Huether Family Match Pointe plans expansion

Four more courts could be coming to Huether Family Match Pointe, including pickleball.

The tennis center hopes to break ground on the addition at the Sanford Sports Complex about a year from now. The organization has already raised $1.7 million and intends to raise an additional $1 million.

The expansion project will give the public facility 10 indoor tennis courts, which would be lined with eight pickleball courts, adding almost 28,000 square feet to the building.

The added space will allow for expanded programming to meet the needs of the growing Sioux Falls tennis community as well as the ability to run more and larger tournaments, Match Pointe said in a statement.

The facility hosts 14 youth tournaments a year, including USTA National events and the NSIC Championships.

“Adding these courts will be instrumental in the number and scale of tournaments we can host,” said Match Pointe executive director Mark Vellek. “USTA National has wanted to give us additional and larger national tournaments, but we just don’t have enough courts to meet the requirements. Hosting these national tournaments is a great thing for the Sioux Falls community, and so far every one we’ve hosted has had at least one local kid qualify.”

In addition to making an impact on the tournament scene, Match Pointe’s growing junior program fills with about 400 participants each session. More than 200 adult players also use the facility. This past fall, pickleball found a new home at Match Pointe with daytime and evening play as well as one of the largest pickleball tournaments in the Midwest, the Midwest Pickleball Showcase.

“Our mission is to make tennis accessible to all, grow the game of tennis and create healthier, happier individuals through tennis,” Vellek said. “There is so much more we could be doing, but we are simply out of space. We have had to turn junior and adult players away, and we want to be doing a lot more pickleball, but we only have so much space, and during nights and weekends, we are completely full.”

Match Pointe and its board of directors have started fundraising to finish the project and are looking for donors. Naming opportunities for courts and benches range from $10,000 to $125,000.