Pickleball may be the nation’s fastest growing sport, but its fans have struggled to find enough space to play.
After years warring with tennis players for space on Charlottesville courts, pickleball now has a dedicated home in the city.
Cville Smash opens Monday at 387 Hillsdale Drive in Seminole Square Shopping Center off U.S. 29.
The indoor pickleball facility has taken over the 33,000-square-foot space that once housed off-price retailer Marshalls. Marshalls moved to the 5th Street Station shopping center on the other side of the city back in 2022.
Cville Smash has transformed the space with the installation of nine pickleball courts as well as a pro shop, restaurant, bar and lounge for guests.
The facility’s climate-controlled environment will offer daily open play, instruction, leagues, tournaments and clinics. With membership and drop-in options, it’s built to be accessible to casual players, families and athletes alike. Cville Smash is already accepting event bookings for fall and winter, including birthday parties, corporate team-building and private events.
“You can just come in and do a two-hour open play session or a clinic to learn to improve your skills. You can do organized play, signing up knowing you’re going to have six people on your team to rotate and play,” Shearer said.
For years, tennis and pickleball players have competed for space on courts in the city. Earlier this year, tennis players and pros were frustrated by the city’s decision to convert the remaining tennis courts at Darden Towe Park into pickleball courts to meet the rise in demand.
Unlike retrofitted tennis courts, which pickleball players often have to use in Charlottesville and elsewhere, Cville Smash’s courts are specially designed for the up-and-coming sport.
“These courts were designed for pickleball,” Cville Smash co-founder Colleen Shearer told the Daily Progress. “They have cushioned surfaces, 25-foot ceilings and professional-grade lighting that minimizes shadows and glare. We’ll also have a pro shop with equipments for sale.”
Pickleball got its start in 1965 in Washington state when Joel Pritchard and Bill Bell created the game to entertain their bored children. The original game used a badminton court, a plastic ball, makeshift paddles and gameplay that combined tennis and pingpong. Due to its accessibility, small court size and simple rules, it first attracted active seniors. But over the decades, everyone from the very young to the very old have adopted the sport.
“There is less running in pickleball than in a lot of other sports, including tennis,” Shearer said. “But if you want to up the intensity, there’s a lot of lateral movements and sprinting, lunges and squats. So, you can make it as competitive as you want. You can burn a lot of calories, but you can also just play socially, have a really good time without exerting a lot of energy. It’s also an ideal workout if you’re limited by injuries. So, I think that’s why so many people are attracted to this sport. It’s a very appealing thing to have this kind of athletic flexibility.”
The University of Virginia pickleball team, which won the 2023 Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating Collegiate National Championship and finished second in the event in 2024, has already named Cville Smash their official indoor training facility.
“The school’s top players will practice and compete here regularly,” Shearer said.
Shearer met Cville Smash co-founder Lauren Carbo while coaching lacrosse and the pair quickly bonded over a shared passion for sports and entrepreneurship.
“I was a lacrosse coach for 30 years and looking to retire from that,” Shearer recounted. “I wanted a new adventure. Lauren is a small business consultant and entrepreneur who also was looking for something new to put her energy into. We had started playing pickleball a couple years ago, and everybody kept saying to us that we could really use an indoor pickleball place. There’s a lot of pickleball players in Charlottesville. One day, over a bonfire and a couple of glasses of wine, I looked at Lauren and said, ‘Let’s do this.’”
Shearer and Carbo pitched the idea to their third partner, Chris Craytor, who is CEO of Charlottesville-based private health and fitness club ACAC.
“Eventually we all just agreed to do it and started looking for places. And that’s kind of how it all started,” Carbo told the Daily Progress.
Like so much experiential retail — whether it be duckpin bowling or rock climbing — Carbo, Shearer and Crater are adamant that their space isn’t just about the sport but about community.
“We’re going to have beer, wine and food. We’re going to have hang-out areas, darts, pingpong tables,” Carbo said. “It’s not just pickleball.”
“Whether you’re a competitive player or just a beginner, there’s a space for you here,” said Shearer.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com
Be First to Comment