Pickleball arrives in Central Park with new 14-court installation

WATCH: Catch up on all the action on and off the court on the latest episode of The Break

Spring has been a long time coming, and this year, it's greeting New Yorkers with quite the welcome: The famous skating rink in Central Park is upgrading from ice to pickle.

Come April 7th, fans of the country's fastest growing sport will find 14 pickleball courts spanning the surface of Wollman Rink. The installation will be open from 7:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m., which is enough for 196 hours of pickleball play every day.

CityPickle, the city's self-proclaimed “home for pickleball”, is spearheading the installation and is looking to offer lessons, clinics, birthday rentals, and all of that good pickling itinerary. The organization has already been leading the charge in New York City, with plans for a permanent pickleball club in Queens set to open this summer and a recently opened venue for play in Manhattan's Hudson Yards neighborhood.

Wollman Rink's turn as a pickleball venue will run from April 7th through October 9th, before it reopens for ice skating in the winter. Standard court rentals range from $80 to $120 an hour, with equipment rentals set for $6 each (USD).

This will be the largest pickleball installation in the northeast, so don’t be shy and head out there to check it out.