Latest news with #pickleball
CBS News
15 minutes ago
- General
- CBS News
Old church building on Chicago's Northwest Side to be transformed into pickleball club
Old church on Chicago's Northwest Side to be turned into pickleball facility Old church on Chicago's Northwest Side to be turned into pickleball facility Old church on Chicago's Northwest Side to be turned into pickleball facility An old and deconsecrated church building in Chicago's Jefferson Park neighborhood is undergoing a transformation. At the former St. Cornelius Church, at 5430 W. Foster Ave., rows of pews will soon be replaced with pickleball courts. The St. Cornelius Parish was established in 1925. The parish grew over the next few decades, and the current church building — which accommodated 750 worshipers — was built in 1964 and dedicated in 1965. By the 1980s, there were 2,500 member families in the parish. But in 2020, St. Cornelius Parish was merged with St. Elizabeth of the Trinity Parish — and St. Cornelius Church closed. "It was definitely a neighborhood church, so a lot of people feel very strongly about this place," said Chris Petrick. The last time mass was held at St. Cornelius was in March 2020, around the beginning of the COVID-10 pandemic. Now, it will welcome a different kind of service — which will require a racket. Petrick bought the old Catholic church building from the Archdiocese of Chicago. "It actually had to go to Rome for approval," he said. While Petrick was raised Presbyterian, he is more of a devout pickleballer these days. "A lot of people can play it," he said. "It's still a fun game to play with a lot of different levels." Petrick was getting tired of waiting for court time, so he went looking to build his own court. The 40-foot ceilings of a church sanctuary answered his prayers. "We'll have one [court] go horizontally nearing the altar, and then the other goes more vertically back towards the baptismal," said Petrick. The creative project attracted architect Ed Torrez of Arda Design. "This one surprises people. I've told other clients," Torrez said. "I've told colleagues that we're repurposing a church into a pickleball court." The stained glass at the church building will stay in place, along with the midcentury modern chandeliers. The Church Club, as it will be called will have pickleball courts, locker rooms, rooms for darts and billiards, and even a commercial kitchen. "We have a lot of people looking forward to this," said Petrick. Petrick wants to cap membership to about 50 people, but he said there is room for community events too. "That's something we definitely have in the plans," he said. It is a new purpose for an old church building that Petrick believes has not lost its soul. "It still maintains that, and it's got a wonderful feel and a great vibe," Petrick said.
CBS News
4 hours ago
- General
- CBS News
New pickleball courts are coming to Michigan community
People in Livingston County, Michigan, will have a new place to play one of the fastest-growing sports in late summer or early fall this year. New pickleball courts will be built at Fred Brown Park in Marion Township. Township Clerk Tammy Beal started the project after a donation from a resident last fall. "He said, 'What do you suggest?' And I said, 'We get a lot of questions about pickleball,'" said Beal. The resident liked the idea and donated enough money for two pickleball courts, which the township Board of Trustees decided to match. "We're looking at four pickleball courts," Beal said. The courts will be placed near the park's front entrance, and fencing will surround them. Each court will also be divided. "It'll give people more things to do in Marion Township, right? It's a chance for the local residents to do something local without having to go into town," said township Supervisor Bill Fenton. The township officials said they plan to contact the neighborhoods around the new courts in case there are any complaints. "We are going to put some screening in the fences around it, and if need be, we might have to put more shrubbery to block the sound," Beal said. The courts will be open dawn till dusk with no nighttime play since there aren't park lights. Beal said residents will have to figure out their own system for fair play and taking turns on the courts. "I expect there will always be a waiting line with the amount of residents that have called to request them," said Beal.
