On The Ground In Grand Rapids At The Beer City Open

Forbes

7 days ago

An aerial drone shot of championship court at Grand Rapid's Belknap Park shows just how packed the ... More grandstands were for the event.
Earlier this year, someone asked me the following question: 'If you could go to just one pro event all year, what would it be?'
My immediate answer: The Beer City Open.
My reasoning at the time (I had never attended before in person) was simple: Major League Pickleball's Mid-Season tournament being held at the 2025 Beer City Open is a throwback to the early days of the league, where every weekend crowned a winner and every match was on a knife's edge in terms of pressure and excitement. Win and move on, lose and your chances of breaking a profit for the weekend were badly damaged.
However, now that I've been in Grand Rapids and seen the facility and witnessed the excitement, I've only doubled down on my answer. The Beer City Open is the best pro event I've been to, and I can't wait to go back. I met with a slew of people connected to the tournament, the host club, and those who sponsored the event this weekend and came away with a distinct opinion that Grand Rapids is a fabulous pickleball town that's only getting better.
While in Michigan, I had the chance to catch up with some of the key operators of the Pickleball scene in Grand Rapids; here's what I found.
I arrived at Belknap Park straight from the airport at 11am on a Thursday and the place was packed and already rocking for the tournament's first pro matches. Every one of the remaining courts were filled with players, those who were among the 1,100 lucky amateurs who won the lottery to get entry into the event. There was a large food truck garden with good (and cheap) alternatives, easy access to facilities, and the pro player's lounge was a spacious business across the street from the park that the players loved.
The popularity of the tournament is obvious, and there's high demand for entry. 'Our registration process is a lottery and it's open for just three days. Before that, it would sell out in 20 minutes; If you had a problem with your computer you weren't getting in,' says Paul Richards, the co-founder of the Beer City Open and the long-time tournament director.
Andrea Koop, who is an event co-founder, full-time attorney and full-time Pickleball Professional, talks about the event's origins. 'We started this event in 2018. We had just ten courts at the time. Over the years, we've gone from 400 players in 2018 to just under 1,100 amateurs this year. We have 21 dedicated courts now. The Beer City Open is responsible for, along with the Grand Rapids Pickleball Club, over a million dollars of improvement to the park. All of the proceeds from the event go back into the Belknap Enhancement Club." These funds have more than doubled the number of courts on site, built stadium courts, and most recently built an 'Owner's Box' permanent two story structure that overlooks the two stadium courts (which, on non-tournament weekends, hosts the 4.5-5.0 'King of the Court' play every night).
The event predates the 'pro tours' that we're now familiar with, and over the years has been affiliated with all three major pro institutions in the sport. In its early days, it was a pre-pro tour stand-alone event that began drawing players nationally for a pittance in prize money. It was an APP-affiliated event in 2021 and 2022, then pivoted to being a non-sanctioned but tacitly PPA-affiliated event in 2023 (it wasn't an official pro event, but the PPA, notoriously jealous of its exclusivity clause, gave approval for its contracted players to play, which led to a very PPA heavy pro draw). In 2024, the event changed direction and played host to a new MLP construct; the mid-season tournament, a relationship that continues today.
Tournament Director Andrea Koop pulled double duty this weekend, competing for her MLP team and ... More running the event.
Koop comments, 'Those [affiliation] decisions are driven by relationships with those particular organizations, and we're friendly with everybody. So we don't play favorites, Whatever's best for the pickleball community in West Michigan, if they're willing and interested in coming, we're happy to have them. And even the ones we don't deal with anymore, we're still good friends with them, and they may come back at another time.'
Irrespective of pro tour affiliation, the pros like coming to this event. The hotels are close by in downtown Grand Rapids, and are practically walkable. There are multiple excellent hotel options. There's a slew of eating options walkable from whichever hotel you choose. For those not interested in a walk to downtown after playing, the preferred method of travel is a massive fleet of Lime electric scooters that can get you from door to door inside of 10 minutes. I made good use of the scooters while there, saving a ton of money on Ubers and managing not to crash once, even when I had to pull my suitcase along for the ride. Fortunately, I was fast enough that none of the PPA staffers at the coffee shop I cruised by had enough time to snap a photo as they doubled over in laughter.
My uber for the weekend was actually a Lime e-Scooter, which proved quite handy getting me to and ... More from the hotel to the park.
Says Michelle Esquivel, who won the APP Pro Singles title here in 2021 and who has been coming since the event's beginning, loves the event and says she'd come even if it wasn't sanctioned. 'This place feels like what Pickleball should be. It's community based, and we're in the community park. We're not playing at some bourgeois country club; we're playing at a park like pickleball used to be. Plus, the people here are so welcoming. I love coming here.'
The 'people' of the Grand Rapids Pickleball Club come out in force to support this event, supplying more than 500 volunteers to help staff the event and make sure that the event runs smoothly. Says Susie Williams, a volunteer and amateur player who was a constant presence at the Media entrance this weekend, gave me a bit of background. 'The membership to the club and to play at these courts is just $35 a year. You don't have to pay it, but everyone pays it to support the courts."
The club was started in 2012, relatively early in the pickleball boom. Says Richards, 'Early club founders Keith Wolverton and John Schowalter did all the groundwork for us. We just worked to expand it and fortunately we got a great relationship with the City of Grand Rapids. The city's Parks and Recreation department lets the Grand Rapids Pickleball Club run 100% of the pickleball activities out of this park. So when people ask us how do you do it, it's years worth of building relationships with the City and proving to them what you're doing is of the best interest in the pickleball community and the City as a whole.'
I can attest to this directly; it was the city of Grand Rapids who reached out to me to discuss this story, wanting to highlight the great work of the club and the tournament directors.
Edward Jones managing director and event title sponsor Becky Anderson chats up the tournament ... More co-founder Paul Richards in-between the courts.
In a nod to how close-knit the pickleball community in the area, Williams turned out to be the sister of Becky Anderson, General Partner and onsite representative of Edward Jones, the title sponsor of the weekend's tournament. Anderson was on double duty for the weekend, serving as both fan and corporate representative, excusing herself at one point to don an Edward Jones logo shirt so as to present the Las Vegas Night Owls their winner's check on behalf of her employer.
Dinks and Dingers uses these repurposed conex shipping containers as two-story dining areas in a ... More cool feature alongside its brand new courts.
Anderson then turned out to be the husband of entrepreneur Andy Anderson, who just this week is opening up a brand new indoor pickleball facility just outside of the Grand Rapids airport titled Dinks and Dingers. Grand Rapids may have a fabulous outdoor park, but it also has Michigan weather and a lack of indoor court availability, something this brand new eatertainment-focused facility hopes to fulfill. With six courts now, another six on the way, and enough land to build another dozen outside, this facility should be popular soon. Not only that, but it has quite the unique feature: the country's first indoor Whiffle-ball field (hence the name 'Dingers' to go along with Dinks). Public Relations lead Denise Kolesar was kind enough to give me a sneak peek on my way out of town (along with a lift to the airport), and pickleball fans will be big fans of this facility.
All in all, it was a fabulous weekend with great competition, great people, and clearly a great pickleball community.