A new indoor pickleball facility has just opened in the Columbus area with more on the way, catering to the sport’s growing popularity.
The Pickle Shack, on US 42 just south of Delaware, opened over the weekend. With 10 indoor courts, owner Dave Ganim wants his location to be for everyone from the serious pickleball player to casual players.
Pickleball is the fastest growing sport in America with five million new players joining the courts this year alone.
Ganim attributes the growth to a few factors, such as people looking to get outside during the pandemic, the low cost to play, and ex-racquetball and tennis players looking for other options.
“Central Ohio is a hub of really good pickleball,” he said. “We have over a dozen people with national titles from central Ohio.”
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Pickle Shack, which is open 24 hours a day to members, costs $89 to join, plus $8 an hour for court rental.
Ganim also has plans to franchise and expand elsewhere in the Midwest and into Arizona. A second Pickle Shack location will eventually be built in Sunbury, he said.
“That’s why I felt there’s a problem; tennis clubs right now are just putting pickleball lines on top of their tennis courts,” Ganim said. “It’s not fair to pickleball. Pickleball deserves its own dedicated courts.”
Ganim said he already owned his own buildings for the two Ohio locations, but finding other spaces has been challenging.
“The serious player wants to play 12 months a year, so there’s no place to play indoors of consequence right now,” he said. “That’s why we built this indoor facility.”
In addition to the Pickle Shack, the Real Dill Pickleball Club will be coming to Columbus in fall 2023 next to Ikea and Topgolf in the Polaris area, and Pickle and Chill is scheduled to bring six indoor courts in October to the Tennis Club building at 880 W. Henderson Road.
Several Columbus-area communities, such as Bexley and Worthington, have also added pickleball courts in recent years.
