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December 9, 2024

Rally Round

Rally

Charlotte, North Carolina

By Drew Wathey

Pickleball has often been called the most social of all sports and games played, and the club Rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, has taken it one step further. Calling itself, unabashedly, “Where Pickleball and Craft Cocktails Collide,” Rally is where active people go to socialize, and social people go to move. More than 230,000 pickleballers moved on these courts last year alone!

 

Featuring indoor and outdoor courts, Rally promotes off-court fun and frivolity with craft cocktail bars, elevated cuisine and a specialty coffee program that makes it the place to be whether you want to hit dinks or just rub elbows with friends and family away from the action.

 

And to think it all started six years ago with a four-day festival of fun called Picklefest in Charlottesville, Virginia.

 

“It was an experience that combined food, drink, live entertainment and pickleball, and we immediately saw the demand for curated social experiences that embraced an active lifestyle and started to dream up a hospitality concept that could bring that to communities in a more permanent way,” says Barrett Worthington, who is co-founder of Rally along with her life and business partner Megan Charity. They continue to infuse life into the concept.

 

“We raised funds and spent two years working on our first Rally venue in Charlotte, renovating an old warehouse and brewery into an incredible high-design venue with eight courts (indoor and outdoor), a restaurant, two bars, and an espresso bar and café.”

 

Not to be outdone with simply libations, these two are foodies as well. “Our food is awesome, and that was very much part of our plan from day one. Most of our marketing to date has been primarily focused on sport and community events, but we’ve been quietly building the best menu in town,” adds Worthington, who earned an MBA from the University of Virginia.

 

“It’s one of the things we hear time and time again from our guests. No one expects the food at ‘a pickleball place’ to be worth traveling for, but those who try it inevitably come back for the food alone.”

 

Working and living together can be difficult at best for any couple, but this dynamic duo makes it work. “We honestly can’t imagine not working together. Our lives revolve around Rally, and we love having each other to brainstorm ideas, solve problems, and share in the joys of when we see small (and big!) wins,” says Charity, who started playing the sport in 2015 and became one of the top players in the mid-Atlantic.

 

“In the early days, we worked on everything together, but as the business and our roles evolved, we found our own lanes. Now, we rarely work on the same vertical, which allows us the freedom to own decisions and responsibilities independently.”

 

Rally is currently running nine weekly leagues, each with a different focus and vibe. It also hosts regular tournaments and round robins, many of them thematically tied to a cultural event or holiday.

 

One of the club’s bestselling programs is Courts & Coffee, an early morning event hosted weekly on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday that draws an excitable crowd, notwithstanding the added caffeine! The program is a fusion of guided open play, with an emphasis on mixing and matching players so that they can meet different people and compete in short, fast-paced games. 

 

An added bonus—everyone who plays gets a complimentary cold brew or drip coffee from the café, which adds to the overall social atmosphere.

 

At Rally, whether you’re winning, wine-ing or unwinding, it’s got you covered.  •

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