By Bob Reinert
Red Line Editorial
When Mitch and Sidney Elofson were doing internships at a tennis academy in Naples, Florida, as part of their master’s degree programs, they decided to try pickleball. Both were immediately hooked.
After returning to their native Minnesota, the married couple played the sport more and more frequently until the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the fitness club where they worked shut down. With time on their hands, the Elofsons began to think about opening their own pickleball facility.
Two and a half years later, in September 2022, the Elofsons became the owners/operators of the Picklebarn, a 30,000-square-foot, climate-controlled indoor facility with eight pickleball courts sitting on eight acres in Mankato, a city of just under 50,000 in the south-central part of the state.
“We did a custom build,” said Mitch Elofson. “So we’re not renovating a space or anything like that. We built the Picklebarn specifically for this purpose.
“Usually, when people walk in, they’re like, ‘whoa, this is bigger than I was thinking.’ So, it’s a nice, big space, and it’s worked really well for the events that we’ve had and works really well for tournaments and things like that.”
Given the large size of the facility, it’s perhaps ironic that the Elofsons designed it using a cell phone app.
“We just fiddled around with that for a long, long time until we got something that we liked,” Mitch said. “We’re very happy with the space.”
In addition to the courts, the Picklebarn features a fitness room where Sidney oversees strength training, and an upper mezzanine area with a lounge and conference room.
“We can rent that space out,” Mitch said. “It’s definitely the social area of the club.”
Neither Elofson has a business background. Both are former high school and college tennis players from nearby St. Peter. Mitch has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in sports psychology. Sidney earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in exercise physiology.
“We were learning a lot of new things and learning things on the fly,” Mitch said. “There’s still a lot of things that we’re learning every single day. It’s a continual process.
“It’s nice that the skills that we had growing up playing tennis, all of that transfers over very well into pickleball.”
The Elofsons chose Mankato, a college town and regional hub, to stay close to both of their families in southern Minnesota.
“This is where we grew up,” Mitch said. “We wanted to try to do something nice for the community and provide this space for them to come here and play.
“They’ve always had a very active pickleball community, and now more and more people are starting to play around here, which is great to see. We’re getting a lot of people introduced to the sport, which is just a lot of fun.”
Mitch said that such a large, custom-built pickleball facility is unique in the area.
“There are a few places popping up in the Twin Cities,” he said. “None of them are really this size. I think a lot of places are doing renovated spaces, which is great. It’s just not the route that we wanted to go.”
From the start, part of what appealed to the Elofsons was how accessible pickleball is.
“Pickleball just lends itself so well to different age groups, different athletic backgrounds, whether you’ve played sports, whether you have ever picked up a racquet or played any sport in your life,” Mitch said. “We get people of all walks of life in here to try it out.
“It’s such a fun social sport. We’ve tried to build a space to accommodate for that social aspect of the sport.”
As for the future of pickleball and the Picklebarn?
“I think it appeals to such a large amount of people that I don’t really see it slowing down anytime soon,” Mitch said.
While doing well in their business venture, the Elofsons also hope to do good in their community. Though the Picklebarn has been open less than six months, a charity tournament held there already raised more than $60,000 for the Ronald McDonald House Charities.
“We want to try to be able to do things like that because it makes us feel good and we want to try to give back again to the community that’s given us so much,” Mitch said. “We hope to do a lot more of that type of thing in the future too.”
These days, the Elofsons are ramping up their leagues and classes. Because it sits on such a large piece of land, the Picklebarn could expand in the future to include outdoor pickleball and tennis courts and yard games.
“We wanted it to be a very family-oriented feel,” Mitch said. “Both Sidney and I are here all day, every day. We know everybody’s name who comes through the door.
“It’s just been fun getting the people of Mankato introduced to this amazing, new sport.”
Bob Reinert spent 17 years writing sports for The Boston Globe. He also served as a sports information director at Saint Anselm College and Phillips Exeter Academy. He is a contributor to USA Pickleball on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