Forbes
a day ago
- Business
- Forbes
Dallas Flash Continue Their Unbeaten Run At Major League Pickleball Arizona Event
Jorja Johnson (R) and Hurricane Tyra Black (L) are on absolute fire in MLP this season. There's no rest for the weary. Major League Pickleball (MLP) presented by DoorDash picked up just a few days after its exciting Austin event and headed west to the (infamous?) Arizona Athletic Grounds for the 4th Stop in its 2025 season. I say 'infamous" because this host site is the basis of a $280M fraud lawsuit against its owners. It's a massive facility, with dozens of courts and has hosted a slew of pro events across all three tours over the years, and one can only hope the facility survives the legalities. Key Links for tracking the event this weekend, which featured livestreams from the two primary courts at the facility on MLP's YouTube channel and on No transactions were announced, but there is a major personnel issue covered in the News section. The next waiver period for both Premier and Challenger is in mid-June, just a couple weeks away. Bench Players who got in on the action this weekend, either by choice or due to player conflicts, included: - Utah played Erokhina as its Women's #2 instead of Safdar. - SoCal played both its bench players Hovenier & newly acquired Ingram in place of Bellamy and Tereschenko to start the event before Irina took over for Match day No. 2. Hovenier played the whole weekend and may have opened some eyes with his play. - Phoenix replaced Genie Bouchard with Alex Walker early, but then Bouchard was back in action by Friday. - Atlanta subbed in Rettger for DiMuzio towards the end of the weekend. Hopefully I didn't miss any player subs, but it is definitely interesting to see how much these teams are using their bench players. Ahead of the event, here's some news and noteworthy items for MLP. - Just ahead of the event on 5/29/25: UPA fines and suspends Quang Duong for playing in an unsanctioned (and clearly unapproved) event while traveling to Vietnam to support his new paddle sponsor. This will cost him $50k, one PPA event, and most of the upcoming MLP Phoenix event. He's replaced for the first four games of MLP Arizona by onsite sub Spencer Smith. Rachel Rohrabacher led her Brooklyn team to a 5-1 weekend. Day 1 Observations Day 2 Observations Tyler Loong (foreground) rips a forehand winner for his surprising Utah Black Diamonds team. Day 3 Observations Day 4 Observations Blaine Hovenier proved to be a spark plug for his SoCal Hard Eights team, leading them to their ... More first win of the season. Note: all standings are done by points-per-match. In Premier In Premier Here's a new section we're going to include going forward. Given the league structure and the varying attendance of teams at each event, here's some specific takeaways from the event. 1. Dallas is unstoppable. Between Jorja Johnson's leap forward improvement and the team's overall chip on their shoulder from last year, they're clearly the team to beat in 2025. Last year this team went through the motions a couple of times and dropped matches against inferior teams, which led to the No. 3 seed in the playoffs and a harder path to the title. This year they're collectively gunning for an undefeated season. 2. Utah is better than I thought. I had Utah 13th of 16 after the draft (my other pundits generally had them 11-12th). This placed them behind the likes of Carolina, Atlanta, and Phoenix. They're clearly better than all three of these teams right now, though probably not good enough to get into the playoffs unless they can beat the likes of LA (who they lost to 3-1 last weekend) or Chicago. 3. Phoenix is a lot worse than I thought. Just one win this weekend, over Atlanta, and they inexplicably lost to SoCal, who I legitimately thought was going to go 0-25 this season. Phoenix has absolutely no reason to be this bad, not with top players like McGuffin and Irvine who are getting results week-in/week-out on the PPA. What this says to me is that the Flames GM really, really overestimated the capabilities of Sock and especially Bouchard, and may not have understood the chemistry issues they were acquiring with Tyson. I had Phoenix 8th in my pre-season ranks, well ahead of where my fellow pundits had them ranked (10th-11th mostly, with Kloss having them 13th). Next up on the Pickleball Calendar? According to my Master Pickleball Schedule they're off to Daytona Beach for the third of three back to back MLP events next weekend. Teams in action next weekend include New York, Utah, 1st place St. Louis, LA, and New Jersey. Also back will be SoCal, Texas, Chicago, and the Carolina Hogs, who shouldn't have any lighting issues this time around since it's being held at the frequent pro tour hosting facility Pictona in Holly Hill. All match stats quoted in this article are courtesy of PickleWave. Visit for the premier source of Pro Pickleball data, including match replays, highlights, stats, and discussion. PickleWave has more than 22,000 matches in its database across all the pro tours. Also, a great thanks to The Dink's Erik Tice, who maintains a fantastic MLP detailed data breakdown and makes it publicly available at this Google XLS link. Tice's data has proved invaluable this year as MLP does not make match data available at this detailed level at present.
