Pickleball Facilities Are Up for Sale & Getting Cheaper, Fast

If your club isn't producing strong, steady profit, you'll struggle to find a buyer. And the one you find will likely offer less than you put into the walls, courts and lighting.

I've been on the business side of pickleball for a long time. I co-founded Pickleball Central way back in 2006, then Pickleball Station, one of the first indoor pickleball facilities in the country, and the International Association of Pickleball and Padel Facilities two years ago.

A big part of my work is observing and analyzing where this industry is headed.

For two years, pickleball facility listings on BizBuySell, one of the largest online marketplaces for buying and selling small businesses, have told a consistent story: optimistic asking prices, thin financial disclosure, and long days on market. 

But over the past 10 weeks, nine pickleball facilities around the country listed for sale cut their asking prices. Not by a little. The typical reduction was 39%.

• Two dropped by more than half
• One indoor club in Florida went from $1.5 million to $600,000 in a single move
• Not one listing raised its price

Our team at the IAPPF captured every listing in late June and checked each one again in early September.  There’s clearly a reset underway for facility valuations.

One caveat: these are asking prices, not sale prices. A lower ask doesn't mean a facility sold for that amount. But when this many sellers blink at once, it tells you what buyers are willing to pay.

One price, four buildings

The most telling story in this data involves four listings from the same broker. Earlier this year, indoor facilities in Florida, Maryland, Michigan and South Carolina all hit the market at exactly $1.5 million. Four buildings, four markets, one price.

That's not a valuation based on any reality. That's a wish.

In late August, all four were renamed, repriced and, for the first time, posted their financials. Once the numbers were public, the prices went where the numbers pointed: $600,000, $860,000, $915,000 and $1 million.

That's what happens when a facility is priced closer to how it actually performs.

Bigger isn't safer

The Pickleball Academy, a five-location group in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, cut its price from $4.5 million to $2.15 million. That's $2.35 million off the ask, and it has been on the market longer than any other listing we’ve tracked.

Smaller operators are cutting too.

• An eight-court facility with a bar on Staten Island dropped from $699,000 to $399,000
• A club in Harris County, Texas, fell from $150,000 to $95,000

From Florida to Minnesota, from single sites to multi-site groups, sellers are resetting their expectations.

What a facility is really worth

I've said this for a while, and the market is now proving it: your facility is not worth what you spent building it.

Buyers don't pay for your buildout. They pay for your earnings, usually a multiple of EBITDA, which is your profit before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.

Location and lease matter just as much. A new owner can fix your programming. They can fix your pricing. They can't move your building or rewrite a bad lease. A facility with a good lease in a good location will probably find a buyer, but that buyer will negotiate hard.

None of this means the sky is falling. Some facilities will close, as small businesses do. About 20% of new small businesses fail within their first year, and pickleball and padel facilities aren't close to that rate. What we're seeing is the gap between what owners hoped for and what buyers will pay finally closing.

If you're a player, here's the upside: the clubs that come through this reset will be the ones run like real businesses. Those are the clubs that stay open.

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If you own or operate a facility, or you're thinking about building or buying one, join us at SMASH 2026 – The IAPPF International Conference, Expo and Investment Summit in Orlando this November. We'll dig into how facilities are valued and what it takes to build one that's genuinely profitable. It’s just one element of the conference featuring dozens of expert sessions and industry leaders focused on all facets of running a successful pickleball business, and ensuring the long-term success of the industry.