Pickle-ish
By Lisa Arnett
February 2025 View more Discover
The weather cooperates year-round at these indoor clubs

Sure Shot Pickleball
2244 Corporate Lane, Naperville
When some Wheatonites couldn’t find a dedicated place to play pickleball indoors, they decided to open their own. “[My wife] Denise and I started playing pickleball out at Nike Park in Naperville, and we just fell in love with the game,” says co-owner Tim Kelly. “At the time, the only other places to play were at park districts where you had to play on a basketball court with bad lighting, or it was at a tennis club where they didn’t want pickleball players to cut into their tennis time.” Sure Shot opened in September 2023 in a 27,000-square-foot space off Route 59 and I-88. It features 11 courts, free lessons for newbies, quarterly tournaments, an academy for players looking to advance their skills, and summer camps for kids. “This is our passion project, and our main mission has always been building community, so every decision that we made has been around that,” says Denise Kelly. (Another Wheaton couple, Mark and Lisy Murman, are co-owners with the Kellys.) There’s also a players’ lounge and beer, wine, hard seltzers, and canned cocktails for sale. “It brings the outdoors inside with a patio-like feel and big-screen TVs adjacent to the courts,” Denise says.
Good to know: Members can choose from different levels that align with how much they want to play, starting at $75 a month. Nonmembers can stop in for open play for as little as $10 for two hours or reserve a court for $40/hour for a group.
Pickled!
288 E. Geneva Road, Wheaton; 7250 Woodward Ave., Woodridge; 301 N. Randall Road, Batavia

“I played pickleball as a kid in the late ’80s and early ’90s,” says Nathan Patrick Taylor, president and cofounder of Pickled!, which has three locations around the western suburbs and a fourth farther south in Channahon. Taylor grew up in a small town south of Tacoma, Washington, not far from the birthplace of pickleball, Bainbridge Island. “In that part of the country, it’s a picnic game, like the equivalent of bags or cornhole,” he says. After settling in the Midwest as an adult, Taylor was thrilled to see pickleball’s recent surge in popularity and felt inspired to leave the corporate world and start his own business. “Since it’s really difficult to play this game outside if the elements aren’t behaving—if it’s too hot, too cold, too windy—I thought: What if we found dead retail spots and converted them to indoor pickleball?” he explains.
The first location opened in April 2023 in an old furniture store in Wheaton; the newer Woodridge and Batavia clubs also feature golf simulators and table tennis. All locations offer open play sessions, classes, youth camps, leagues, and booze for sale (beer, wine, and seltzers). There’s also a subtle ocean theme. “People are always wondering: Where do I fit in as far as skill goes?” Taylor says. “So our ability levels are Seahorses for beginners, Stingrays for intermediate, Piranhas for advanced, and Sharks are our top players.” Courts are divided by fencing, “so you’re not going to have another ball from another court roll into your court,” he says. Don’t have a partner? You can sign up as an individual player in a flex league with rotating partners. The vibe is decidedly inclusive. “I tell people, we don’t care if you’ve never played a sport before,” he adds. “We love that you’re here.”
Good to know: For nonmembers, open play is $12 and court reservations are $36. Winter memberships range from $25 to $125 a month. “We don’t sell our memberships as an annual plan because we know people will go outside and play during the summer, so that’s when we have discounted rates,” Taylor says. “It’s also like Netflix; you can just turn your membership on or off, no questions asked.”
The Picklr
740 Route 59, Naperville; 260 W. North Ave., Villa Park

“We have a saying, ‘Four to 94.’ That’s the age you can play this sport because pickleball is very accessible from an age perspective and an ability perspective,” says Jay Sartori, cofounder and chief marketing officer for WayMor Sports, which franchises and operates locations of The Picklr in the Chicago area, Minneapolis, and several southeastern states. WayMor opened its first location of The Picklr in Naperville in March 2024 and plans to launch 66 clubs in its territory by 2028. Sartori says the goal at The Picklr is to feel like a high-end fitness club without the big-ticket price tag. “We’re like the Equinox of pickleball,” he says “It’s that top echelon feel, but you don’t feel like you’re paying through the nose for it.” The clubs feature locker rooms with showers and a sleek design scheme with light-toned woods and fully fenced courts. The walls and ceilings are painted all black so players can easily track their bright green pickleballs during play, and sound-reduction equipment is mounted above every court to reduce noise. “We also have permanent nets bolted to the floor where you can roll the ball underneath the net,” he says.
Good to Know: Newcomers can buy a 30-day membership trial for $30. A $139 monthly membership includes reservations with virtual reservations; unlimited open
play; and access to leagues, tournaments, and clinics.
Photos: Sure Shot Pickleball; The Picklr; Pickled!