Eagle Tennis Club is leaving for good

EAGLE, Idaho The Eagle Tennis Club has been a staple in indoor tennis for nearly a decade.

The club was opened by Kara Hoge, a tennis player who wanted to help with the shortage of indoor courts. She only owns the tennis club, not the property.

Caleb Roope, the owner of the property, has decided to sell it to Life Time Fitness, a national country club chain. Roope confirmed to KTVB that the $8 million sale is scheduled for November 1.

He added that neither he nor ETC would benefit from the sale. It is unclear why.

The club, which has more than 900 members, including some of the best high school tennis players in the state, sent an email to members on Oct. 12 letting them know the club would be closing permanently in two weeks.

“I was out with some friends, and my brother called me and he said, you gotta come home now,” Owen McPeak, a senior at Rocky Mountain High School and member at ETC, told KTVB.

Owen and his twin brother Eliott McPeak both qualified for the Ftwostate championship last season. They have been training at ETC for a number of years and call it their home track.

“We all come here, we play together, we practice, we all push each other to be better,” Eliott McPeak said of ETC's culture.

The McPeak brothers said the closure came as a surprise to many members and employees.

ETC owner Hoge denied an interview with KTVB, stating that she was advised not to talk. She didn't provide any context when asked why.

“The timing of it is what I'm struggling with,” Kevin Lampone said. He is an ETC member who plays in the adult league and has a 7-year-old son in the junior program. “No one told the people who played tennis here that this was going to happen until about two weeks before it closed.”

Sophia Jacobs, an Eagle High School student, also went to the state championship last year, losing to her teammate Tatyana Larsen.

Jacobs is also without a home due to the closure of ETC.

“This place means a lot to a lot of people,” Owen McPeak said. “Shane Garner won a state championship and applied to college up there, above the courts.”

Members must play outdoors in the winter or join the Boise Racquet and Swim Club.

“Obviously it's my senior year, so I'm hoping to do really well, maybe win a state championship for my school, win singles… So I was hoping to play here all winter,” Eliott McPeak said.

Kevin Conner, the tennis director at BRSC, said they have a waiting list for both adult and junior memberships. Lampone said he has been told that if people put their names on the waiting list now, there will be a one to two year wait.

Beck Roghaar, the director of tennis at Boise State University, said they are available at their adult and junior clinics. Interested parties can contact him via email at [email protected] for more information.

The McPeak brothers plan to play outside while they can before winter arrives. They said this isn't the ideal scenario for the offseason before trying to get a scholarship.

“Now is the time to improve,” Eliott McPeak said. “This is the time to come here, to play, to grind, to get better, and not having that opportunity to get better is tough.”

“There's rain and snow and ice and all that.” Owen McPeak said. “If a tennis court gets wet, you just have to wait, otherwise it's super slippery.”

Current ETC members are hoping that Life Time Fitness will consider rescheduling some of their plans so that indoor track space is not taken away during a crucial time of year for players.

“If Life Time would like to do that, make a peace offering to the community, change their plans a little bit so they don't close completely, leave that open for a few months so that the juniors do have a chance to keep playing. I think this would go a long way in building some trust with the community,” Lampone said.

Roope said it doesn't sound like Life Time Fitness wants to keep the lanes open.

Roope said the draft plans were approved by the Eagle City Council in May. He added that both he and Hoge were on a bit of a wait-and-see basis with Life Time Fitness as to whether the chain would move forward with the project.

“When you've been working on something for six years, you really don't know for sure… until you know for sure,” Roope said. He added that he and Hoge tried to hold the courts through the winter.

“We really tried our best to get more tennis courts open again, but we just weren't able to do that,” Roope said.

The finalizations and decisions on the project came a few weeks ago. Roope said ETC informed members of the closure shortly afterwards.

Roope said plans for such a facility have been in the works since 2018. When COVID-19 hit, those conversations stopped but were picked up again in 2022.

“Lifetime had great capabilities, experience and capital to grow the club into what we always hoped it would become,” Roope said of the change.

Once the planned sale goes through, Life Time Fitness plans to close the building for renovations, Dan DeBaun, public relations manager for Life Time Corporate, told KTVB via email.

ETC has twelve tennis courts in the building. Half of them will disappear.

“A key first priority will be renovating the indoor tennis and pickleball areas, including critical updates to the HVAC, lighting and sound systems, to ensure a vastly improved experience,” DeBaun said of what will be done first done. “Current plans call for six tennis and nine pickleball courts to be available by spring 2025, along with racquet sports programs, coaching and competitions.”

More facilities will be added in a later phase, including outdoor swimming pools, exercise rooms and a beach club.

DeBaun could not provide details about hiring ETC employees or whether they would consider keeping the court open during winter operations. He said once the sale goes through, they should be able to share more information.