Business

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($726,200 or less) decreased to 6.81% from 6.91%.
Applications for a mortgage to purchase a home fell 2% for the week and were 27% lower than a year ago.

A sign is posted in front of a home for sale on May 11, 2023 in San Francisco, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Mortgage rates fell back from their recent highs, but demand dropped for the fourth straight week.
Total mortgage application volume declined 1.4% last week, compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($726,200 or less) decreased to 6.81% from 6.91%, with points falling to 0.66 from 0.83 (including the origination fee) for loans with a 20% down payment. That was still, however, the second-highest weekly average rate of 2023 to date.
Applications to refinance a home loan fell 1% for the week and were 42% lower than the same week a year ago. The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 27.3% of total applications from 26.7% the previous week.
Applications for a mortgage to purchase a home slipped 2% for the week and were 27% lower than a year ago.
“Purchase activity is constrained by reduced purchasing power from higher rates and the ongoing lack of for-sale inventory in the market, while there continues to be very little rate incentive for refinance borrowers,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s deputy chief economist. “There was less of a decline in government purchase applications last week, which was consistent with a growing share of first-time home buyers in the market.”
Mortgage rates have not moved much this week, as there has been little economic data to push them in either direction. Next week’s monthly inflation report from the government will likely be the next major read on the economy to influence mortgage rates. More

A viral TikTok challenge started in 2021 and spurred a rise in thefts of Hyundai and Kia cars.
New York accused the two companies of enabling “this spiraling epidemic” of car thefts.
Shares of South Korea’s largest automakers fell on Wednesday.
Hyundai Motors slid by more than 2% while Kia Corp dropped by more than 5%.

Hyundai Motor Co. vehicles are displayed at the company’s Motorstudio showroom in Goyang, South Korea, on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2020.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

South Korean automakers Hyundai and Kia are being sued for causing a “public nuisance,” according to a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court.
New York City is accusing the two firms of failing to install devices that prevent cars from being stolen, after a social media challenge prompted young teens to steal vehicles off the street by hot wiring them using a USB cable.

A viral TikTok challenge started in 2021 and spurred a rise in thefts of Hyundai and Kia cars. Chicago saw a jump of 800% year-on-year in the theft of these cars for the month of August 2022, officials told CNBC at the time. Los Angeles officials also saw an 85% jump compared with the year before.
“In electing profits over safety and deviating from industry norms by not including engine immobilizers as a standard safety feature, Defendants created and maintained a public nuisance,” the city said in the filing made in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York.
New York accused the two companies of enabling “this spiraling epidemic” of car thefts.
“This case is a clear example of what happens to public safety when car manufacturers choose not to include standard anti-theft technology in their cars,” the filing said. “Making sure cars are not easy to steal protects both property and the public by keeping dangerous drivers in stolen vehicles off the roads,” it said.
In response, Hyundai said it made immobilizers standard on all vehicles from November 2021 and had taken measures to reduce the threat of thefts. It also said it is communicating with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to assist its customers.

Kia added that the company is working with law enforcement to combat “car theft and the role social media has played in encouraging it,” and that it is “committed to supporting our customers and to vehicle security.” 

Highlighting the companies’ “failure” to install an anti-theft device, the complaint accused them of having “opened the floodgates to vehicle theft, crime sprees, reckless driving, and public harm.”
Shares of South Korea’s largest automakers fell on Wednesday. Hyundai Motors slid by more than 2% while Kia Corp dropped by more than 5%.
Hyundai and Kia last month agreed to a $200 million consumer class-action lawsuit settlement, according to Reuters, which covered approximately 9 million car owners and included up to $145 million for out-of-pocket losses for customers.

‘Virtual explosion’ of thefts

New York City in its filing said that the thefts are still continuing, and that it is seeking “compensation for the economic losses,” without specifying an exact figure.
“In 2023, in comparison to past years, there has been a virtual explosion of thefts of Kias and Hyundais,” it said. Around 977 Hyundai and Kia vehicles were reported stolen in the first four months of the year, according to the filing.
“This represents a roughly 660% increase in thefts of Kia and Hyundai vehicles as compared to those same months in 2022, when there were only 148 such thefts,” it said.

