Paul Starita fell in love with pickleball pretty quickly. He’s so high on the sport that he and his business partners intend to build an indoor pickleball facility in the Badger Canyon area, next to the recently opened Quake entertainment center.
“We anticipate it to be a 50,000-square-foot facility, with 18 to 20 pickleball courts,” Starita said. Starita and his partners already opened their first pickleball facility, The Flying Pickle, in Nampa, Idaho.
“It’s the fastest growing sport in America,” said the Boise man. “It’s just such a fun sport, and it’s so accessible to everyone. It’s easy to learn, yet it takes skills to learn.”
For the Kennewick facility, the timeline “depends on the paperwork approval from both the city and the county,” Starita said. “Our goal is to start as soon as possible to start moving dirt. It depends on the approvals. But we expect it to be open in early 2026.”
Starita calls it a ground-up project – as opposed to some clubs around the country renovating vacant commercial space. The Press Pickleball Club recently opened six indoor courts in the former Spokesman-Review production facility in Spokane.
Players paradise
The Flying Pickle uses a membership model in which players pay a monthly fee for guaranteed court space.
“We have a member-to-court ratio we use. We want our members to use our courts,” Starita said. “A lot of clubs around the country, some people can only play once a week. But we will have our membership capped. In Boise, we hit (our membership cap) at 10 months.”
However, even if you’re not a member, people can come into the building to pay and play as a guest. Starita said the Kennewick facility will be similar to Idaho’s, offering, among other amenities, court reservations, a lounge, pro shop, restaurant, locker rooms, youth programs, optimal lighting and acoustically designed courts.
“We call it a pickleball players paradise,” said Starita, whose family owns several Paul Mitchell Schools for beauty training, including the one in Richland.
“I’ve done a lot of business in the Tri-Cities, and I come to the Tri-Cities a lot,” Starita said. “So the area there I know is nice.”
He said he has an entrepreneurial mindset and pickleball is “something I’ve been passionate about.”
Source: https://www.tricitiesbusinessnews.com/articles/flying-pickleball-club