South China Morning Post
3 days ago
- Lifestyle
- South China Morning Post
Promising Chinese player defers PhD programme to give pickleball career a shot
A Chinese pickleball player said it was worth deferring her PhD studies to pursue a professional career in the emerging sport. Advertisement Long Yufei, who was about to start a biomedical informatics course in the United States, was presented with the opportunity to become a part of the United Pickleball Association's inaugural Asia Trailblazers Programme. Under the scheme, 12 players across the region will undergo a three-month training stint in the US and, if they impress, will be given a contract as a UPA Asia Pro. The two-year deal includes playing in at least 10 events a year, predominantly in Asia but also in the US and Australia. Long, who holds a Master's degree in public health from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, said the decision to defer her doctoral studies was difficult, but she had opted to embrace a less traditional route. 'I had invested months crafting potential research proposals and preparing applications,' said the Shenzhen native, who received acceptance letters from the University of Washington and from Washington University in St Louis shortly before the pickleball opportunity emerged. Long Yufei was an NCAA Division I tennis player at Vanderbilt University. Photo: Handout 'The sunk cost was high,' she said. 'I spent the whole of February evaluating the best option … I was choosing between two different life trajectories.'
Forbes
5 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Stack Athletics And Chaifetz Group Acquire Vulcan Pickleball
Stack and Vulcan teaming up. In the ever-changing world that is the Pickleball industry, corporate moves come fast and furious. The latest industry move came today 5/29/25, as Stack Athletics (currently a wholly owned subsidiary of The Picklr) and the Chaifetz Group announced the intention to acquire Vulcan Sporting Good's Pickleball product lines of business and form a new company named 'Stack Vulcan.' The two companies have collaborated in the past, and both have close ties based on common partners , so this merger (and Chaifetz investment) makes sense from a synergy perspective and from an overall brand portfolio perspective for all parties. Stack is primarily known as a pickleball apparel brand, while Vulcan is a long-standing equipment manufacturer with established paddle and ball lines. Together, both brands acquire with they didn't have previously to create a more comprehensive offering of products across the pickleball consumer lifecycle. For the Chaifetz Group (who made a strategic investment to facilitate the acquisition and who will acquire a seat on the newly created Board of Directors), this adds to their growing pickleball portfolio, which now includes the St. Louis Shock MLP team, shares of UPA and DUPR that came with their MLP team, and prior investments in both The Picklr and Pickletile (which we covered in January 2025). Their contacts across the landscape of professional pickleball continue to open pathways for these types of acquisitions, and their expanding portfolio of products will only continue to grow. I caught up with Ross Chaifetz, Managing Director of the Chaifetz Group, and Jeremy Nef, President of Stack Athletics (who will lead the new venture), to talk briefly about the move and to talk next steps. When asked about the overall acquisition, Chaifetz said, 'We are bringing onboard a great, long-standing business in the sport in Vulcan into the fold. The Picklr and Stack's ability to build brands is crucial here. Vulcan has a brand, but it's a legacy brand and it could use a refresh.' The Chaifetz Group's primary involvement will be on the corporate side, to help the new company by providing proven experience in e-commerce, selling, and distribution to partners. Says Chaifetz, 'We have a combined 8-10 businesses in this partnership that can provide an end-to-end strategy. Most Pickleball brands are uni-channel, we're omni channel.' Adds Nef, "The Picklr, Stack, and now Vulcan are among the best brand builders in the sport. Now you have a legacy brand in Vulcan that can be refreshed. We have a massive vision to breathe new life into a legacy brand that many know but which could benefit from more resources, more support, and a fresh new visions." Interestingly, both Nef and Chaifetz talked about Vulcan's position in the industry as being a 'legacy brand" that could use a 'refresh.' This is observationally true on both fronts: Vulcan has been around a while and was at the forefront of the current rising tide of the sport. They made a name for themselves