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New York City joins a number of cities that took similar measures against the two automakers, including Baltimore, St. Louis, Milwaukee, San Diego and Seattle.
In a release, Baltimore Mayor Brandon M. Scott said in May: “These cost-cutting measures employed by Hyundai and Kia at the expense of public safety are unacceptable.” More

Boeing said the issue is related to a “nonconforming condition” on a horizontal stabilizer fitting.
The company said it will affect deliveries of the planes in the near-term but not its full-year delivery outlook.
The delays come just as airlines are desperate for new aircraft to capitalize on the travel boom.

An employee works on the tail of a Boeing Co. Dreamliner 787 plane on the production line at the company’s final assembly facility in North Charleston, South Carolina.
Travis Dove | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Boeing on Tuesday warned about a new defect on its 787 Dreamliner planes and that it will delay deliveries of the wide-body aircraft, the manufacturer’s latest production issue.
“We are inspecting 787s in our inventory for a nonconforming condition related to a fitting on the horizontal stabilizer,” Boeing said in a statement. “Airplanes found to have a nonconforming condition will be reworked prior to ticket and delivery.”

The issue Boeing detected relates to tiny spacing in the horizontal stabilizer. Boeing said it isn’t related to flight safety and that planes in service can continue operating. Near-term deliveries will be delayed by about two weeks, Boeing said.
The problem is the latest in a spate of manufacturing issues on Boeing planes that have slowed if not paused deliveries of certain aircraft outright, just as airlines are clamoring for new planes to capitalize on the travel boom.
Boeing had paused deliveries of the planes for several weeks earlier this year because of a separate problem on a fuselage component on certain 787s. The latest issue currently doesn’t affect Boeing’s full-year outlook for Dreamliner deliveries, the company said. Boeing has estimated that it would deliver between 70 and 80 of the planes this year.
The company has also had to rework some of its bestselling 737 Max planes this year because of an issues with fittings in some planes’ aft fuselages, made by Spirit Aerosystems.
Boeing shares fell sharply on the news but largely recovered, ending the day down 0.7% at $207.29. More

LAWYERS are a conservative bunch, befitting a profession that rewards preparedness, sagacity and respect for precedent. No doubt many enjoyed a chuckle at the tale of Steven Schwartz, a personal-injury lawyer at the New York firm Levidow, Levidow & Oberman, who last month used ChatGPT to help him prepare a court filing. He relied a bit too heavily on the artificial-intelligence (AI) chatbot. It created a motion replete with made-up cases, rulings and quotes, which Mr Schwartz promptly filed after the bot assured him that the “cases I provided are real and can be found in reputable legal databases” (they were not, and cannot). Lesson learned, a tech-sceptic lawyer might conclude: the old ways are the best.That is the wrong lesson. Blaming AI for Mr Schwartz’s error-filled brief makes no more sense than blaming the printing press for mistakes in a typed one. In both cases, fault lies with the lawyer who failed to check the motion before filing it, not the tool that helped produce it. For that is what AI is: neither a fad nor an apocalypse, but a tool in its infancy. And one that could radically change how lawyers work and law firms make money. The legal profession is hardly the only field about which one could say that. But few combine as clear a use case with so high a risk. Firms that get it right stand to reap rewards. Laggards risk going the way of typesetters.According to Goldman Sachs, a bank, 44% of legal tasks could be performed by AI, more than any occupation surveyed except for clerical and administrative support. Lawyers spend an awful lot of time scrutinising tedious documents—the sort of thing AI has already shown it does well. Lawyers use AI for a variety of tasks, including due diligence, research and data analytics. These applications have largely relied on “extractive” AI, which, as the name suggests, extracts information from a text, answering specific questions about its contents. “Generative” AIs More

The PGA Tour agreed to merge with rival LIV Golf, which is backed by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, an entity controlled by the Saudi crown prince.
The proposed merger comes after the PGA Tour and LIV Golf have been embroiled in lawsuits regarding antitrust claims.
The deal would end all pending litigation.

