Indoor pickleball entertainment venue The Pickle Pad is heading to Atlanta this coming year. Local franchisees Jay Mathis and Cynthia Lee will bring the pickleball brand to 3101 Roswell Road in Marietta, taking a 50,000-square-foot facility formerly home to a Walmart.
Mathis told What Now Atlanta that he was drawn to franchising with the brand when he was looking for a good spot to play pickleball in the area. He immediately noticed a gap in the market in northwest Georgia for a high-quality pickleball facility.
When Mathis discovered The Pickle Pad, he was intrigued by not only the pickleball aspect, but also the additional social and culinary elements of the concept.
“Most of the franchise models that are out there are very keyed to providing courts and courts only. That didn’t really sit well with me — I felt like it needed to be a more well-rounded product offering,” Mathis said. “I found The Pickle Pad, and the model they are going after is to find an entire family entertainment experience.”
The space will offer 12 pickleball courts as well as a 5,000-square-foot mezzanine with a kitchen and bar; a game space with cornhole, shuffleboard, darts, billiards and ping-pong; four golf simulators; and a TV wall. The courts will be championship size courts, offering a more spacious and upscale approach to the sport.
The spot will be designed so that families can come to The Pickle Pad together. While parents play pickleball, the children can head over to the game space, for example.
“We’re really trying to create a space that is more than pickleball, where people can hang out and socialize and offer entertainment for the whole family,” Mathis said.
Permitting and construction is still to come on the space. Mathis said they are targeting an opening in summer of 2026.
Indoor Active Brands, which also owns Altitude Trampoline Park, is behind The Pickle Pad. The Marietta spot is part of a larger expansion for The Pickle Pad brand, with locations also heading to North Carolina, New Jersey and Alabama in 2026.
Eventually, Mathis and Lee plan to open four locations for the franchise in the Atlanta area.
“We’re excited to give East Cobb a pickleball facility that they desperately need,” Mathis said. “There’s a huge demand for courts and we can’t get open fast enough.”
