The largest indoor pickleball chain in the US,The Picklr, is opening two facilities in quick succession in Orange County, California. Members pay a monthly fee as they would at a fitness gym, and the courts go into the shells of closed retail stores. That same playbook is about to be brought to Japan. The company has already announced a plan to open 20 locations in Japan over five years, which makes the Orange County sites a working sample of the business model heading here. Pickleball operators in Japan would do well to understand it first.
Nine courts and six, opening in former retail space in Orange County
米オレンジ郡ビジネスジャーナルの報道と施設公式によると、The Picklrはランチョ・サンタ・マルガリータ（22235 El Paseo）にコート9面の施設を2026年7月10日に開業し、ファウンテンバレー（17904 Magnolia St.）に6面の施設を2026年8月に開く予定だ。運営するのは不動産鑑定会社を営んでいた地元のフランチャイジー2名で、2施設あわせて約300万ドル（2026年7月時点、1ドル=約160円換算で約4.8億円）を投じた。プロショップ、TRXトレーニングエリア、貸切イベント空間、AI練習マシン、ロッカーとシャワーを備える。
A gym-style design: indoor, membership-based, usable across locations
The Picklr opened its first location in Utah in 2021 and began franchising in March 2023. What sets this young chain apart is that it is built ona monthly subscription membershiprather than one-off court rental. Members book courts through an app and get unlimited access to lessons, leagues and open play. Membership also works at any location in the US. It brings the Anytime Fitness structure, one card usable anywhere in the chain, to pickleball.
The other key is real estate strategy: the company targetssecond-generation space in closed big-box retail storeswhen choosing sites. In the US, exits by chains such as Bed Bath & Beyond left wide boxes empty around the country. Former retail units of 25,000 to 35,000 square feet (about 2,300 to 3,300 square meters), with high ceilings and parking attached, are the right size for 8 to 12 courts. Leasing and converting an empty box costs less and takes less time than building a dedicated gymnasium.
The Picklr by the numbers
The pace of expansion is on a different order from indoor pickleball facilities to date. Membership fees vary widely by club, so the figures below are a guide only (as of July 2026, converted at roughly 160 yen to the dollar).
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Clubs open | More than 100 across the US |
| Franchises sold | More than 500 (US, Canada, Japan) |
| Courts in development | About 5,000 |
| Standard size per facility | 8-12 courts / 25,000-35,000 square feet |
| Monthly fee (varies by club) | Roughly $120-280 per month (about 19,000-45,000 yen) |
| Fountain Valley pre-opening membership | Unlimited play, $183 per month (about 29,000 yen) |
| Company valuation (at the 2024 funding round) | About $59 million (about 9.4 billion yen) |
The financial backing is solid too. A Series B in 2024 raised about $9 million, valuing the company at about $59 million at that point. Former NFL star Drew Brees is among the investors. The company is locking up space faster than rivals Pickleball Kingdom (about 140 locations built or under construction) and Dill Dinkers (more than 200 in development).
Run on a membership base, not a large facility
Indoor pickleball facilities in Japan are usually discussed in terms of how many courts they have. A 20-court hot-spring resort aiming to become a destination (A 20-court hot spring resort, and the day Izu Inatori becomes Japan's biggest pickleball home) is one example. What makes The Picklr different is that, more than the court count, what matters ishow many members keep paying every monthat the center of its revenue. Instead of leaning on drop-in sales, it locks in a revenue base with unlimited-play monthly dues. Signing up founding members before opening and collecting dues from the first month is an extension of the same thinking.
Adding pickleball to a place that already exists is happening in Japan too. A major tennis school chain pairing it with a sauna to reach a new audience (Tennis operator Noah takes on a new market built from pickleball and sauna), or slotting a single court into an existing facility in central Tokyo (南青山の地下に1面、pickle9が示す都心型ピックルの設計図). The scale is the contrast. Those add a little play to space already on hand, while The Picklr turns an entire vacated big-box store into a multi-court franchise. Both are answers to the same question — how to make high real estate costs pay — at very different scales.
Twenty locations in Japan, and the arrival is already in motion
In May 2025 The Picklr signed a master franchise agreement with Japan's Nippon Pickleball Holdings and announced a plan to open 20 locations in Japan over the next five years. The first is slated for the Tokyo area, with Kanagawa, Osaka, Aichi, Saitama, Chiba, Hyogo, Fukuoka, Hokkaido, Kyoto, Miyagi, Hiroshima and Okinawa named as candidates. Japanese sites are to carry over the same membership structure, programming and interiors used in the United States and Canada. The openings now happening in Orange County — turning an empty box into membership courts — will start running in Japanese cities within a few years.
That is where the opening sits for Japanese operators. Roadside big-box stores in the suburbs and units inside shopping malls are emptying here as well, through conversions and closures. A former retail or logistics box with ceiling height and parking is already a candidate site for pickleball courts. The second-generation property plus monthly membership formula that The Picklr is proving out in the United States is a blueprint domestic chains and regional owners of idle property can reproduce. There is ample room for local operators to make the same move before the foreign chain fills its 20 locations.
The pressure a membership model puts on the industry
Once membership subscriptions take hold, the battleground shifts from court count to utilization and retention. A monthly-dues model lives or dies on how well it fills weekday daytime gaps with lessons and senior programs, and on how many mechanisms it builds to keep members from cancelling. The Picklr makes app booking, all-location membership, AI training machines and league operations standard equipment for exactly that reason. When a vacated big box becomes a local sports hub, the story can also be told as a use for shuttered suburban retail. Empty floor space moving and people returning on weekday afternoons is a tangible gain for property owners too.
The Picklr: Orange County and the Japan plan at a glance
| Chain | The Picklr (headquarters: Kaysville, Utah) |
|---|---|
| Rancho Santa Margarita location | 9 courts / 22235 El Paseo / opened July 10, 2026 |
| Fountain Valley location | 6 courts / 17904 Magnolia St. / scheduled to open August 2026 |
| Investment in the two facilities | About $3 million (about 480 million yen) |
| Business model | Monthly membership, access at every location, reuse of vacant retail space |
| Japan plan | Partnership with Nippon Pickleball Holdings, 20 locations in five years (first location: Tokyo area) |
| Candidate areas in Japan | Kanagawa, Osaka, Aichi, Saitama, Chiba, Hyogo, Fukuoka, Hokkaido, Kyoto, Miyagi, Hiroshima, Okinawa and others |
Summary
The Picklr's move into Orange County is not simply another overseas opening. It is a highly repeatable formula — lease a vacant retail box, secure utilization with monthly members — being carried into Japan as it stands. Operators here weighing a pickleball facility should settle how many monthly members to sign up, and from which segments, before deciding how many courts to build. From there, going after sites left behind by closed big-box stores rather than building new keeps both investment and construction time down. Securing one empty box in your own trade area, before the foreign chain's 20-location plan takes shape, is the move to make next.
Source:Orange County Business Journal／CNBC／ICSC／The Dink Pickleball
