Unmanaged open play at Old Coast Pickleball had players sitting 45 minutes or more between games. The club switched all recreational play to rally scoring, which sped games up and made rotations predictable. Members now expect no more than a 10 minute wait.
It is a vendor case study, so take the exact numbers with a grain of salt. But the mechanism is real. Rally scoring puts a ceiling on game length, and predictable game length means predictable rotation.
Compare a recent Charlotte open play session: 3 courts playing, 8 waiting, 10 to 15 minutes between games, and that counts as a decent night this winter.
Why it matters: The wait is a format problem, not just a supply problem. New courts take years. A scoring change takes one announcement. If the wait is the worst part of your week, this is the paragraph to forward to the front desk.