Chicago Sport and Social Club, the largest organizer of adult sports leagues, social events, and tournaments in the U.S, provides active young professionals in the city of Chicago with places to meet and compete through sports leagues and social events. Each year, over 100,000 participants look to CSSC for activities throughout the city, including beach volleyball, basketball, dodgeball, and of course, pickleball. As the demand for pickleball continued to grow and court space did not, CSSC created Big City Pickle to give this new sport the attention it required. With limited space to build new courts in the heart of Chicago, Big City Pickle thought outside the box to keep their players dinking in the Windy City.
Big City Pickle’s first foray into providing court space entailed converting tennis courts into pickleball. To continue to meet the growing demand. Big City Pickle worked with local developers to turn unused space into courts. Their Fulton Market location, for example, popped up on a vacant lot near the Green Line elevated train that many of their target market use daily.
Chris Hastings, Big City Pickle President, says once they created a deal with the first developer, they continued the momentum.
“We work with the developers to create short-term leases of the property,” Chris says. “We build the courts, maintain, staff and handle all the scheduling. We have been at our longest location for nearly three years and just opened a new space this year.”
Big City Pickle currently has four locations – Fulton Market, Gold Coast, Lincoln Yards and South Loop with 48 courts total. Chris adds like most everything, supply and demand help determine locations and hours of operation. The Gold Coast location offers 12 courts and is open Monday – Sunday from 9:00 AM – 10:00 PM, while their Fulton Market location is the largest with 15 courts open Monday – Sunday from 8:00 AM – 11:00 PM.
Many of the spots work with local food trucks and nearby bars and restaurants to help make playing pickleball more of an experience.
“We will do promotions and set up drink specials with local bars and restaurants to send people before and after they play for a drink,” Chris says. “Working with our neighboring businesses is a win for their business and a win for our customers who enjoy being busy and social.”
Big City Pickle offers lessons, open play, leagues, private rentals and even tournaments. For those looking to pop in to a game, courts are graded by skill level. Paddles and balls can be added to the rental for a small fee, and picnic tables and umbrellas are available for spectators or those wanting a quick break.
Anyone can pay-as-you-play at Big City Pickle; however, like many clubs, there are perks to being a member. The club offers Premier and Classic memberships that both offer perks, including preferred court rental rates, a 14-day booking window for court rentals and complimentary paddle rentals. The Premier Membership goes one step further with unlimited complimentary programming paid each month, including open play, mini tournaments etc.
With the nature of the “pop-up” pickleball model, marketing is an important part of the Big City Pickle business plan. Chris says the club, like most businesses, is constantly evolving and trying new methods to reach new and existing customers.
“We are always trying to make sure we’re getting in touch with the right audience,” says Chris. “We stay in touch with influencers, a variety of coaches and people working in the industry to make the marketing reach as wide as possible.”
A large majority of their marketing is social media and they market a mix of everything. As a subset of the Chicago Sport and Social Club, a large audience was established. However, making the circle smaller to find anyone interested in pickleball has taken more time.
Chris says they first start with advertising the right programs. Then they work to find their young adult and active athletic target market and “make the megaphone as loud as you can.”
He confirms it takes a lot of work and effort to get the news out and reiterates the importance of trying a variety of methods. Their marketing is clearly effective as the program has grown from 5,000 annual players to 35,000 since 2023.
In the winter, BCP utilizes six different locations for indoor programs to keep members dinking year-round. As the sport continues to grow, Big City Pickle is working on developing youth programming and expanding locations based on demand.
The success of Big City Pickle demonstrates that clubs can succeed in both rural and urban environments with creativity, carefully thought-out marketing and programming and working with what is available. Big City Pickleball is establishing a blueprint for any major city, one open space at a time.
