When it comes to pickleball businesses that are setting the standard, look no further than Rally, a unique concept based in Charlotte, North Carolina, that combines pickleball and technology with elevated cuisine and social spaces.
The brand was co-founded in 2021 by Megan Charity, a professional pickleball player and coach, and Barrett Worthington, a graduate of the University of Virginia Darden School of Business.
In this Q&A, discover what inspired the duo to create Rally, its key differentiators — including RallyTrack, the world’s first pickleball automatic scoring system — unique partnerships and more.
How did Rally get its start (origin story)? What was the vision?
CHARITY: Pickleball is the fastest growing sport in the country. It’s fun, it’s active, it’s social, and the barrier to entry is low — attracting more than 36.5 million people from August 2021 to August 2022 from ages 18 to 80. I came to the U.S. on a tennis scholarship, but picked up a pickleball paddle in 2015 and never looked back. I completely fell in love with the sport and immediately saw how it cultivated community in a way that was more inclusive than tennis. I played competitively and was successful in earning a top spot in international rankings. In 2018, my partner Barrett and I launched Picklefest, a four-day pickleball experience in Charlottesville, Virginia, that was backed by more than a dozen brand sponsors and attended by participants from all over the country. The demand for curated social experiences that embraced an active lifestyle became clear, and our wheels started turning.
WORTHINGTON: We started to envision a new type of racquet club that combined active sport, inclusive community and leisure under one roof. We raised $15M from investors, and opened our first venue in Charlotte, North Carolina, last July. Since opening, we have hosted more than 232,000 players on our courts and a growing community of regular visitors who call Rally their home away from home. The vision is to expand our club nationwide with our new technology, RallyTrack, to make the sport even more fun and inclusive.
What are the brand’s key differentiators? What are its keys to success?
WORTHINGTON: Rally is so much more than “eatertainment.” Every element of the business is rooted in community-building — from pickleball programming that encourages meeting new people to the dining menu where everything’s made to share. Unlike typical gyms, tennis clubs or traditional pickleball — Rally’s programs are much more than an in and out experience. We have leagues and seasonal programs to help you “meet your people” — creating a true social club environment that is equally as inclusive as it is active. People arrive early, and stay late to continue conversations with newfound friends.
Rally promotes mixing and mingling with tech-enhanced courts that automate scoring, dining menus built for sharing and curated by a world-class chef, cocktails and non-alcoholic beverages designed by an award-winning mixologist, and lounge spaces and cozy outdoor fire pits designed for conversation.
Tell me a bit about the technology behind Rally and how it gamifies the pickleball playing experience.
WORTHINGTON: RallyTrack is the world’s first pickleball automatic scoring system that uses industry-leading gamification and self-quantification techniques to revolutionize the way people socialize and play. RallyTrack is a camera-based system that uses heuristics and AI methods to track players and the ball, recognize court boundaries, and apply the rules of the game to count the score in real-time. The systems offer new gaming modes like a queen/king-of-the-court style game to make the playtime even more dynamic and inclusive for larger groups — and we’ll soon be able to track player stats, too.
What led to the decision to incorporate high-end, quality food and beverage, alongside pickleball?
CHARITY: We are foodies at heart, but we also know that today’s modern millennial is health conscious and has a finer palette than what many sporting venues have to offer. We have worked with world-class chefs and mixologists to design our menus so that they reflect the same attention to detail of the rest of our club. We also see F&B as an important part of our revenue stream — many of our guests will drop in for coffee, a lunch or a drink without booking a court, which adds to the vibrant, bustling environment and makes Rally feel like more than just a pickleball club.
You have partnerships with JOOLA, Night Swim Coffee and Rho Back – is there anything you’d like to share about these partnerships and what value they add?
WORTHINGTON: Great partners make great things possible. In the case of Night Swim Coffee, it’s really exciting to align with a local partner that mirrors our commitment to quality F&B. This is something we hope to do as we expand to new markets as well — finding great partners that bring a local tie-in to the space in a really authentic way.
What have been the biggest learning lessons from this venture?
CHARITY: While there are countless learnings, our success to date continuously reaffirms our original hypothesis — that there’s a deep need for third spaces that bring people together. Every day has been incredibly validating for us in seeing the response to Rally, and we’re proud to bring something to cities that people truly want to see in their community.
What are your future growth plans?
CHARITY: We are excited to bring the Rally experience to other cities across the U.S. — we have our eyes on markets with active and growing millennial populations and would love to hear from folks about where they want to see us. We welcome DMs on Instagram from anyone who wants to see Rally show up in their city.
Is there anything more you’d like to share about Rally?
WORTHINGTON: Rally exists to serve as a catalyst for connection and a core part of our vision is to reinvent the country club experience for a new generation of activity-seekers. That generation is younger, more inclusive, and more diverse than what the country clubs of yore catered to. We make a conscious effort to create spaces and programs that welcome people who have historically been excluded from the racquet sports world – such as our partnership with Black Pickleball & Co, our collaboration with queer artists for Pride, and our Queer Pickles league. I think this effort has resulted in a such an awesome array of people within the Rally community, and an energy that you can feel when you walk into our venue. We’re committed to growing this effort in Charlotte and to seeking out similarly impactful relationships in all the communities we enter.
