For anyone who can’t get enough of racquet sports and those who have hopped on the recent pickleball wave, Raleigh will be the place to be pretty soon.
Swing Racquet + Paddle, a 44-acre racquet sport campus, officially broke ground on its flagship facility on Aug. 14, which will be located at 6121 M. Herman Road in Raleigh’s Brier Creek community.
Founded by local entrepreneur Rob Autry and his business partner Jason DeGroff, the facility’s 28 tennis courts, 25 pickleball courts, 15 padel courts, 10 ping pong tables, four beach tennis and volleyball courts and a food and beverage experience curated by celebrity chef Fabio Viviani are anticipated to be open in 2026.
Swing aims to deliver a “Sportstainment” experience in what will be the largest multi-racquet sports facility in the world at the time of its completion.
“Racquet and paddle sports are thriving, and Swing is here to elevate the player experience for generations to come,” Autry said. “Swing will offer much-needed court inventory while becoming a vital community hub where deeper connections and unforgettable memories are made.”
Earlier this year, Swing received a $10 million investment from the City of Raleigh to build its campus on city-owned land. According to a press release from Swing in August, the facility is expected to drive $360 million of economic impact in its first three years and attract more than one million visitors to the Raleigh area annually.
The facility is expected to create 300 jobs.
“We are excited to see the huge impact Swing creates in terms of jobs, tourism and special events that will bring amateurs and professionals to our region for competition,” Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said. “This partnership further enhances Raleigh’s commitment to a common connection centered on sustainability, social good and inclusion.”
Swing announced Wilson Sporting Goods as a leading sponsor in February 2023. As part of the partnership, the facility will have a Wilson stringing bar for tennis racquets, and the campus will act as a testing ground for Wilson’s new technology-driven consumer experiences, such as augmented reality, virtual reality and gamification. Wilson will make Swing the home of a satellite hub of Wilson Labs, the brand’s research and development branch for racquet sports innovation.
The facility will also offer a multi-racquet sport Wilson store, showcasing the latest innovations in Wilson equipment and sportswear.
“Wilson is excited to embark on this unique partnership with Swing, uniting tennis, pickleball and padel in a facility of unprecedented scale,” Joe Dudy, president and CEO of Wilson, said. “It’s unlike any kind of experience that athletes will ever have with the Wilson brand.”
According to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association’s Topline Participation Report in February, pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in the United State for the third year in a row, having grown 51.8% from 2022 to 2023 and 223.5% in three years from 2020-23.
The campus will have three different neighborhoods each specifically for tennis, pickleball and padel. Padel, a sport of Mexican origin, is described as a mixture of squash and tennis in which the players mush hit a ball over a net with a racquet in an enclosed court, but they can hit the ball after it bounces off the wall.
For a breakdown of the various courts, the facility will host 10 outdoor red clay tennis courts, six outdoor hard tennis courts, six indoor hard tennis courts and six covered clay tennis courts. Per the construction rendering, the pickleball neighborhood will have 17 outdoor courts and eight additional courts in air-conditioned buildings. For padel, there will be two covered courts and 13 additional outdoor courts.
Swing partnered with Good to Great Tennis Academy, a Swedish-based tennis development program, to bring the teaching aspect to the facility.
“We knew we wanted to be sports first, and to do that, we needed somebody that was able to bring the academy component to Swing,” Cole Wilson from Swing’s growth and brand team said.
Swing also aims to create an environmentally sustainable space, utilizing a French heavy timber membrane structure over some of the courts called SMC2 to provide open air movement and shading. The facility will feature a grand lawn, an amphitheater, hiking trails and connections to existing greenways.
“We really want the design itself to feel like its completely present in the region and native to the region in a way that you couldn’t find anywhere else in the country,” JJ Kazynski, Swing’s director of design, said.