Toronto mall to open a huge pickleball club that’s completely free to join

Toronto pickleball clubs seem to be popping up in droves lately, and it seems like the trend is nowhere near slowing down with the announcement of the city’s latest.

Fairgrounds, the city’s newest raquet club is set to land at Etobicoke’s Cloverdale Mall this month, with another location set to open at Assembly Park in Vaughan shortly thereafter, and it’ll be home to more than just pickleball. 

The new club opens as part of a redevelopment effort for Cloverdale Mall by QuadReal Property Group, who plan to transform city’s oldest mall into a futuristic new community.

The Cloverdale club will be home to nine pickleball courts that are open to the public of all ages with free membership.

“The whole idea is to make pickleball […] more accessible to more people and keep up with the growing demand across the country,” says Fairgrounds co-founder Drummond Munro.

The experience of the club doesn’t end when the game does, though. It’ll also be home to a restaurant and bar where you can squash your rivalry over drinks and food.

In addition to pickleball, the club will be home to a padel court, so you can try your hand at another raquet sport rapidly gaining in popularity worldwide.

Padel, if you’ve never heard of it (which I sure hadn’t), is a combination of tennis and squash, using the tennis scoring system in a smaller, enclosed court where the ball can bounce off the walls.

While no official opening date for the club in Vaughan has been confirmed, the Fairgrounds location at Cloverdale Mall will officially open on Feb. 16, with more locations planned to open in 2024.