Today we’d like to introduce you to Jay Lerner.
Hi Jay, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Pickleball started as something I enjoyed doing with my family. We were living in downtown Austin, and the public courts at Austin High School were getting too crowded, so we needed somewhere convenient to play. We started by duct-taping pickleball lines on the rooftop of our building’s parking garage. That worked great until our building told us, “Stop doing this or you’re going to get evicted.”
Instead of giving up, I started looking at rooftops around downtown Austin on Google Maps and found a state-owned parking garage nearby with a huge, mostly unused rooftop. I approached the Texas Facilities Commission and LAZ Parking with what sounded like a crazy idea: let me put pickleball courts on top of it.
That became Urban Pickleball Club. We started in 2023 with two courts. Initially, it was just about creating a great place for us, our friends, and friends of friends to play. But people in the surrounding high-rises could see the courts, started coming over to play, and the community grew organically. We’ve never advertised, and to this day we don’t have a website or even signage showing where the courts are located. We added courts, improved the space, and eventually built a membership club with hundreds of members and a substantial waitlist for new members.
What I realized along the way is that the courts themselves aren’t the only attraction, the community is. Pickleball is incredibly good at bringing people together. Urban became a neighborhood gathering place where recreational players, serious players, and some of the top professional players in the world could all hang out together. We’ve hosted charity tournaments, many events, worked with major brands for photoshoots, and had a lot of interesting people play at Urban. The club became far bigger and more recognized than I ever could have imagined.
More recently, I’ve gotten heavily involved in other pickleball projects and in padel as well. I see many of the same things in padel that attracted me to pickleball early on. I love both sports and think they can coexist and help grow the broader racquet-sports community in Austin.
If there’s a common thread through my story, it’s probably that I like seeing opportunities where other people see obstacles. Urban started because somebody told us we couldn’t play pickleball on one rooftop, so I went looking for another rooftop. I’ve found that some of the most interesting things I’ve done started with an idea that initially sounded a little ridiculous to many.
I feel like the luckiest guy in Austin. I’m fortunate that I can spend most of my time doing things I enjoy. I get to spend every day playing pickleball, padel, golf, and call it “work”! Doing those things with people I enjoy being around is the best part.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Urban Pickleball was a completely new concept, building pickleball courts on top of a state-owned parking garage in downtown Austin. There was no roadmap, and almost every step involved people telling me it was a terrible idea that would never work.
We started small and learned as we went, figuring out pricing, membership, programming, events, and how to grow without losing what made the community special. Being outdoors in Texas added another challenge since you can’t control 105 degree days, rain, wind, or the occasional freeze.
Ironically, growth became one of our biggest challenges. Urban has been essentially full almost from the beginning, and we now have hundreds of people who want to play but simply not enough courts to accommodate them.
I’ve learned that when you try something unusual, there will always be people telling you why it won’t work. That helps motivate me. A lot of the most interesting things I’ve been involved with started with someone saying, “You can’t do that.”
No, it hasn’t been a smooth road, but I’ve been lucky to have a lot of help from friends and my wife Daphne. It wouldn’t be nearly as rewarding if it were easy.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Urban Pickleball Club?
We opened Urban in 2023. What started as a simple idea has grown into something much bigger. The rooftop setting and Austin skyline are unique, but what really sets Urban apart is the community. Members know each other, show up knowing they’ll find a game, and everyone from beginners to some of the best players in the world shares the same courts.
We’re also proud to share Urban with local schools, charities, and groups like Longhorn Pickleball, which has more than 600 UT student members. Urban exists because of our members, and it has been incredibly rewarding to see the rooftop become a gathering place for people from Austin and around the world.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
I think the next 5–10 years will be less about simply building more pickleball courts and more about creating welcoming social communities. Hopefully, we will see both pickleball and padel continue to grow around the world and eventually become Olympic sports. Pickleball is a fantastic sport for health because it combines the physical health benefits from an active lifestyle and mental health from social interaction. I always tell people not to be the last person in Austin to learn how to play!
Contact Info:
- Website: none
- Instagram: @urbanpickleballatx
- Facebook: Urban Pickleball Club
