Photo: Chaiel Schaffel/WBZ NewsRadio
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — The founders of Boston Pickle Club are planning on expanding their pickleball courts to multiple locations around Massachusetts.
Boston Pickle Club is the city's first "100% pickleball-only club," said their Instagram. Their first location is in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Boston.
“This is formerly a Sky Zone [an indoor trampoline park] actually. It’s 20,000 square feet of industrial warehouse," said Steve Hauck, one of the founders of Boston Pickle Club.
But they don't want to stop at just one location, he explained. “We have plans to go from Hingham all the way up to Manchester-by-the-Sea."
Photo: Chaiel Schaffel/WBZ NewsRadio
The other two founders, Johan du Randt and Stephen Mitchell, are both professional tennis players.
“The high-level tennis people always kind of looked down on it. But when you start playing pickleball and you start playing at a high level, you actually see that it’s a really skilled game and it’s tons of fun to play,” one of them explained.
And the indoor pickleball courts are much cheaper to play at than a country club, they added. “You have an initiation fee that is likely over $50,000 to enter. Ours is $100."
Photo: Chaiel Schaffel/WBZ NewsRadio
The club's founders shared lots of ideas for the future. “Our plan is to build between eight and 10 premier indoor pickle clubs up and down the [I-]95 corridor of Boston” over the next five years, said Hauck.
Indoor courts ensure that people can play year-round even in the winter weather, and there will be fewer noise complaints from neighbors, explained the founders.
They also said that they are planning to form a local pickleball league in the coming years. “There’s no real structure like that. I think pickleball deserves it and is dying for that,” said one of the founders.
WBZ NewsRadio's Chaiel Schaffel (@CSchaffelWBZ) reports.
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