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After a rough pandemic year in 2020, Quad Indoor Sports, the 65,000 square-foot facility at 2454 Oakton St., is back on track for further growth, said co-owner Bill Kindra.
The domed sports center opened in January 2016 and has been ramping up with an extensive menu of sports for adults and kids, including soccer, flag football, basketball, lacrosse, dodgeball, kickball, disk golf, track and field, floor hockey, baseball and even pickleball and cricket. Soccer, basketball and softball tournaments are scheduled for December, January and February.
The facility is also available for team building and corporate events as well as bridal showers, bachelor parties, birthday parties, bar mitzvahs and weddings. There are adult soccer and basketball leagues. Even Hollywood has gotten in on the act: A Chicago-based TV series recently filmed a scene on site.
Kindra said the pandemic threw a wrench into Quad’s year-over-year growth. Pre-COVID the facility was hosting 5,000 to 10,000 people a week, but last year’s pandemic restrictions limited participation. “We’re back on track now,” he added.
General manager Tony DiJohn, who has been running sports centers for 20 years, said the facility is busiest after school and especially on weekends when leagues are active. “I love working with kids and have done lots of coaching. We want kids to be active and love sports,” he said.
The “Quad Tykes” early childhood sports classes take boys and girls as young as three. The “Quad Kidz” program, for youngsters 6 to 13, is “…created to provide a fun and positive environment in which kids can grow in their confidence and love for the game,” according to the Quad brochure.
The Quad Skills Academy is targeted at kids 8 to 14 for “advanced youth sports classes.”
Winter Break Camps are scheduled from Dec. 27 to Dec. 30 and Spring Break Camps from March 21 to March 25 and April 11 to April 15. Registration for Summer Camp 2022 will open in mid-December.
Kindra said he got into the business “chasing around all over Chicago” from one indoor facility to another with his three kids. “This is a great location, in Evanston and close to the northern part of Chicago as well as the North Shore.”
As for bouncing back from COVID restrictions, he said Quad has “already seen a pretty big snap-back since the first of the year. There’s a lot of pent-up demand for sports activities.”
The dome is kept inflated by constant air pressure powered by a 59 horse power electric motor that drives a fan to generate up to 44,500 cubic feet a minute. “It’s quite an animal,” he said.
Kinda grew up in Traverse City, Mich., and spent 30 years at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. When he stopped trading, he decided running a sports facility would be a lot of fun.
“And it has been,” he said.
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