Athletes hope new volleyball, pickleball facility meets indoor court demands

New athletic centre opening A new athletic centre about to open will be dedicated to volleyball and pickleball. CTV News Edmonton’s Adam Cook reports.

EDMONTON — Grab your kneepads and paddles; a brand new sports facility is coming to the city.

A one-of-a-kind, 40,000-square foot, hard wood space is opening up in southeast Edmonton dedicated to volleyball and pickleball.

“As far as we know in North America, this is the only truly dedicated indoor volleyball and pickleball facility,” owner Dave Jones proudly explained.

The Edmonton Volleyball and Pickleball Center, dubbed “The Center,” is owned and operated by Jones and his family.

The Joneses, primarily volleyball players, were originally going to open a facility for that sport.

But after learning pickleball is one of the continent's fastest growing sports, they decided to host pickleball in the morning and volleyball at night.

“Now that doesn't mean you won’t come in here, say, seven o'clock at night, and you might see eight volleyball teams playing, and then also see a few pickleball courts going on as well,” Jones told CTV News Edmonton.

“We're very flexible. This facility has 17 pickleball courts, and then it converts into 11 volleyball courts.”

Ryk Visscher says his wife tried to get him to try the sport for three years, and when he finally did, fell in love with it.

So the news of a new facility opening up was music to his ears.

“Pickleball is growing so quickly. No city really is keeping up with courts indoor and outdoor, they're just having to keep growing and growing and growing," Visscher commented.

"This will really take the pressure off a lot of the smaller rec places... plus it's it's devoted to pickleball.”

The Jones' hope is to have the facility, located at 9455 45 Avenue NW, up and running by Nov. 1.

Currently, one of the final hurdles for the owners is dealing with Alberta Health Services to make sure the center complies with all health guidelines during the pandemic.