early by having their original manufacturing being done in the US through a partnership with Memphis-based Statera Paddles and Randy Stafford (who spent decades in the Racquetball court manufacturing business), with early sponsorships of high-visibility OG pros like Jay Devilliers and Tyler Loong. However, Vulcan's efforts to keep up with industry advances and new technology had clearly waned, with its existing owners more focused on existing product lines and seemingly unwilling to expend the energy or effort to keep up with their competitors. This acquisition gives control of the brand and the manufacturing decisions to a team at Stack that is more than a little committed to the sport. Nef has described himself as a 'Pickleball Sicko' in the past and certainly plans on bringing this energy to the newly acquired brand. 'When we created Stack, one of our differentiators was to bring some energy and personality to this side of the industry. I think this acquisition is a great opportunity from a cross-marketing perspective. Vulcan immediately becomes the most fashion-forward, aspirational paddle line in the sport.' Vulcan's most high-visibility splash in the pickleball world was their 2024 agreement with the UPA to become the official ball of both the PPA and MLP, a contract reportedly worth more than $2M annually and which instantly created a market for their VPro flight ball. Was this a worthy investment? The new ownership team acknowledges that the ball market is relatively unique in that it is a 'recurring revenue model" in the sport where few other consumer items are (think of how often you need to buy balls versus how often you need to replace a pair of shorts), but still believes they may reevaluate as part of the initial analysis and strategy. Says Chaifetz, 'We will have an opportunity pause, take a look at this business, redirect focus, and then decide how do we modify or improve our products.' When asked whether Vulcan planned on expanding their pro player sponsorship, Nef was enthusiastic. 'It is always important for premier paddle manufacturers to be part of the pro game, so we'll be in that space. We want to make a paddle that competes with the best. Our next paddles will compete with the best of the best." Vulcan did commit resources to be on the 2025 UPA approved paddle list, which removes one roadblock for moving forward on this front. Interestingly, this move has been in the works for a while, but took some time to come together officially. Jimmy Miller, who remains the most connected man in the sport, tweeted about a possible merger way back in January 2025, having heard rumblings of a merger from one of his many sources. Four months to the day after Miller broke the original rumor, the merger was announced. When there is so much inter-connection within the industry, it's no surprise word leaked ahead of time. So what's next? Look for Nef and his team to pivot Vulcan into some new directions going forward. I'd anticipate some fresh new Apparel, some new sponsorships, and a new take on their flagship 1100 and 1200 lines of paddles. Brand is everything, and Vulcan is certainly in good hands on that front. One last observation. We continue to see major players in the pickleball industry expand upon their original offerings to either vertically integrate where complementary product lines relate to each other, or to expand upon initial successful ventures to add competitive advantages. Clearly here, Chaifetz' investment in the Picklr (who owns Stack) was a major role in this acquisition. Tom Dundon has done an excellent job of acquiring assets to control the online pickleball space, first acquiring Pickleball Central and its Pickleball Tournaments asset, then capturing Pickleball Brackets to eliminate a potential rival, then spending to acquire the domain name 35 Capital owns the Chicago Slice MLP team and acquired paddle companies Paddletek and ProXR, giving them a ton of direct player access and providing a competitive advantage in MLP. There are several examples of successful pickleball entrepreneurs in one space investing in the booming world of indoor club facilities, which are cash cows if done correctly in our wild west of pickleball expansion era at present. Life Time fitness has pickleball clubs … and also manufactures a new ball, which they leveraged into use at recent UPA-sponsored events irrespective of the existing ball contract with Vulcan. Sometimes, these cross-investments lead to transparency issues, or cost complaints from monopolistic behaviors. But, there are also benefits to pickleball customers from these collaborations. I look forward to seeing what comes out of this latest move.
