Lollapalooza Company (C3) Donates $500K for Pickleball Courts in Grant Park

We noticed a post on Hello South Loop's facebook page about the volley ball courts in Grant Park (south of Balbo and west of Columbus) being torn up.  

A reader posted an old article about what is happening (via Chicago Sun-Times):

Chicago’s pickleball scene is getting another shot in the arm — this time in Grant Park.

The folks behind Lollapalooza are donating $500,000 to the Chicago Park District that will be used to build new pickleball courts and refurbish existing tennis courts in the south end of Grant Park.

The pickleball courts will be designed for only pickleball use. 

One of the major knocks from the city’s growing pickleball scene is that the city is lightyears behind other major cities in building dedicated courts. Most pickleball in Chicago is played on tennis courts, which can create tension between picklers and tennis players.

The news was shared Tuesday in a letter that was emailed to Grant Park-area residents from Charlie Walker, an executive with C3 Presents, the company behind Lollapalooza.

A Park District spokeswoman said six existing tennis courts will be rehabbed and a minimum of eight new dedicated pickleball courts will be built.

I play tennis, but have never played pickleball.  That said, maybe we'll have to check it out.  This is probably a win win for most people - maybe outside of volleyball players.  C3 gets a hard surface to better accommodate their festival (for those in the know - this is usually behind "Perry's Stage" and the city/residents gets an area for recreation game that's getting more and more popular.