With expansion complete, Huether Family Match Pointe sees uptick in play

By AJ Heckenlaible, for Pigeon605

It was clear from the moment Huether Family Match Pointe opened its expanded space that the demand from players was there.

“The first day we were open and just about every single court was booked from 8:30 a.m. in the morning until 9 p.m. at night. So it was pretty awesome,” said Mark Vellek, Match Pointe’s executive director.

Things haven’t slowed much since, he said.

“It’s nights, weekends; it’s been just crazy busy. It’s been awesome,” Vellek said. “That’s why we added on. We were out of space, and we were turning people away, and the people who were playing wanted to be playing more.”

The public tennis facility at the Sanford Sports Complex unveiled its $3.6 million expansion late last year. It includes an additional four tennis courts, for a total of 10, and four pickleball courts.

“We had just grown so much that we were strapped for space,” Vellek said. “Our programs were just maxed out.”

Match Pointe offers both adult and youth tennis leagues and lessons, both of which have grown to their maximum capacity in the past months. Along with regular programming, the facility hosts 14 tournaments throughout the year, ranging from junior levels to United States Tennis Association national tournaments.

There’s one coming in this weekend that will draw four dozen elite players.

The extra space has allowed Match Pointe to increase the time tennis players can spend on the court. The facility has also doubled the size of its adult leagues to include more than 400 players, and youth leagues have grown as well.

“It’s amazing adding just four courts how much busier that makes things,” Vellek said.

“In the past when we had six courts when we would run tournaments, that meant all of our lessons and programming for the weekend were off. Now, we can run tournaments and keep our programming going on the new courts. It’s really opened the doors to just doing a ton and being able to grow our tennis programming.”

While pickleball has a strong following, tennis is still the core of the facility, Vellek said.

“Tennis is still over 90 percent of our business,” he said. “We have pickleball, we do lessons and leagues, and people can rent pickleball court times, and we have a number of people coming out all the time playing pickleball. But the majority of what we do is still tennis.”

While there would be enough land for two more courts, the cost of doing such a small addition likely doesn’t make sense, he added.

“Ten is a great number to be at, and we don’t have any more plans for any future growth.”

The entire cost of the expansion was privately funded, he added.

“It really was a testament to what Match Pointe is and how we serve every single area of the tennis community,” Vellek said. “This (expansion) allows us to continue serving our mission of creating recreational and competitive opportunities for every area of the tennis community in Sioux Falls.”