are Carl's call, set Oct 21, 2026. Public investment and growth velocity carry 25 points each, because what a community spends and how fast it moves tell you where it is heading. The other three share the remaining 50 points, about 16.7 each. Counties are scored against fixed targets, not against each other, and grades run A, B, and C only. A is 85 to 100, B is 70 to 84, and C is under 70, with C the lowest grade given. A C reads as a community still building, not a community failing.
The targets are starting values, published with the method. Court access earns full points at 3.0 total courts per 10,000 residents. Public private balance is scored on walk on access, courts a regular player can use without a full club membership, with full points at 2.0 walk on courts per 10,000 residents. Public investment is scored on documented public pickleball capital commitments per resident, with full points at $15 per resident. Growth velocity earns full points at 0.30 courts opened per 10,000 residents in the last 12 months, with permitted pipeline counted at half weight. Affordability is scored on the cheapest reliable route to play twice a week, with full points at $10 a month or less and zero points at $60 a month.
One rule sits at the center of the method. The score rewards actual playing opportunities, never an ownership ratio. A county full of affordable public courts can outscore a county with a tidy even split where the private half costs a fortune. Full club memberships count at full price in affordability, because that is what access costs at those doors.
The findings behind the preview come from a six county North Carolina study. Mecklenburg County has $18.9M in court commitments, about $16 per resident, yet lands second to last in public courts per person at 0.50 per 10k, with 58 public courts against 177 confirmed private ones, so a resident who belongs to no club can reach about one court in four. Orange County leads in access at 3.14 courts per 10k, built mostly on shared courts and gym time. Union County sits at the other end at 0.38 per 10k, with 10 public courts and just 3 confirmed private courts, all lined gym floors at the YMCA in Monroe, and zero dedicated private courts.
The affordability pass found the same spread in prices. In Raleigh, a four month indoor open play pass costs $15, about $3.75 a month. In Monroe, gym play at the Winchester Center costs $1 a session. Four of ten dedicated club operations publish no usable price at all. Life Time in Charlotte runs $200 a month, confirmed by a member, at a company that does not publish its dues, for seven courts, 3 indoor and 4 outdoor.
No final scores yet. The first scored release for these six counties is being finalized now, with the full method, and scores update every quarter. The Mecklenburg Park and Recreation Commission takes the pipeline up on Nov 16. What is left before version one scores: walk on court counts per county, growth velocity assembly for the last 12 months plus pipeline at half weight, and public investment figures for the five counties beyond Mecklenburg.
Why it matters: Every county in America is making pickleball decisions right now, and almost all of them are deciding on anecdotes. A public score with a public recipe gives players a sharper question to ask their town, and gives the towns getting it right a number worth bragging about. Your zip code decides whether you play. Now it gets a grade.