At its core, the new Ballers opening this week in Fishtown is a gym and a restaurant — but more specifically, it’s a sprawling “social sports” club beneath 75-foot ceilings paired with a modern sports bar and restaurant, with a piano tucked in the corner.
“We’re trying not to be just a sports center,” said David Gutstadt, who developed the concept with his wife, Amanda Potter, and got investments from about 40 athletes and sports figures such as tennis’ Andre Agassi, soccer’s Maarten Paes, the Sixers’ Tyrese Maxey, and Sixers/New Jersey Devils partner David Blitzer.
“We’re about social sports. One way people come together around sport is actually watching sports, and another way is playing them. We wanted to create a place where you can do both — and eat well while you’re at it.”
Ballers is part of the Battery, the century-old former Delaware Generating Station, formerly the largest power plant in the PECO system and now a hotel and residential complex. This once-industrial, still-gritty swath of the Delaware Riverfront — off of Delaware Avenue, north of Penn’s Landing — is thrumming with new activity besides the 173 short- and long-term apartments and the 62-room Riversuites hotel. Switch House, a wedding venue from Cescaphe’s Joe Volpe, has events booked each weekend.
Gutstadt, who developed the private Fitler Club in Center City and is an alumnus of the luxury fitness company Equinox, first toured the building five years ago, shortly after developer Lubert-Adler Real Estate acquired it.
“There were pools of water, moss, and graffiti everywhere,” Gutstadt said. “It looked like a ruin. But we could see the potential.”
At a price tag estimated at $10 million, Gutstadt, Potter, and partners created Ballers’ bar and restaurant to overlook a 3,700-square-foot turf field on the first floor. The second floor houses six pickleball courts, two squash courts, three courts for the racquet game padel, four golf simulators, a golf practice area complete with sand bunkers, and a cafe. For members, there is also a full gym, a recovery suite with cold plunges, saunas, and massage chairs, and locker rooms.
Walk-ins are allowed. “The vibe we’re going for is inclusive, but with benefits,” Gutstadt said. Members receive priority bookings and better rates.
The bar is set up to screen football, baseball, basketball, and hockey, as well as international events and matches.
The bar-restaurant is a modern room, with subdued lighting beneath a brass overhang. Pianists come into perform on certain nights. The kitchen overseen by executive chef Ja’mir Wimberly-Cole (last at the Avery and Restaurant Aleksandar, after an early turn at Fitler Club) turns out tavern classics (a double smash burger; meatballs with garlic bread; calzone of the day) and substantive entrees (chicken paillard with a smoked balsamic marinade; steak frites with garlicky baby spinach; roasted salmon with quinoa pilaf, spice roasted cauliflower, sweet pea gremolata, and herb salad).
“You can come in for wings and a beer, or you can sit down to something a little more refined,” Gutstadt said. The bar is open from 5 to 10 p.m. daily, while the restaurant serves from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, with a break from 2 to 5 p.m. Sports are available from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays and from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekends. There’s a pay lot outside for nonmembers.
Chef Mitch Prensky (Supper, L’Ecole, Lutece) oversees the culinary program as Ballers grows. Next month, the second location is due to open in Boston, followed by Miami and Los Angeles in 2026. Gutstadt said more than 50 locations are in the pipeline for the next seven to 10 years in such markets as New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Connecticut, and Toronto.
Gutstadt sees events as the real driver of Ballers’ business, compared with à la carte dining. Golf and pickleball parties can be held, for example, while other patrons play squash or soccer.
“Fitler was where I learned how powerful the combination of hospitality and fitness could be,” Gutstadt said. During the pandemic, he said he became fascinated by pickleball and padel. “They’re incredibly social sports, but no one was marrying them with hospitality in a way that made sense,” he said. “That’s when the vision for Ballers really clicked.”
Gutstadt and Potter want Ballers to serve as a gathering space. “Every time you go out in the city on a nice night, you see people in their sports shirts at bars,” Gutstadt said. “They’ve just played soccer or pickleball, but then they have to leave the field to go somewhere else to hang out. We asked: How nice would it be if you could just stay in the same place — shower, grab a drink, watch a game, and keep the social energy going?”