I just read the announcement from Pickleball Canada about the new nationwide league and club championship pathway, and I’m curious what people think about how northern/remote communities will be handled.
With the announcement of regional → provincial → national play, it makes sense in bigger population centers, but I’m wondering how this is realistically going to work for northern/remote regions across the country.
In a lot of places (Northern BC, Northern Ontario, Prairies, etc.), you might only have:
- 1–3 clubs that can actually field a competitive team
- Long travel distances between communities
- Limited ability to justify a full “regional” event
So what happens then?
Some possibilities I’ve been thinking about:
- Remote teams get grouped into a larger region (but that could mean 8+ hours of travel just for regionals)
- Small “regional qualifiers” with only a few teams
Curious what people are hearing in their areas:
- Are northern/remote clubs expecting their own small population region?
- Or being folded into larger ones?
- Would you travel that far for a regional?
- Do you think they should prioritize participation or competitive balance in Year 1?
Feels like this is going to be one of the biggest challenges for making this truly “national.”
Interested to hear how this looks from different parts of Canada.