The PGA Tour has agreed to merge with Saudi-backed rival LIV Golf in a deal that would see the competitors squash pending litigation and move forward as a larger golf enterprise.
The two entities signed an agreement that would combine the PGA Tour’s and LIV Golf’s commercial businesses and rights into a new, yet-to-be-named for-profit company. The agreement includes DP World Tour, also known as the PGA European Tour.

LIV Golf is backed by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, an entity controlled by the Saudi crown prince and has been embroiled in antitrust lawsuits with the PGA Tour in the last year. The deal announced Tuesday would end all pending litigation.
PIF is prepared to invest billions of new capital into the new entity, CNBC’s David Faber reported Tuesday. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
The agreement — the second stunning sports deal in just months, following World Wrestling Entertainment’s merger with Endeavor Group’s UFC — will require the approval of the PGA Tour policy board, Commissioner Jay Monahan said in a memo to players that was obtained by CNBC.
“There is much work to do to get us from a framework agreement to a definitive agreement, but one thing is obvious: through this transformational agreement and with PIF’s collaborative investment, the immeasurable strength of the PGA Tour’s history, legacy and pro-competitive model not only remains intact, but is supercharged for the future,” he wrote in the memo.
PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan said Tuesday on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” that after the merger is finalized, which he expects to be “in a matter of weeks,” the new board is prepared to evaluate every proposal that is presented. Al-Rumayyan is slated to serve as chairman of the board.

“Whatever it takes that’s … what we’re committed for,” Al-Rumayyan told Faber.

LIV didn’t see its matches distributed on TV in the U.S. until a few months ago, when the league signed a deal with the CW Network as the exclusive U.S. broadcast partner. The CW had agreed to air 14 global events, which began in February. Terms of the multiyear deal had not been disclosed.
Nexstar Media Group owns 75% of the CW Network. A representative for the company said in a statement Tuesday there would be no change to the LIV Golf event schedule for 2023.
“This is exciting day to unify and grow the game of golf,” Nexstar said in the statement. “We look forward to broadcasting seven more exciting tournaments this year featuring the world’s best golfers.”

Rival lawsuits

Monahan said the tour looked at the game of golf “on a global basis,” as its seen more growth in the sport outside of the U.S.
Still, he acknowledged Tuesday on CNBC that there has been a lot of tensions between the two organizations, but said “the game of golf is better for what we’ve done today.”
The two organizations had filed a series of antitrust claims against the other in recent months. LIV Golf sued The PGA Tour alleging anti-competitive practices for banning its players. The tour countersued, claiming LIV was stifling competition. Disputes ensued regarding the discovery process for evidence.
The lawsuits were spurred as the upstart league had lured multiple high-profile players, such as Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson, from the PGA Tour after the tour had banned the players from competing in LIV’s events.
On Tuesday, Mickelson tweeted, “Awesome day today” as part of a post sharing the news of the merger.
The deal comes soon after LIV golfer Brooks Koepka won the PGA Championship, one of four major titles in men’s golf.
As part of the agreement, the groups will establish “a fair and objective process for any players who want to re-apply for membership with the PGA Tour or DP World Tour” following the end of the 2023 season, according to a release.

Team Captain Brooks Koepka of Smash GC and caddie Ricky Elliott shake hands on the 18th green during day three of the LIV Golf Invitational – Jeddah at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club on October 16, 2022 in King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia.
Charles Laberge | LIV Golf | Getty Images

