Pickleball players in Henrietta, N.Y., have a new place to call home after the Dome Arena was transformed into a pickleball haven.
The Arena Dome used to play host to a variety of events, from rock concerts to high school graduation ceremonies, but after months of work, the facility was renamed the ROC Dome Pickleball Club, offering 12 tournament-quality courts.
According to the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, the 25,000-square-foot Dome Arena was just too expensive to maintain.
Dr. Seth Zeidman, a local neurosurgeon who co-owns the property with Frank Imburgia, president of FSI General Contractors, said there was a need for more indoor pickleball space.
The ROC Dome Pickleball Club has annual memberships ranging from $210 to $750. But you don’t have to be a member to play there, and during drop-in times, non-members can play for two hours for $10.
“It’s been going great,” Zeidman said. As of late December, 800 people had been through the doors, and 100 had signed up as members.
Zeidman and Imburgia purchased the Dome, along with the attached 23,000-square-foot Minett Hall, in 2015 for $2.8 million. Seven years ago, they unveiled an $8 million renovation that took nine months to complete and included a new Dome box office and concession areas and a new ceiling structure with LED lights running along the curved rafters.
“The lighting is amazing inside the Dome,” he said, “and so is the heating and A/C system.”
Zeidman put the cost of converting it to a pickleball club at $500,000, adding that he's hoping to move to hosting other events in Minett Hall in the future.
“I think we’re going to get that back to being multipurpose,” Zeidman said. “As this grows, the footprint will develop.”
