Las Vegas pickleball center aiming to sell the fun that comes with the popular court sport

A new pickleball entertainment experience is getting closer to opening a location in southwest Las Vegas, as the sport gains popularity nationwide.

Electric Pickle will have multiple pickleball courts, including five indoors, and will hopefully greet its first customers sometime in the fourth quarter of 2024, said Paul Frederick, founder of Eureka Restaurant Group, the company behind the development at The Bend on Sunset Road and Durango Drive.

“We are a hospitality-based company, and that’s really what’s driving the majority of the business model for Electric Pickle,” Frederick said. “It’s just a big entertainment restaurant, where you have 10 pickleball courts and lots of little fun activations that (keep) people entertained.”

Electric Pickle, which is also opening locations in Arizona, California and Texas, will have full-service private cabanas for players, outdoor televisions and fireplaces and more, according to a release from its strategic partner, New York-based Knighthead Capital Management.

The concept is similar to what’s seen at Top Golf, a golf-driving and entertainment experience near the Strip.

Electric Pickle will focus on selling the fun of pickleball, Frederick said, through live music, themed nights and other events that just make people happy — though it may also host some pickleball tournaments.

“We’ll have this kind of neat, urban, mixed-use project,” Frederick said. “It’s going to be fun.”

Pickleball in the U.S. has grown exponentially over the past couple of years. Participation in the decades-old sport nearly doubled in 2022, increasing by almost 86% year-over-year and winning the title of the fastest-growing sport in the country for a third straight year, according to the 2023 Sports and Fitness Industry Association’s Topline Participation Report.

Pickleball has gained so much popularity in Las Vegas that many of its dedicated facilities are no longer sufficient, said Patti Chess, who sits on the board of directors at Southern Nevada Pickleball, a nonprofit aimed at growing the sport on a local level.

More courts, especially indoor ones to escape extreme heat in the region, are needed in Las Vegas, she said.

Private facilities like Electric Pickle will also give people in Las Vegas a place to gather — beyond public courts — to play and meet other players on their same level or with similar interests, added Courtney Loughridge, secretary of Southern Nevada Pickleball’s board of directors.

“It really is super fun,” said Loughridge, whose elementary school-aged son is a sponsored pickleball athlete. “And it’s the weirdest thing ever because most people, once they play ... become obsessed.”

In addition to how fun it is, pickleball is also appealing because it is so multigenerational and so competitive — with potential for real success — and it creates a heartwarming community among players, Chess said.

“I have met more people than I ever would have met in my life from all walks of life,” she said of her 10 years in pickleball. “They talk about pickleball saving the community and I get it because we’re sitting by people (and) we’re getting to know them. COVID kind of brought people away — pickleball brings them back together.”

Frederick attributed pickleball’s popularity to how easy it is to pick up and quickly gain skill in playing.

But of course, Electric Pickle will capitalize on the social aspect of the game, which he said is pretty cool.

“The brand was originated by a feeling, like an emotion,” Frederick said. “So when you feel good, you feel alive — you feel electric. And so that’s how we arrived at kind of a positive exciting name that we could build a brand around.”

 

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