The Picklr's bankruptcy is about lease guarantees, its CEO says. Four Picklr clubs closed, folded or are set to close this year, and three other pickleball clubs closed
Picklr Inc., the franchisor behind The Picklr indoor pickleball clubs, filed for Chapter 11 in the Northern District of Texas on Oct. 9. On Sept. 24, a company associated with The Picklr in Newark, DE and a company associated with The Picklr in Exton, PA filed too. The CEO blames the guarantees the company signed on its franchisees' leases. Four Picklr clubs, in Texas, Utah and Alabama, closed, folded into a nearby club or are set to close this year. Three pickleball clubs run by other companies, in Idaho, Ohio and New Jersey, also closed. Two more Picklr clubs left the brand and reopened under a new name, which is a conversion, not a closure.
The filings
| Filed | Company | Court | Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sept. 24 | Newark PB LLC, associated with The Picklr in Newark, DE | Middle District of Florida | 8:26-bk-08635 |
| Sept. 24 | A company associated with The Picklr in Exton, PA | Not in our records | Not in our records |
| Oct. 9 | Picklr Inc., the franchisor | Northern District of Texas | Not in our records |
All three are Chapter 11 reorganizations. First State Update reported the Newark company's estimated liabilities at $1 million to $10 million against assets of $500,000 to $1 million. As of Oct. 14, it reported, the national company said its locations were continuing to operate during the restructuring.
The franchisor's filing does not include its franchising and club-operating subsidiaries, according to the company, and no club closes as an immediate result. "Our clubs are open, and our members are playing," CEO Jorge Barragan said. The company also said it does not make the final call on whether a club stays open, because franchise partners own and run them. An investor group led by a Picklr franchisee, Dynamus Alliance, has committed $4.5 million in financing and is expected to sponsor the reorganization plan, Athletech News reported.
The clubs that closed, folded or changed name
| Club | Where | What happened | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Picklr | Round Rock, TX | Folded into a nearby Picklr this year | Athletech News, Oct. 15 |
| The Picklr | Bluffdale, UT | Folded into a nearby Picklr this year | Athletech News, Oct. 15 |
| The Picklr | West Jordan, UT | Closed this year | Athletech News, Oct. 15 |
| The Picklr Birmingham, Montgomery Highway | Vestavia Hills, AL | Set to close Sunday, Sept. 27 after the building was sold; opened March 2025 | AL.com, Sept. 25 |
| S2 Pickleball | Boise, ID | Closed after an eviction for unpaid rent | BoiseDev, July 17 |
| The Dink Yard, Eastwood Mall Complex | Niles, OH | Last day July 24 | WKBN, July 17 |
| PickleRage, North Avenue | Plainfield, NJ | The franchisee closed the 18-court club less than a year after it opened | NJ.com, Sept. 25 |
| The Picklr (conversion) | Goleta, CA | Owner left the franchise four months after opening and relaunched as The Grove Pickleball | Athletech News, Oct. 15 |
| The Picklr (conversion) | Bloomington, IL | Reopened as Baseline Social Club | Athletech News, Oct. 15 |
One more is on our watch list: Jumbo Pickleball in Portland, OR. No source yet says whether it closed or moved.
Why: guarantees the franchisor signed
The cause is stated, and by the company itself. Barragan told Sports Business Journal that Picklr had agreed to guarantee lease payments for early franchisees, and that those deals became an "untenable financial burden." The Coloradoan carried his words: "We signed, unfortunately, too many corporate guarantees that landed on the holding company. And that's on us. I own it."
The company said the same thing in formal terms. Its holding company guaranteed leases and took on other obligations for individual clubs to keep pace with its growth, and some of those arrangements "no longer fit the company's operating model." The filing came weeks after a September email to staff about corporate cuts.
The franchisee side shows the strain from the other direction. The Goleta owner told the Santa Barbara News-Press he was losing money under the franchise model, Athletech reported. After he left, he cut the standard monthly pass from Picklr's $225 to $195.
The other operators' closings have their own causes. S2 Pickleball in Boise "closed after they were evicted for not paying rent," BoiseDev reported. In Vestavia Hills, "The group that purchased the building will be converting our space," the club coordinator told AL.com. The Dink Yard and PickleRage gave no reason.
Verdict: an operator problem, not a sport in decline
The evidence points at how Picklr financed its growth, not at players leaving. The company's CEO said clubs across the system "continue to perform well." Pickleball participation still rose in the first half of 2026, by 1.3%, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, as reported by Athletech. After five straight years as the country's fastest-growing sport, growth has cooled, Athletech reported. Padel, a tennis-and-squash hybrid that competes with pickleball for players and indoor space, saw participation grow 14.5% over the same period.
Other operators are still building. Center Court Pickleball Club opened a fourth club, a 13-court facility in Scottsdale, AZ, in September, according to Athletech. The franchisee group that runs The Picklr in Fort Collins, CO told the Coloradoan it is adding three outdoor courts there. PickleRage said it was encouraged by the momentum across its other clubs.
We have no baseline count of clubs to measure this against, so it is not a measured trend. The bankruptcy's stated cause is the lease guarantees Picklr signed. The club closings name other causes, an eviction for unpaid rent in Boise and a building sale in Vestavia Hills, or none at all. Seven clubs is a small number.
What happens to the buildings
Indoor clubs take large, open rooms. PickleRage's Plainfield club opened in a former retail space, NJ.com reported. Where a source says what became of the room, the answer varies. Two Picklr clubs, in Goleta and Bloomington, reopened under new names. For Round Rock and Bluffdale the source says the clubs folded their operations into nearby Picklr locations, not what happened to the buildings. The Dink Yard's owners put the facility up for sale and said they would like to see pickleball continue there. In Vestavia Hills the building was sold, and the new owner will be converting the space. In Plainfield, NJ.com reported, it was not clear whether another operator could take over or whether the space would be repurposed.
What we counted, and what we left out
We counted pickleball clubs that a news source says closed, folded into another club or are set to close this year. That is seven, in Texas, Utah, Alabama, Idaho, Ohio and New Jersey: four Picklr clubs and three run by other companies. Vestavia Hills was set to close on Sunday, Sept. 27, by both sources; we have no report confirming it did. We counted Chapter 11 filings by Picklr Inc. and by companies a source ties to a Picklr club: three. Newark appears in our file twice, from two articles, and is counted once.
Conversions are not closures. Goleta and Bloomington are listed and labeled, and they are not in the seven. The Round Rock, Bluffdale and West Jordan clubs carry no closing date because the source gives none, only "this year." A filing is not a closure: the Newark and Exton clubs were open as of the latest report.
Records come from local news reporting, trade coverage and bankruptcy court dockets. This is a living page: as the reorganization moves and clubs close or reopen, we update the count and the changelog records it.
Updated: October 19, 2026
Changelog: October 19, 2026: first published with four Picklr clubs and three other pickleball clubs closed, folded or set to close in 2026, three Chapter 11 filings and two conversions, from the 2026-10-17 edition.
Street names are from our records; house numbers are held for subscribers. The Store Closure Watch file for the week of October 17, 2026 holds 368 records. As of October 19, 2026.