Growing controversy

LIV Golf, which launched in 2022 and has been spending top dollar to lure golfers, has also been the subject of controversy, criticism and political intrigue in the U.S. PIF has reportedly invested $2 billion into LIV already, and had aspirations of creating franchises and teams that could one day be sold.
Critics of LIV have also accused PIF of “sportswashing” by using the league to distract from the kingdom’s history of human rights violations.
Family members of those who perished in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have protested the league, including outside of events. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers on Sept. 11 were from Saudi Arabia, and Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind behind the attacks, was born in the country. It has been concluded by U.S. officials that Saudi nationals helped fund the terrorist group al-Qaeda, although investigations didn’t find that the Saudi officials were complicit in the attacks.
The group 9/11 Families United said they were “shocked and deeply offended” by the merger in a statement on Tuesday.
“Mr. Monahan talked last summer about knowing people who lost loved ones on 9/11, then wondered aloud on national television whether LIV Golfers ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour. They do now – as does he,” said 9/11 Families United Chair Terry Strada, whose husband Tom died in the World Trade Center’s North Tower. “PGA Tour leaders should be ashamed of their hypocrisy and greed. Our entire 9/11 community has been betrayed by Commissioner Monahan and the PGA as it appears their concern for our loved ones was merely window-dressing in their quest for money – it was never to honor the great game of golf.”
The statement referred to when Monahan said during an interview with CBS Sports that he had discussed these controversies with tour players.
“I think you’d have to be living under a rock not to know there are significant implications,” Monahan said during the interview. “I would ask any player who has left or any player who would consider leaving, ‘Have you ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA tour?'”
Former President Donald Trump, who has hosted a number of LIV Golf events at his golf courses, has defended those events, falsely claiming that “nobody’s gotten to the bottom of 9/11.” Last year, Trump also said on Truth Social that a merger between LIV and The PGA Tour was inevitable.
On Tuesday, Trump weighed in on the merger on his Truth Social platform: “Great news from LIV Golf. A big, beautiful, and glamorous deal for the wonderful world of golf. Congrats to all!!!”
– CNBC’s David Faber and Jessica Golden contributed to this article.
CNBC on July 25 is holding Game Plan, an invite-only event in Los Angeles, with speakers including the NBA’s Kevin Durant and ESPN Chairman James Pitaro, which will center around discussions regarding emerging opportunities across the sports landscape.
Read the full news release announcing the PGA Tour-LIV deal:
PGA TOUR, DP World Tour and PIF announce newly formed commercial entity to unify golf
PGA TOUR, DP World Tour, LIV Golf merge commercial operations under common ownership
Agreement establishes common goal to promote and grow the game globally for the benefit of all stakeholders, ends litigation
NEW YORK; RIYADH; PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida, June 6, 2023 – The PGA TOUR, DP World Tour and the Public Investment Fund (PIF) today announced a landmark agreement to unify the game of golf, on a global basis. The parties have signed an agreement that combines PIF’s golf-related commercial businesses and rights (including LIV Golf) with the commercial businesses and rights of the PGA TOUR and DP World Tour into a new, collectively owned, for-profit entity to ensure that all stakeholders benefit from a model that delivers maximum excitement and competition among the game’s best players. 
In addition, PIF will make a capital investment into the new entity to facilitate its growth and success.  The new entity (name TBD) will implement a plan to grow these combined commercial businesses, drive greater fan engagement and accelerate growth initiatives already underway.  With LIV Golf in the midst of its second, groundbreaking season, the PGA TOUR, DP World Tour and PIF will work together to best feature and grow team golf going forward. 
Notably, today’s announcement will be followed by a mutually agreed end to all pending litigation between the participating parties.  Further, the three organizations will work cooperatively and in good faith to establish a fair and objective process for any players who desire to re-apply for membership with the PGA TOUR or the DP World Tour following the completion of the 2023 season and for determining fair criteria and terms of re-admission, consistent with each Tour’s policies.  
“After two years of disruption and distraction, this is a historic day for the game we all know and love,” said PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan.  “This transformational partnership recognizes the immeasurable strength of the PGA TOUR’s history, legacy and pro-competitive model and combines with it the DP World Tour and LIV – including the team golf concept – to create an organization that will benefit golf’s players, commercial and charitable partners and fans.  Going forward, fans can be confident that we will, collectively, deliver on the promise we’ve always made – to promote competition of the best in professional golf and that we are committed to securing and driving the game’s future.
“We are pleased to move forward, in step with LIV and PIF’s world-class investing experience, and I applaud PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan for his vision and collaborative and forward-thinking approach that is not just a solution to the rift in our game, but also a commitment to taking it to new heights. This will engender a new era in global golf, for the better.”
“Today is a very exciting day for this special game and the people it touches around the world,” said PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan. “We are proud to partner with the PGA TOUR to leverage PIF’s unparalleled success and track record of unlocking value and bringing innovation and global best practices to business and sectors worldwide.  We are committed to unifying, promoting and growing the game of golf around the world and offering the highest-quality product to the many millions of long-time fans globally, while cultivating new fans. 
“There is no question that the LIV model has been positively transformative for golf. We believe there are opportunities for the game to evolve while also maintaining its storied history and tradition. This partnership represents the best opportunity to extend and increase the impact of golf for all.  We look forward to collaborating with Jay and Keith to bring the best version of the game to communities around the world.”
Under the terms of the agreement, the Board of Directors of the new entity will oversee and direct all the new entity’s golf-related commercial operations, businesses and investments. The new entity will work to ensure a cohesive schedule of events that will be exciting for fans, sponsors and all stakeholders.  PIF will initially be the exclusive investor in the new entity, alongside the PGA TOUR, LIV Golf and the DP World Tour. Going forward, PIF will have the exclusive right to further invest in the new entity, including a right of first refusal on any capital that may be invested in the new entity, including into the PGA TOUR, LIV Golf and DP World Tour. The PGA TOUR will appoint a majority of the Board and hold a majority voting interest in the combined entity.
Separately, PGA TOUR Inc. will remain in place as a 501(c)(6) tax exempt organization and retains administrative oversight of events for those assets contributed by the PGA TOUR, including the sanctioning of events, the administration of the competition and rules, as well as all other “inside the ropes” responsibilities, with Jay Monahan as Commissioner and Ed Herlihy as PGA TOUR Policy Board Chairman.  PIF’s Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan will join the PGA TOUR Policy Board. The DP World Tour and LIV Golf will retain similar administrative oversight of events on their respective Tours.
The Board of Directors of the new commercial entity will include Al-Rumayyan as Chairman and Monahan as Chief Executive Officer; the new entity’s Board will also include an Executive Committee comprising Al-Rumayyan, Monahan, Herlihy and PGA TOUR Policy Board member Jimmy Dunne.  The full Board will be announced at a later date, and it is anticipated that all three founding members will have representation.
Keith Pelley, Chief Executive of the DP World Tour, said “This is a momentous day. We are delighted to be able to not only reignite our relationship with PIF, but also to have the opportunity to build on our current Strategic Alliance partnership with the PGA TOUR.  Together we will be stronger than ever and well positioned to continue to bring the game to all corners of the globe. To partner in this new entity and influence the growth of the game for all our DP World Tour members is energizing and exciting.”
All parties will work in the months to come to finalize terms of the agreement, with details to be announced in due course. More

