When all nine courts are in play, PickleRage sounds like the crescendo of the world’s largest popcorn popper.
Skilled players smack the hollow plastic balls across the net with menacing velocity. Other players prefer to gently dink the ball as if it were a delicate Easter egg.
Pickleball, which started on outdoor tennis courts as a less strenuous, more social activity, has become a big business.
National firms and local entrepreneurs alike are looking for empty big box stores to turn into pickleball playhouses.
PickleRage, at 10320 Shops Lane in Avenues Walk near Philips Highway, is one of Northeast Florida’s newest indoor pickleball facilities.
PickleRage, formed in 2023, is headquartered in Miami Beach.
There are six franchises in Alabama, Florida, Maryland, Michigan and North Carolina. It plans to move into Texas. Jacksonville is the first Florida location.
It is open 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday-Friday and 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
The 35,000-square-foot facility is open to memberships or open play for nonmembers. There are membership options that include single, couple and family at three levels – Elite, Premium and Pro.
Initiation fees are from $20-$40. Monthly dues for singles are from $59-$129; couples, $89-$229; and family from $109-$309.
Open play is free for Elite and Premium members, $7 for Pro members and $14 for visitors.
The venue has a pro shop selling paddles from $50 to $300. There are also shirts, gear bags and balls for sale.
Club pros give lessons.
Balls are provided and there are even loaner paddles for beginners wondering if pickleball is for them.
Franchise fees and build-out costs are between $800,000 to $1.7 million depending on the size of the facility, said David Smith, PickleRage chief operating officer.
The franchise fee for a single outlet is $55,000.
“It’s about finding the best location for PickleRage and then getting a new club open there,” Smith said.
“If we have a franchisee for that market, we’d love it to be awarded to a franchisee. But if we don’t have a franchisee in that market, we’ll build it as a company location, because we don’t want to lose the great sites.”
An empty big box or grocery store is perfect for an indoor facility. Smith looks for 25,000 to 45,000 square feet with high ceilings.
Unlike the gym membership model where the goal is to sign as many members as possible knowing many will not regularly use the facility, Smith said he wants members to play often.
“We forecast as many as 80 members per court. We also have a lot of nonmember players too, people that are more casual players who just play a couple times a month. They just pay their fees when they come in,” Smith said
“But members are rapidly filling up the place, that’s for sure. So if someone really wants to play a lot of pickleball, the membership is the best way to go.”
The need for facilities is there, Smith said. Recent surveys have identified 34 million pickleball players in the U.S. with only 14,000 places to play.
“Pickleball players are frustrated with long waits at the places where they play, not being able to play with people of their own skill level, not being able to play outdoors in the summer or winter,” Smith said.
“So we think this is the biggest issue in the game of pickleball, and the biggest opportunity is to provide a climate-controlled place for them to play.”
Nassau Pickleball
Shelly and Bruce Duncan, both Navy veterans, discovered the game shortly after moving to Amelia Island in 2016.
The game provided a way to meet new people and create friendships that expanded to off the court gatherings like dining out.
“My mother moved here, and she’s always amazed when we go out, that I always run into somebody,” Shelly Duncan said.
“It’s because of pickleball.”
The Duncans have a 19-foot camper that they have driven around the country. They can boast about having played pickleball in all 50 states.
The pair are now opening Nassau Pickleball 365 at 86365 Koen Lane in Yulee.
Theirs is a hybrid of an outdoor and indoor facility. Quonset hut-style roofs cover the eight courts. There are no solid walls, rather there is netting to block the wind.
Under the domed roof, the courts are lighted. The covering provides warmth when it’s cold, and relief from sun and rain.
This is the Duncans’ first business venture.
“What would it take to run a pickleball place? How hard can it be? I have no business background,” Shelly Duncan said.
At first they thought of renting a space but she estimated that after five years they would have paid more than $1 million in rent.
They decided to buy 2 acres in Yulee. It is near an athletic park and new neighborhoods are expected to be built nearby.
Shelly Duncan estimated that the facility will cost nearly $3 million to start. She developed a business plan and was able to secure a $2.9 million loan from Pineland Bank in Georgia.
While preparing the business plan, the Duncans also attended a gathering of about 20 owners and want-to-be owners in Utah in 2023. They talked about everything pickleball.
“We were still getting through the zoning phase. We had three days talking about stuff, your metrics, how to do this thing, what software do you use? Marketing. It was really good,” she said.
“That really got my confidence up. We were right in the mix there. We’re thinking about this the right way. So that was huge.”
The facility is built. They are only waiting for JEA to make sewer connections. Shelly Duncan wants to be open by late February.
Second Jax Pickleball store
Pickleball is growing to the point that it is earning not only its own space in sporting goods stores, but in its own dedicated storefronts as well.
Jax Pickleball Store opened its second location at 1541 Atlantic Blvd. in Neptune Beach in the Tradewinds Shopping Plaza at the end of 2024. The original opened four years ago at 1670 San Marco Blvd.
Ty Atkins operates the Neptune Beach store. Like many players, he began pickleball as a casual activity that grew into a near daily obsession.
He became so involved in the sport that he invented, patented and sells a pickleball training device to help with maintaining the proper grip on the paddle.
Atkins came into the new venture having experience in mortgages.
“I kind of just fell in love with the sport, and originating mortgages was just not fulfilling anymore,” he said.
Being a dedicated pickleball store, Jax Pickleball offers some specific services.
It has a small dink court inside the store. It is smaller than a regulation court and allows customers to experience the feel of a paddle.
Players can rent a demo paddle for $5 a week to see whether it suits their game. With some paddles costing up to $300, the tryout period helps players buy with confidence, Atkins said.
It cost him about $120,000 to open the store. Atkins hopes to see sales of $300,000 in its first year.
“Paddles are expensive and they should last you around, say, eight months to a year, depending on how much you play, but you can only buy so many paddles,” Atkins said.
“So we want to be able to have a customer get everything that they need, as far as balls, paddles, accessories and clothing.”
There was a time when indoor racquetball was all the rage. Pickleball is a different kind of racquet sport, Duncan said.
“I can have a fun, good game with older people than me and a lot of people younger than me,” she said.
“It’s intergenerational. Women can play against men and have very competitive, aggressive games. You don’t have an advantage just because you’re a guy. So to me, that makes it have a little bit more staying power.”
