St. Petersburg's puck dynasty continues with Shuffleboard World Championships
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Nightly scene at the shuffleboard courts in Mirror Lake Park - Saint Petersburg, Florida. 1900 (circa). State Archives of Florida
St. Petersburg was once known as "God's waiting room" — a sleepy town for seniors. So it's only fitting that the International Shuffleboard Association and the global rules for the game were started there.
Why it matters: St. Pete is now one of the nation's hottest up-and-coming cities and, after nearly a century, shuffleboard has gotten a similar rebrand.
- "Back in the 70s and 80s the perception of shuffleboard was pretty much the perception of St. Petersburg: for older people, not very exciting," Shuffleboard Club executive director Christine Page told Axios. "We have grown and modernized right along with St. Petersburg."
Driving the news: The club hosts ISA's 40th World Championships this week — the "Wimbledon of shuffleboard" as Page calls it — bringing players and fans from around the world to downtown St. Pete.
- The last time the city hosted the championships was 10 years ago, when the club had 300 members. It now has 2,600.
State of shuffle: 100 players are representing Austria, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, the U.K. and the U.S. in the tournament that started Monday and runs through Friday.
- The U.S. team includes local members as well as players from New York and Chicago.
- ISA will post daily replays on YouTube through next week, where Friday's first-place matches will be livestreamed.
Players to watch: Norwegian Mats Graff-Wang, who won the 2019 men's championship; 2015 championship winner Bob Jones Jr., from Ohio; Missy Kayko from Brooklyn, the top ranked player in last year's world team championships; and Torben Hussmann, who at 16-years-old took 2nd place at the 2011 championship are all in town hoping to bring home another win.
- Local player Thanh Seybold is expected to reign as queen of the court, Page said.
Catch up quick: Shuffleboard Club members standardized the game's global rules in St. Pete in 1928, four years after it was founded, Page said.
- Its home, the world's longest-running and largest shuffleboard club, was designated a historic landmark in 1994. But by then, the club had shrunk to mostly seniors.
- In 2005, a new era began. The club teamed up with local artists to host free play on Friday nights, turning the game from a seniors-only sport into a hipster party with beer, pizza and live music.
If you go: The matches are free to attend as well as Friday's post-game afterparty, which will have a DJ, cake, games and galactic shuffleboard.