Merck has sued the Department of Health and Human Services over Medicare’s new powers to reduce drug prices under the Inflation Reduction Act.
In a scathing complaint filed in federal district court, Merck excoriated the negotiation process as a “sham” and “tantamount to extortion.”
Merck has asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block HHS from forcing the company to enter into an agreement that slashes prices.

Jakub Porzycki | NurPhoto | Getty Images

Global drugmaker Merck on Tuesday sued the Biden administration over Medicare’s new powers to substantially reduce drug prices for seniors under the Inflation Reduction Act, the opening salvo in the pharmaceutical industry’s efforts to weaken the program.
In a scathing complaint filed in federal district court, Merck excoriated the negotiation process as a “sham” and “tantamount to extortion.”

The drugmaker accused the federal government of employing what the company described as an unconstitutional scheme to take private property for public use without just compensation in violation of the Fifth Amendment.
Merck said the Department of Health and Human Services compels companies to enter into an agreement that effectively dictates the price of a drug at a 25% to 60% discount under threat of daily excise taxes that are several times higher than the medication’s daily revenue.
The company asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block HHS from compelling the drugmaker to enter into any agreement under the program to slash prices and void any agreement the company has been forced to enter into.
“Under the IRA, the Government will requisition Merck’s patented pharmaceutical products and transfer them to Medicare beneficiaries through forced sales,” the company’s legal team wrote in the complaint.
“Those forced sales—coerced by the threat of draconian penalties that the Government has admitted no manufacturer could ever rationally afford to pay—will deprive Merck of possession and title to its personal property,” Merck’s attorneys wrote.

