Pickleball Kingdom opens 14-court Homewood club with food, tech, and events

Pickleball Kingdom turned a former Conn’s HomePlus box in Homewood’s Wildwood Centre into a 14-court indoor club that opened on June 13 at 251 Lakeshore Parkway. The grand opening weekend mixed unlimited free play with giveaways, raffles and food trucks, giving the Birmingham metro a new stop built for both serious matches and family outings.

Inside the roughly 40,225-square-foot space, the club leaned hard into the social side of the sport. Bham Now’s coverage described individually fenced courts, a pro shop, lounge areas, event space, grab-and-go food, beer service, mezzanine viewing and locker rooms with showers. The facility also uses PB Vision technology to record highlights and give players performance insight, a feature that pushes the club beyond the feel of a simple open-court warehouse.

That blend of play and polish is central to Pickleball Kingdom’s pitch. The Birmingham location says it can host corporate events, birthday parties and other gatherings, while also offering equipment and room rentals and on-site catering. Youth programming, leagues and beginner clinics are part of the mix too, signaling that the club is trying to draw casual newcomers, families, league regulars and players who want structured improvement under one roof.

The opening also lands in a market that is clearly still expanding. Bham Now described Homewood as the third indoor pickleball facility to open in the Birmingham metro in a little over a year, a sign of how quickly operators see demand building. Nationally, the sport’s reach keeps widening as well: USA Pickleball’s 2025 growth report said its places-to-play database reached 18,258 locations and 82,613 total known courts, while the Sports and Fitness Industry Association estimated 24.3 million Americans played pickleball in 2025.

Wildwood Centre itself adds another reason the club fits the site. SRS Real Estate Partners’ marketing for the property points to 53,732 vehicles a day on Lakeshore Parkway beside the center, a one-mile average household income of $134,549 and a daytime population of 7,727. Martin Smith, with SRS Real Estate Partners, said the new concept would add energy to the property and draw consistent traffic that benefits the tenant mix.

For Pickleball Kingdom, Homewood extends a brand that founder Ace Rodrigues said began with the concept on January 9, 2021 and opened its first club in Chandler, Arizona, in 2022. In Homewood, the company has turned a retail shell into something closer to a community clubhouse, where the courts, the food and the tech are all meant to keep players around long after the last rally ends.