Pickleball is still the fastest-growing sport but one thing Chicago players need — indoor courts

It's a gloomy, cold Wednesday morning but you'd never know it watching Vivian Mumaw dashing across a brightly-lit indoor pickleball court, with a paddle in one hand.

Mumaw lives near Lake View’s Southport Corridor and is part of a weekly league at SPF in Lincoln Park, one of the largest indoor pickleball facilities in Chicago, according to the company. She plays at SPF about four to five times a week and started playing there when it opened in January.

“They’ve got a lot of courts,” Mumaw said. “They have a good mix of regular, just open play and then … people that are really serious, and they want to play people at their same level of competition.”

Mumaw, who started playing more than a year ago, is one of many Chicagoans who have picked up pickleball, the rapidly growing paddle ball sport that combines elements of tennis, badminton and table tennis. The Sports & Fitness Industry Association named pickleball the fastest-growing sport in the United States for the third year in a row with participation growing 223.5% in the past three years, according to its February report.

The Chicago Park District has taken notice, launching “Pickleball Mania” in September 2022. The program aims to add at least 50 new pickleball courts across the city by 2025. In 2023, the park district upped that figure to more than 200 by 2025. It said pickleball and tennis are among the most popular sports in Chicago.

While it’s great news for pickleball players like Mumaw, there’s still unmet demand in the sport — indoor courts.

“There’s not a lot of indoor courts,” Mumaw said. “Now that it's starting to get colder, we'll see what happens. It'll be a little bit of a free-for-all.”

Finding the right building

Chris Bobowski, senior director at commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield's Chicago office, said companies have announced plans to open indoor facilities, but few have been completed. That’s due, in part, to the specific space requirements for pickleball.

He said the indoor concepts often fall into one of two categories, either simply pickleball courts or clubs with pickleball courts and food and drink offerings.

“Some concepts are very much focused with pickleball as a social and competitive aspect,” Bobowski said.

Bobowski was the broker for DINX Social Club, a Highland Park sports club that includes pickleball, tennis, golf simulators and social lounges. Finding the right location for DINX was difficult, he said, because the facility needed tall ceilings and wide, open space for pickleball courts, as well as ample parking. The club is expected to open this winter in a 23,000-square-foot space that was formerly occupied by Staples.

“You're looking for industrial, but you need retail parking,” Bobowski said. “If you think of an industrial building, what's around it? Industrial buildings. That may not be the location that an operator wants to be. … If you're just in an industrial park that may not be as enticing for players.”

Another layer of complexity is added if zoning and liquor licenses need to considered, Bobowski said.

Whether a building has columns is also key because their placement needs to be able to accommodate a court's size.

“Column spacing and clear height — they rule out 90% of big box spaces, like right from the jump,” said Joe Sexton, co-founder and president of Ace Pickleball Club. A standard-size tennis court can hold up to four pickleball courts.

Ace is opening its first Chicago area location in Des Plaines this month. The location will be its seventh overall and first in Illinois. The club is currently running a promotion for new members to get their first month for $29. Membership is typically $129 per month.

Sexton said Ace considers the costs of renting or buying space compared to the building's size and how many courts it can fit.

“We're not a company that is in a rush to go out and secure locations as quickly as possible,” he said. “We are really methodical about it.”

Meanwhile, the Chicago Park District last month unveiled five new courts, including a refurbished tennis court and four pickleball courts, at the Near West Side's Union Park, 1501 W. Randolph St. Funding for the improvements was secured through $1 million in tax increment financing, according to the park district.

“Over the first two years of our investment in Pickleball Mania, we have witnessed the extraordinarily positive response in the game and knew that it was important to provide additional opportunities for park patrons to play across the city,” Chicago Park District General Superintendent and CEO Rosa Escareño said in a news release. “Inclement weather is no match for a pickleball player, and we invite everyone to layer up and enjoy the game at Union Park.”

The park district’s investment in new pickleball courts was based on feedback from staff and communities. It also assessed where courts were distributed in the city so it knew where new courts were needed. Courts that needed resurfacing or other improvements were prioritized, and the park district also considered combinations of tennis and pickleball courts, according to a district spokesperson.

Attracting pickleball players, expansion

Since SPF opened in January, co-founder Rich Green has seen its community grow. It opened a pop-up pickleball fieldhouse Nov. 7 in Logan Square to create more indoor courts, ahead of the city’s harsh winter months.

“The city has great courts — there are outdoor court options — but for the indoor market, there's definitely enough demand in the wintertime for additional courts,” Green said.

The fieldhouse has four courts, along with event space and catering options. It's open until the spring, though SPF is looking at expanding its year-round offerings. The company would like to have two to three more locations in 2025, Green said.

A membership isn't required to play at SPF, but visitors can sign up for a monthly membership starting at $59 that includes early access for booking courts and locker room space, as well as free equipment rentals.

Green described its Lincoln Park flagship as a “tropical getaway.”

“You come in, there are live palm trees. It’s very sunlight-filled,” he said. “It's a place where people can come together and just have fun, whether they're on the pickleball courts or not. I think as we look towards expanding off of that, we want to still bring those fun-filled vibes.”

Green said pickleball can be a great use of real estate — facilities like SPF often open for long hours to appeal to the before- and after-work crowd. The downside is the use of space isn’t always the most effective, since only four players at most can use a court.

Green and Sexton, of Ace, said finding a location where the investment makes sense is one of the most important factors when scouting for pickleball locations. With real estate costs remaining high, pickleball companies also want to find locations that don’t require massive build-outs.

SPF’s Lincoln Park location is a former grocery store and rock climbing gym, which meant tall ceilings and abundant light were a given. SPF declined to share investment costs.

Ace said it didn't have specific numbers for its Des Plaines location, but initial investments for franchise locations range between $940,000 and $1.9 million. The company is planning to open a second location in Vernon Hills later this year, Sexton said.

“We know that pickleball is very, very popular in Chicagoland as a whole, and we also know that there's a huge untapped audience,” he said. “We really focus on ... that untapped audience of people that have heard about pickleball [but] haven't necessarily had an opportunity to jump in and play.”

Pickleball clubs — especially those with food and drink — are part of a growing trend of “infotainment” or experiential retail, alongside activities like climbing walls and trampoline parks. Bobowski said pickleball remains at the forefront of the experiential retail trend.

“There's a big demand to find more locations for it — no question,” Bobowski said.

Before SPF opened, Mumaw had been waiting for an indoor court near her. Now, she wonders at what point there will be enough facilities. SPF's capacity is 16 players at a time, and Ace will be able to accommodate up to 52 players.

Green said he believes there's still plenty of room for the sport to grow — from players to courts.

“I think that's what a lot of people are trying to figure out right now: How many indoor courts can Chicago support?” he said. “It's a really interesting question that's largely based on how the game grows — but the game is growing really fast, and there is a lot of demand for pickleball courts at the moment.”