Merck also argued that Medicare’s new powers to negotiate prices violate the company’s free speech rights under the First Amendment. The drugmaker claimed the Inflation Reduction Act forces companies to participate in a “political deception” that presents the program as a negotiation for fair prices.
“Conscripting companies to legitimize government extortion is the sort of parroted orthodoxy that the First Amendment’s compelled-speech doctrine forbids,” Merck’s attorneys wrote.
Under the Inflation Reduction, HHS will select 10 drugs to be drawn into a first round of price negotiations. Those drugs will be some that Medicare Part D spends the most money on and that have no generic competition.
Medicare Part D is the program that covers the cost of drugs that seniors typically pick up in pharmacies.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will publish a list of which drugs were selected for the first cycle of negotiations on September 1. The companies that make those drugs face an October deadline to sign agreements to participate in those negotiations.
Merck expects its Type 2 diabetes drug Januvia to be subject to those negotiations this year. The drugmaker booked $2.8 billion in revenue from that drug last year, according to financial filings.
Merck also anticipates its blockbuster cancer immunotherapy treatment Keytruda and its other diabetes drug Janumet will be subject to the program in subsequent negotiation cycles. The drugmaker booked $21 billion in sales from Keytruda in 2022 and $1.7 billion in sales from Janumet.
Keytruda represented 35% of Merck’s total revenues last year.
CMS will send its initial price offer for the first round of price negotiations on Feb. 1, 2024, according to a timeline published by HHS. The drugmakers have 30 days to accept that price or submit a counter offer, according to the department.
The negotiations end on Aug. 1, 2024, and CMS will publish a list of the reduced prices that September, according to the timeline. Those prices go into effect on Jan. 1, 2026, according to HHS.
The program will expand in subsequent years to Medicare Part B, which generally covers drugs and treatments that seniors cannot administer at home on their own.

CNBC Health & Science

Read CNBC’s latest health coverage: More

Swimply is expanding beyond pools to offer pickleball- and tennis-court rentals.
The CEO of the rental startup said he expects revenue from pickleball courts to surpass pools within a couple of years.
As America’s fastest-growing sport, pickleball is seeing surging demand for courts.

Swimply is expanding its marketplace to offer pickleball court rentals.
Source: Swimply

Swimply, the startup that lets people rent private pools, is set to expand to pickleball courts — and the company says it expects revenue from its new offering to outpace pool rentals in just two and half years.
On Tuesday, the company announced it is adding pickleball- and tennis-court rentals to its growing marketplace.

“There’s a massive constraint right now considering how fast the sport is growing,” Bunim Laskin, Swimply founder and CEO, told CNBC.
Swimply, which launched in 2018 in the New York City area, plans to list rental access for up to 300 private courts in markets including New York, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Houston and Austin, Texas.
Laskin said he expects the number of courts available for rental to double by the end of the summer.

Driven by demand from both court owners and players, Swimply is launching Courts to better serve consumers looking for new ways to have fun and spend their leisure time.
Source: Swimply

Last year, 36 million people tried pickleball. As interest in the sport has surged, court availability and access have been the biggest challenges for many people.
Laskin said the company ran a beta test with pickleball courts that saw some owners earning between $1,000 and $3,000 per month with typical court rentals costing between $25 to $100 per hour.

He said because of pickleball’s repeat rate — with some people playing several times a week — he expects revenue to overtake the pool category in less than three years.
“The majority of our revenue on the pool category happens from Memorial Day to Labor Day. With pickleball, in warmer states, we see that going year-round,” he said.

Growth of courts

Given pickleball’s rapid rise, there’s also been a steady increase in the number of courts being built.
In 2017, fewer than half of the largest cities in the U.S. offered public pickleball courts, according to the Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit that creates and promotes the importance of parks. Today, most major cities’ parks and recreation departments have made pickleball facilities available in their communities.
Over the past six years, the number of courts located in parks has increased more than sixfold from 420 to 2,788, TPL data shows.
“There’s been significant growth,” said Linda Hwang, Land and People Lab director at TPL — and a pickleball player herself. “I can’t imagine it’s going to slow down anytime soon.”

