Indoor pickleball facility proposed for Murrysville

Even for a die-hard pickleball fan, the weather is making it difficult to get on a local court and enjoy playing.

Jillian Bateman-McIntosh of Murrysville has taken notice and hopes to build a six-court indoor pickleball facility just off Route 22 in Murrysville.

“I moved here from Boston where the weather isn’t much nicer,” Bateman- McIntosh said. “But they do have some great indoor facilities. There is a really great pickleball community here, but two-thirds of the year, they can’t play.”

And while council and recreation officials in Delmont and Murrysville have discussed the idea of catering to pickleball fans, no permanent plans have been put in place. Other athletics facilities in the region have court markings for pickleball, but they also serve other sports and there is significant competition for court time, Bateman-McIntosh said.

She and business partner David Vargo are planning to pitch Pickleball Harbor, a 14,500-square-foot facility off Mellon Road, to Murrysville planning officials in the near future. They recently leased space on a property behind StorExpress Self Storage and hope to be ready for business in March.

Tom Rafferty, 56, of Delmont has played pickleball a few times with friends at Hempfield Park.

“I really enjoyed it, but I kind of got away from it because the time of the games wasn’t really conducive to my schedule,” Rafferty said. “With the limited number of courts, something like this would be phenomenal.”

Bateman-McIntosh said she and Vargo would like to create a climate-controlled facility with six courts — two built to USA Pickleball tournament specifications — a pro shop and more.

“It’s an extremely social sport, and it’s a lot about community,” Bateman-McIntosh said. “We want to be able to provide that not just through pickleball, but social events like a wine and cheese night. Viewing is also part of that, and we want to be able to accommodate it.”

Larry Gioia, 41, of Hampton is familiar with that community. He has been playing recreational and competitive pickleball for the past five years. It led him to create Side ‘Aht Pickleball as a way of bringing a lot of the region’s pickleball information together under one roof.

“We’ve done lots of events to try and grow it across the community,” Gioia said.

Rafferty said the area’s demographics make something like a year-round pickleball venue an attractive opportunity.

“It’s a sport you see adults playing all the way into their 50s and 60s,” he said. “It’s a blast and it’s a growing sport.”

The facility would function much like a membership-based gym, where users would have regular access via a keycard. Membership will be limited and is expected to be available for pre-sale in January at PickleballHarbor.com.

Ed Graham, 69, of Penn Townshi, plays pickleball at Hempfield Park, where players also have an option to bring the game indoors. He said being able to play indoors is great, but such a facility may have limited use when the weather is good.

“I go all the way back to the racquetball craze,” Graham said. “I belonged to a racquetball club and the problem they had was that no one wanted to be indoors playing racquetball in June, July and August. I’m not going to play pickleball indoors for 12 months a year.”

Gioia said competition for court time could lead to more people embracing an indoor venue in the warmer months.

“Because of the demand for courts, I think there’s a lot of prospect for these types of indoor facilities, to fulfill the need for dedicated time,” he said. “That’s a value proposition people could live with.”

Bateman-McIntosh said a community survey helped convince her and Vargo to move ahead with their plans and also helped shape their ideas about the type of facility they want to offer.

“We heard a lot about some of the (indoor) cushioned surfaces and the ball not bouncing the way players would expect on an outdoor court,” she said. “So we want to try and address that if we can, and obviously climate control is very important for consistent playing conditions.”

For more, including presales for memberships, see PickleballHarbor.com.