The spectacular 10-court Franklin Pickleball Club in Kingston upon Thames is set to become the heartbeat of UK pickleball – once it overcomes the hurdle of planning permission.
A dedicated team led by former talent management guru and Fulham FC chief executive Neil Rodford is poised to take over a warehouse in south west London and turn it into the UK’s largest dedicated pickleball venue – provided the local authority approves its planning application.
Once they get the go-ahead, Rodford and his MCMX team will be joined by London Pickleball’s irrepressible Louise Stephens, who will become the new club’s Director of Pickleball, and Sam Basford who will become Director of Coaching and Events. Men’s and mixed doubles national champion Louis Laville will be resident pro and reigning ladies’ champion Pei Chuan Kao will base herself at the club. The project has already secured title sponsorship from Franklin Sports.
Once the initial club is up and running as a proof of concept, Rodford’s team has plans for a further dedicated indoor club in 2025 and another two at least by 2026.
Although there’s a large asterisk against the project until planning permission is secured, Pickleball England’s spectacular Pickleball Slam event at the venue on 12 June, featuring former US Open tennis finalist Greg Rusedski, ex-GB no.1 Johanna Konta and a host of top English pickleball stars, marked the club’s ‘soft launch.’
Louise, for one, cannot contain her glee at the prospect of building a community and hosting competitions and festivals at the venue, calling it “a dream come true.”
She told Pickleball52: “I am somewhere way beyond excitement – I have actually been in tears. I can’t believe it’s happening. What we’ve got is everybody’s dream. There’s not a pickleball player I’ve ever met who hasn’t said, ‘If I win the lottery, I’m going to open a pickleball centre.’ And now Neil has come in and said, ‘Let’s do it!’
“It will be a business, of course, but it will be about community, supporting people’s physical and mental health, getting women back into sport, connecting with local schools and giving local people opportunities they haven’t had before.”
The facility currently spans two warehouses which will be knocked through to become one, with six courts in one hall and four in another, plus food and beverage, shop, viewing areas and changing rooms with showers. There will be potential for staging regional and elite competitions.
For Neil, it’s a sharp change in career direction from managing sports and TV personalities (one of whom, This Morning host Ben Shepherd, came along to the Pickleball Slam event) but he has been well and truly bitten by the pickleball bug after being introduced to the sport by his wife Sarah.
He said: “As I started playing more and more, I realised it was mainly played in pop-ups in school halls and leisure centres. I wanted to change that and have been working with my contacts on this project for about a year now. Tonight is the fruition of that, but there’s still a long way to go with the planning permission.”
The timescale on opening could be anywhere between this autumn or next spring. Telford Pickleball Club in Shropshire, with three courts, is the only other dedicated indoor venue in the country so far, so the concept is relatively untested and is therefore a risk for investors and landlords.
Neil admitted: “Until we open, nobody truly knows. Everybody perceives that there’s a huge demand, so we’re confident of success here, then opening more venues in 2025 and 2026. I really do believe there will be commercial pickleball venues across the country in the next few years. The potential is massive.”
