Paul Midkiff was teaching a pickleball lesson to a woman who was in town for a job interview last month.
“What’s bringing you to Macon?” Midkiff, who is president of the Macon Pickleball Association, asked. “And she says, because we want to be around pickleball.”
Macon is home to the world’s largest indoor pickleball facility, Rhythm & Rally, which is approaching its one-year anniversary.
The 32-court facility has brought over $2 million to the Macon community and continued solidifying the city as a prime tourism destination, according to Visit Macon.
“Those visitors are staying in Macon hotels, dining in our restaurants and shopping in our retail establishments,” Visit Macon Senior Vice President and COO Aaron Buzza said in an email.
Midkiff, who is also co-founder of the Southern Pickleball Association, recalled a couple who traveled from Highlands, North Carolina specifically to train at Rhythm & Rally earlier this month.
“They spent three nights in a hotel, they ate every meal out, they’re gassing up right now and heading back,” Midkiff said. “When we have tournaments and things like that, you just got to multiply that times 500.”
Sports tourism brought over $6 million to Macon in the four months between Dec. 2023 and March 2024. Over 90 percent of that revenue was from pickleball alone, Midkiff said.
Rhythm & Rally first welcomed members in December last year. The doors opened to the public in January 2024.
“It’s flown by real fast,” general manager of the facility John Roberts said. “We’ve exceeded almost all my expectations in terms of numbers, traffic and people are happy.”
Roberts said they aimed to have 500 members by the end of the year. They met that goal in July – five months earlier than expected. Rhythm & Rally is currently approaching 700 members.
Home to 18 tournaments in the first year, according to Roberts, the facility has become a hub for pickleball players around the country.
“We’ve had visitors from 45 different states here in the first year,” Roberts said. “We’re gonna make a big push through in the last six weeks to see if we can get all 50 in here before the 31st.”
The team at Rhythm & Rally continues to set goals despite setting records and surpassing expectations. Roberts said he is looking forward to opening the facility’s kitchen to the public in the first quarter of 2025.
“It’ll be like pouring rocket fuel onto what we already have here,” Roberts said.
He is working to obtain a liquor license so Rhythm and Rally can sit at the bar and grill between matches.
“There’s already nothing else like us in the country,” Roberts said. “But there will especially be nothing else like us in the country in terms of, a facility with a footprint that’s large, that’s also offering, the additional amenities of food and beverage, locker rooms, showers, etc.”
Roberts feels these qualities will differentiate Rhythm & Rally as pickleball continues to rise in popularity.
“I think you’re going to see it in the Olympics,” Roberts said. “Certainly in my lifetime.”
Midkiff feels the facility gives the Macon community an edge.
“Somebody from Macon should be the No. 1 pickleball player on the planet because they’ve grown up playing,” Midkiff said.
Roberts said pickleball changed his life and described this as a “dream come true” in an interview days before facility opening last year.
“It’s been as much fun as I hoped it would be when I took the job,” Roberts said. “So I have just a lot of gratitude for the last year.”
Roberts stressed that there is no barrier Rhythm & Rally cannot help prospective pickleball players overcome. He invites anybody who is interested to come try their hand at the growing sport and help them celebrate one year in Macon.
“When we first started playing pickleball back in 2017-18, you know, it was mainly white, older,” Midkiff said. “That demographic has changed, you know, age wise, race wise.”
Both Midkiff and Roberts agree that pickleball is a community building sport. Roberts lovingly refers to Rhythm & Rally members and staff as a “pickleball family.”
“And that’s one of the beautiful things about it – it brings a lot of people together,” Midkiff said.
