BRISTOL, Tenn. – The inaugural Bristol Open is over, but don’t expect the Bristol SportsPlex to take a well-deserved break.
There is too much to do.
According to Matt Lavinder, owner of Bristol SportsPlex, a new project called Bristol Sports United is launching this week in Bristol, Tennessee, which will not only create a junior pickleball league, but will also serve as a competition for local junior cornhole and tennis players.
Lavinder, whose facility just hosted the Professional Pickleball Association’s five-day IHG Hotels & Resorts Bristol Open at its Raytheon Road location, said Bristol Sports United is a brand new creation and the result of a collaboration between the City of Bristol, Tennessee, the Bristol Parks & Recreation Department and the Bristol, Tennessee school system.
The official kickoff for BSU is Wednesday, with second- through fifth-graders typically competing in league games on Saturday afternoons in the fall at the Bristol SportsPlex.
People also read…
“We’re starting a pickleball league for elementary schools in Bristol that’s a very small fee because we want every kid to be able to participate,” Lavinder said. “They’ll play for their school and there’ll be a league in the fall. It starts August 21st. The whole idea is a collaboration between the city, the school system and the SportsPlex that will allow us to pool resources and do it really well.”
Lavinder said there is clearly demand for the project.
“People think pickleball is a sport for older people, and that was originally the case,” said Lavinder. “We’ve noticed that pickleball is getting younger every day. It’s all the rage in elementary and high schools right now. We see a lot of young people, so there’s a junior division.”
“We’re going to start with the elementary schools in Bristol Tennessee Schools, so every school will have a team. It’s pretty exciting.”
There is currently no department for older students, but they are welcome to use the facility.
“They come here and play,” he said, “but in this league we will start with the younger ones.”
Lavinder envisions pickleball being officially played in high schools and colleges soon. For example, former Tennessee High tennis player David Bieger, who was part of the Vikings’ team and doubles state championships, along with his partner and girlfriend Lauralei Sinksang helped the University of Virginia to a national collegiate pickleball title in 2023. That duo qualified for mixed doubles at the Bristol Open last week.
“I think there will be college teams,” Lavinder said. “We’re in talks with colleges. With this facility, we can be the hub for that and I see us being able to host major college tournaments. Pickleball is becoming a recognized sport in other states and I think it will be here in the near future. We want our schools here to win state championships right from the start.”
The initiative is being led by Ron Nunnery, a professional pickleball player who moved to Bristol from Florida and now serves as the pickleball director at the Bristol SportsPlex. He missed the Bristol Open last week to attend an event in India, but hosted the Bristol Summer Classic at the facility last month.
“He’s one of the top professionals in the world. He’s had a big influence on us getting more big tournaments. He lives in Bristol now between tour stops,” said Lavinder. “He’s helping us build that up. This facility has allowed us to attract really talented people, which isn’t always easy in Bristol.”
“Rob will be working with these elementary students on Saturdays, so we’re connecting our elementary students with one of the best professionals in the world. It’s pretty cool.”
Pickleball isn’t the only interesting sport at the Bristol SportPlex. And in terms of growth, it’s not even the fastest growing sport.
“Soccer is actually our fastest growing sport. We have an indoor soccer field upstairs,” Lavinder said. “Of course there’s tennis too. We have a table tennis program and we have cornhole. Cornhole is a pretty big deal on Thursday nights.”
“Bristol Sports United will start pickleball this fall, then we’ll do tennis and then cornhole, those three sports. We have cornhole pros here every Thursday night. It’s crazy.”
But that’s not all. Lavinder wants the Bristol SportsPlex to be the place to go after Tennessee high school football or other Vikings sporting events.
“We want Tennessee High School and game days to be an experience. We want to expand on that, we want to give the students, the families and the community a place to come together after the game,” Lavinder said. “We’ll televise their game. The court is big enough for the students to play pickleball in the evenings and play cornhole and whatever on the grass.”
“Families can come here, have a drink and a meal. We just want to enhance the game day experience.”
Depending on how it goes, the initiative could be expanded to other schools in the future.
“We’re going to give back to the programs and we want to do that with sports, girls soccer or whatever can come here to expand the experience, but we’re also going to give back to them,” Lavinder said. “We’re going to start with Tennessee high school specifically now, but we could do that for others. We want this to be a safe place for kids to come after high school games and play pickleball, that would be the place.”
Older fans can have a similar experience by gathering at the SportsPlex for Tennessee or Virginia Tech football games. The lights can even be changed to represent the orange and white of the Volunteers or the maroon and white of the Hokies.
“We want this to be the place to watch. It’s big enough for families, so parents can come in and have a drink while the kids can play gagaball or pickleball outside on the grass,” Lavinder said. “It’s big enough for the whole family to come and have their free time, not just the game, but we’ll broadcast the game inside and outside, we’ll turn the sound on, we’ll turn the lights orange and white.”
“We will do the same for Virginia Tech. We want this to be the place where families come and enjoy game days.”
Lavinder, his wife Hollie and many others have transformed the facility once known as Bristol Racquet into what Lavinder calls the best pickleball facility in the world. Lavinder said they currently have more than 4,500 members and are always welcome to add more.
“We have over 4,500 people in our system who play here,” said Lavinder. “It’s open to the public. Most of those memberships are bronze memberships, where there is no monthly fee, they only pay when they play.”
Lavinder also has other ideas in mind for the facility, which is across from Volunteer Plaza on Volunteer Parkway, where there are few tenants. The site was full last week for the Bristol Open, and Lavinder said there is interest from companies looking for a location, perhaps as early as next month.
“This part of town is the next big growth target for Bristol because it’s so well connected to Johnson City and Kingsport. It’s a lot easier for them to get to this side of town than the other,” Lavinder said. “It’s really underused. There’s a lot of work going on in Steele Creek and Rooster Front. I think the idea is to connect all of that together. I could see this becoming the part of Bristol where people come to play. Steele Creek, SportsPlex, the new ballpark and the Stone Castle are just up the road.”
Lavinder praised the collaboration between the Bristol Sportsplex, which provided the land for 13 eye-catching outdoor pickleball courts that helped attract the PPA Tour, and the city, which built those courts.
“We contributed the land. Normally you would have to build a pickleball facility somewhere where you have land and space, so the development costs are much higher, but here it’s already been a pretty good place to develop,” he said. “Plus there are shops here, so when people come, they buy groceries in Bristol and go to Lowes.”
“If it was somewhere out there like WhiteTop (Creek Park), you wouldn’t get that. I think people from Johnson City and Kingsport will come here on a daily basis instead of us having to drive there for stuff. They come here.”
