A score for Charlotte's pickleball scene
This article was published in The Charlotte Ledger e-newsletter on August 13, 2022. Find out more and sign up for free here.
Pickleball Charlotte, the area’s first dedicated indoor pickleball facility, is scheduled to open in south Charlotte at the end of 2022 with 7 courts for full-time play
Kids practice on outdoor pickleball courts at the Granite Street Sports Center in southwest Charlotte. The sports center’s owners, Allen and Kelly Haseley, plan to open a dedicated indoor pickleball facility called Pickleball Charlotte in the Ballantyne area at the end of 2022. (Photo courtesy of Pickleball Charlotte)
by Cristina Bolling
You have to laugh when you consider this headline The Ledger published in January 2020:
Now, not even three years later, the sport has exploded. Tennis clubs have carved up courts to make way for pickleball play, local recreation centers are installing nets and people of all generations are learning the proper way to use terms like “dink” and “kitchen.”
Talk to serious players around the region and they’ll tell you that demand for pickleball courts far exceeds supply. Allan Haseley is trying to change that.
Haseley plans to open a 30,000 s.f. Pickleball Charlotte facility in the Ballantyne area at the end of 2022, next door to the Sports Connection bowling and family entertainment center that he and his wife, Kelly, own. The facility will offer one game — pickleball — and it will have seven indoor courts with more outdoor courts planned in the future.
The Haseleys also own the Granite Street Sports Center, home to the Carolina Juniors Volleyball program in southwest Charlotte, and they currently operate Pickleball Charlotte from that location. Since spring 2019, they’ve offered pickleball on the volleyball courts at Granite Street during times of the day when kids are at school and the volleyball courts are empty. They also offer pickleball at the third facility they own: Northlake Indoor Sports Center, which includes basketball and volleyball courts.
Haseley has grown the Pickleball Charlotte program to include four full-time pickleball instructors, who not only run the pickleball program at the Granite Street volleyball facility but are often hired out to teach pickleball to staff at places like Myers Park Country Club and Olde Providence Racquet Club, Haseley said.
The Carolina Panthers hired Pickleball Charlotte staff to create a pickleball experience at a team party earlier this year, and “Coach Rhule was the last one off the court,” Haseley said, referring to Panthers head coach Matt Rhule.
Haseley’s vision for Pickleball Charlotte in Ballantyne is to make it a place where people can show up seven days a week rain or shine for open play, lessons, or to rent a court for group matches or events. Court rentals will range from $15 to $30 per hour and open play will range from free to $12, depending on whether the players are members and the time of day they want to play.
Memberships will be offered but won’t be required to use the facility, he said.
“Pickleball is exploding and there’s a severe lack of pickleball courts everywhere, because of the growth of the sport,” he said. “We believe that there’s a big demand for more indoor pickleball courts because there are not very many places to play indoors.”
Charlotte resident Dick Osman, who with his wife, Desiré are “pickleball ambassadors” through the USA Pickleball Association, said Pickleball Charlotte is highly anticipated, because it will be the first dedicated indoor pickleball facility of its kind in Mecklenburg County. The Osmans publish a monthly pickleball newsletter called “The Charlotte Dilly News,” which currently has 1,800 people on its distribution list.
Indoor facilities that offer pickleball usually do so in combination with youth sports like volleyball or basketball, so pickleball gets scheduled in during the school days when kids are in classrooms, Dick Osman said.
“People have always said (pickleball) was an old-people’s sport, but that was because only old people were available to play when the facilities were available,” he said.
Mecklenburg County opened an outdoor pickleball facility, the John Stevens Pickleball Center at Clarks Creek Community Park in the northern part of the county in 2019, but there aren’t enough parks that offer pickleball in other parts of the county, Osman said.
Country clubs are quickly growing their player rosters, and a Queen City Pickleball League that started in the fall of 2021 with 13 teams grew to about 30 teams by spring 2021, Osman said.
For those looking to mix pickleball with entertainment, a new business venture also recently announced that it will be opening in Charlotte.
Rally, a “premium pickleball experience,” will open at the corner of Old Pineville Road and Southside Drive in LoSo in early 2023. It’ll mix food and drinks with pickleball. (Think of something along the lines of golf-entertainment hotspots like Top Golf or Puttery.)
Cristina Bolling is managing editor of The Ledger: cristina@cltledger.com
Related Ledger articles:
“Pickleball is the hottest Charlotte sport you’ve never heard of” (January 13, 2020)
“New sports in south Charlotte shopping center” (May 28, 2021)
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Executive editor: Tony Mecia; Managing editor: Cristina Bolling; Staff writer: Lindsey Banks; Contributing editor: Tim Whitmire, CXN Advisory; Contributing photographer/videographer: Kevin Young, The 5 and 2 Project