Prepare to enter your pickleball era – House of Pickle is coming to the Gold Coast
Prepare to enter your pickleball era, Gold Coast. The world’s fastest-growing sport is officially taking a swing at Currumbin Waters, with massive indoor venue House of Pickle set to open later this year. And if you’re still thinking pickleball is just tennis for retirees in visors, consider this your formal warning – things are about to get wildly competitive.
Slated to open in late July on Wheeler Crescent, House of Pickle will mark the company’s tenth venue nationally and its long-awaited Queensland debut. For founder and CEO Ollie Matthews, the decision to finally make the move north was sealed during a holiday to the Gold Coast. One visit to sponsor Balter Brewing Co and a few days soaking up the local pace of life was apparently all it took.
“It’s got everything you’d want from a city, but it still feels relaxed,” Ollie says. “There’s an energy to the Gold Coast that just suits what we do.”
And what they do is pickleball – the paddle sport with the slightly hilarious name and wildly addictive gameplay that has exploded globally over the past few years. Pickleball has officially been named the fastest-growing sport in the United States for multiple consecutive years by the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, with participation surging more than 300 percent over three years. In Australia, the growth curve is looking similarly unhinged – courts are popping up everywhere, social comps are filling fast and suddenly everyone seems to know what ‘the kitchen’ means.
Part of the appeal, Ollie says, is how radically inclusive the sport is.
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“You can have five-year-olds playing in PE class alongside a bus full of 95-year-olds,” he says. “It closes the gap between people who are naturally sporty and those who maybe haven’t found that space before.”
House of Pickle is clearly leaning hard into that social side of the sport. The Currumbin Waters venue will feature three high-grade indoor pickleball courts created using the same surface system used at the US Open tennis courts, alongside a fully enclosed padel court – a fast-paced hybrid of tennis, pickleball and squash played within glass walls. Think longer rallies, louder chaos and significantly more near-miss collisions with your mates.
Most importantly, everything will sit indoors, which on the Gold Coast feels less like a luxury and more like elite-level future planning. No melted sneakers, no cancelled matches and no trying to explain Queensland humidity while dripping through your shirt.
Off the court, House of Pickle is aiming to be just as much a hangout as a sports venue. There’ll be a full cafe, bar and pro shop onsite, meaning players can move seamlessly between dinks, drinks and post-match debates about whether that ball was actually out.
And if you still think pickleball is just for retirees in visors, consider this your warning shot. The paddles are coming. Join the waitlist here.
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