Photo / Courtesy of subject
Tony Miner
May 11, 2023
Wicked Pickle has big plans for pickleball in SoPo
Courtesy / Tony Miner
Construction will begin this month at 2401 Broadway in South Portland on a 25,500-square-foot building that will be home to a new pickleball facility called the Wicked Pickle.
The Wicked Pickle is betting big on pickleball in South Portland, via a 25,500-square-foot leased facility scheduled to break ground this month.
"It will be the largest indoor pickleball facility exclusively for the sport in Maine," Tony Miner, the entrepreneur behind the new business, told Mainebiz. The former baseball star currently coaches softball at Thornton Academy in Saco and coaches baseball.
While the Saco resident doesn't play pickleball himself, he aims to capitalize on the sport's growing popularity and lack of indoor facilities in the Pine Tree State with the new business.
"It'll be really cool place where people can just come and relax and play some pickleball," he said. "We're trying to provide a service for people that really want to play all winter and can't find a place to go."
Pickleball, invented in 1965 as a children's backyard game on Bainbridge Island, Wash., is played with a baseball-sized wiffle ball and is sometimes described as a cross between tennis, badminton and ping-pong.
Close to 9 million people are estimated to play pickleball nationwide, making it the country's fastest-growing sport for the last three years. Once considered a fringe sport, pickleball has gained recent traction as an easier, more accessible alternative to tennis, with lower nets and courts a fraction of the size. Celebrities from Leonardo DiCaprio to George and Amal Clooney are also hopping on the pickl ball bandwagon.
Big 'dill' for SoPo
Aiming to be open by Nov. 1, the Wicked Pickle will be equipped with six professional courts and two practice courts for so-called dink shots, as well as seating for tournament games.
Planned amenities include a full-service bar with beer and wine, a smoothie bar and lounge area. Clinics and lessons will also be offered.
Miner's business will lease the space, located at 2401 S. Broadway, from Plummer Properties LLC, which is led by Robbie Plummer of Westbrook-based Eastern Excavation Inc. Elsewhere in the area, Eastern Excavation lists the Press Hotel in Portland, the Southern Maine Community College Campus in South Portland and the Boiler House Lofts in Saco in its portfolio.
While Plummer will build the facility that will house the Wicked Pickle, he has no involvement with the business, Miner explained.
Andrew Ingalls of Malone Commercial Properties brokered the lease agreement for the Wicked Pickle.
"It's the weirdest thing, this pickleball phenomenon," Ingalls told Mainebiz. "My wife and I are one of three couples in Cape Elizabeth who don't play pickleball. We feel like outcasts."
Miner said he had looked at a few other possible locations before signing the lease.
With a brand-new building, "we can pretty much do whatever we want," he says.
Miner, a member of the 1997 University of Southern Maine national championship team and 1999 Sports Illustrated "Greatest Athlete of the Century for Maine," is undertaking the move despite not being a pickleball player himself.
Asked about how many members he's aiming for with the Wicked Pickle, he said, "A target number is tough. We hope that we get a lot of people in there."
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments