Ace Pickleball Club opens Sugar Land venue, expands Houston footprint

Ace Pickleball Club is betting that Sugar Land can support more than another place to dink and drill. Its new club at 19894 Southwest Freeway is set to open April 25 with 40,000 square feet, 12 professional-grade cushioned courts, warm-up and stretching areas, and dedicated practice space, a setup that pushes well beyond simple pay-to-play.

That matters in a crowded indoor pickleball market. Ace is building a full-service club model around memberships, open play, court reservations, tournaments, events, and clinics, with Glow-In-The-Dark pickleball folded into the mix. For players deciding whether Greater Houston is worth a weekend around the net, that mix is the real test: not just how many courts a venue can squeeze into a box, but whether it gives you enough structure and variety to justify the drive, the fee, and the time away.

The Sugar Land opening also shows how aggressively Ace is moving through suburban Texas. The company opened its first Houston-area location in Magnolia on Dec. 15, 2024, and it now has another club planned for Spring. Ace says it was founded in 2022, launched franchising in February 2023, and had sold 30-plus franchises across the U.S. by June of that year. In January 2025, the company said it had opened 11 new clubs in 2024 and was targeting 25 to 30 more openings in 2025.

That kind of rollout is why the Sugar Land site reads less like a one-off and more like a market play. Houston Business Journal reported in May 2025 that Ace signed a lease for 33,740 square feet at 19890 Southwest Freeway in the former Gander Mountain site, while the Sugar Land opening is now tied to 19894 Southwest Freeway and a 40,000-square-foot buildout. Either way, the brand is staking out a big footprint in a long-vacant retail corridor.

Angie Siders, the Sugar Land native who will serve as general manager, said she was drawn to Ace’s members-first mentality and its focus on community building. That is the detail that separates a destination club from an oversized rec center. If Ace delivers the programming it is promising, Sugar Land could become a place where Houston-area players come for leagues, clinics, and high-volume open play, not just a court rental on the calendar.