CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood is welcoming Social Pickleball Fun (SPF), its first-ever pickleball club.
The brand new, 40,000-square foot pickleball, dining and entertainment complex will be the city’s largest indoor facility, company officials said.
SPF will be open year-round and will have eight pickleball courts, a turf field, guest amenities, and locker rooms complete with saunas and showers. For kids ages 3 – 11, the club will offer pickleball and tennis camps through its so-called cucumber club. It will also feature a restaurant, coffee bar and cafe.
The development’s first stage is expected to open by this winter, with the full complex scheduled to be completed by mid-2024.
It will be located at 2121 N. Clybourn Ave.
Pickleball is one of the fastest-growing sports in the country. For the past three years, Highland Park has hosted a pickleball tournament that drew about 850 players in 2023.
According to officials with the Association of Pickleball Players, part of the sport’s growth comes back to how such a wide range of people can play.
“It’s a sport that welcomes everybody, however good you are and however old or young you are,” Tom Webb, the organization’s chief marketing office, told WBBM in August.
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