Outside of the parks system, privately funded courts are also popping up across the country. That includes chains like Chicken N Pickle and membership-only clubs like The Pickleball Club in Sarasota, Florida, and Court 16 in New York City.
Pickleball courts are even starting to fill the vacant space left behind by retailers in malls. In Stamford, Connecticut, for example, Pickleball America plans to turn 80,000 square feet of a former Saks Off 5th space into 28 pickleball courts. And Paddle Up Pickleball Club is expected to open soon in St. Louis. It is building nine courts in space formerly occupied by a Bed Bath & Beyond store.
Invited, a leading owner and operator of private clubs in the U.S., began pivoting toward pickleball in 2020. The company has been rapidly building courts — as well as converting courts from tennis to pickleball — and now has more than 400 pickleball courts at its more than 200 golf and country clubs across the country.
“Pickleball is just on fire,” Invited CEO David Pillsbury told CNBC. “We have doubled down on pickleball and made a huge commitment to the amateur side of the sport, and we’re supporting the professional side by hosting a number of professional tournaments as well.”
Pillsbury doesn’t see the trend letting up. “I think this is just the beginning,” he said. He cited the sport’s low barrier to entry, the fact that it appeals to a broad audience and that it’s inexpensive to try as reasons for its increasing popularity.

Swimply court rentals range from $25-$100 per hour.
Source: Swimply

Laskin said Swimply has been getting inundated with inquiries from customers who are looking to build pickleball courts as an investment or a way to rake in some extra cash.
Since it costs significantly less to build a pickleball court than it does to put in a pool, people can expect to make their money back within a year or two, he said.
“With the pool category, people are making between $2,000 and $10,000 per month,” he said. “We expect pickleball to be quite similar.” More

Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen is adding another chicken sandwich to its menu for the first time since it kicked off the craze four years ago.
Customers can also pay extra to add bacon and Havarti cheese to any of the chain’s chicken sandwiches.
Popeyes is leaning on the popularity of its chicken sandwich to draw in customers as diners increasingly manage their budgets amid persistent inflation.

Popeyes is expanding its menu to add a Blackened Chicken Sandwich and bacon and cheese toppings for its chicken sandwiches.
Source: Popeyes

Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen is permanently adding a Blackened Chicken Sandwich to its menu Tuesday, marking the first addition to its chicken sandwich line since it kicked off the craze four years ago.
The new menu item features a chicken breast that’s been marinated for 12 hours and seasoned with Cajun spices, but it lacks the breading of the chain’s existing chicken sandwich. Popeyes President Sami Siddiqui said in a statement that the Blackened Chicken Sandwich gives diners “a lighter option that is perfect for everyday.”

The Restaurant Brands International chain is also allowing customers to add bacon and Havarti cheese to all of its chicken sandwiches, starting at $1.50 extra.
The menu changes suggest Popeyes is leaning on the popularity of its chicken sandwich to draw in customers. The broader restaurant industry has seen visits fall as customers pull back on eating out to manage their budgets.
When the chain first launched the menu item four years ago, it sold out in less than a month, helped in part by a feud on social media with Chick-fil-A. The chicken sandwich returned permanently several months later, driving double-digit same-store sales growth for Popeyes for multiple quarters. Even when pandemic lockdowns pummeled restaurant sales, Popeyes was the rare chain to report soaring demand.
Other chains entered the arena, trying to show up Popeyes with their own chicken sandwiches. The extra competition, combined with its higher sales baseline overall, have resulted in less impressive growth for Popeyes recently. In the first quarter, its U.S. same-store sales rose just 3.4%.
Popeyes has also been pushing beyond its chicken sandwich to increase sales. It added Ghost Pepper Wings to its menu permanently after the spicy limited-time item sold out in just two weeks in January.
Shares of parent company Restaurant Brands have risen 16% this year, fueled by early signs that a turnaround of its U.S. Burger King business is taking hold. The company has a market value of $23.4 billion. More