Weekend Break: WickedBall Chicago in Lombard has something for everyone
LOMBARD, Ill. — It’s a playground for little kids. But also for those young at heart.
Brandon Vidmar opened WickedBall Chicago 10 years ago as a fully mobile business. He has since opened a brick-and-mortar store in Lombard, at 332 Yorktown Shopping Center, for an elevated experience.
And what, exactly, is WickedBall?
Well, it’s a place with all sorts of activities, specifically inflatable games that include quite a physical component. Among those are “bubble” soccer, dodge ball, archery tag, Nerf battles, laser tag and even a mechanical bull that can be set to different levels of difficulty.
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There’s also a 100-foot obstacle course, a foam pit, a foam machine and electric water guns.
And if jumping and falling aren’t quite your thing, WickedBall has you covered with plenty of arcade games set on “free play,” plus Xboxes and PlayStation 5s.
More than anything, Vidmar says, WickedBall is for all ages, as evidenced by the businesses’ most popular demographics.
The most popular is ages 8-13. The next? Ages 30-45.
“I’m a big kid myself,” Vidmar says. “I’m very impressionable. Everything here is something I like to do, but everybody likes doing this stuff.
“It’s physical fun. You have a good workout doing it.”
Vidmar says participants do have to sign a waiver to participate in the inflatable games, but the staff at WickedBall makes sure everything is running smoothly.
“Everything’s operated by employees here, making sure that they’re safe, they’re having fun,” Vidmar said.
WickedBall is open for walk-ins on weekends, from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, noon to 9 p.m. Saturday and noon to 8 p.m. Sunday. It’s open by reservation only on weekdays, and reservations can be made any day of the week.
“We have a six-person minimum for a reservation,” Vidmar said. “… It’s a really good value. You get to do everything that we offer, for as little as $30 a person.”
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Vidmar notes that WickedBall usually sells out two to three weeks in advance.
But if you can’t make it to the brick-and-mortar location for some reason, no problem.
WickedBall will bring the fun to you.
“We can go to somebody’s backyard, forest preserve, park district,” Vidmar said. “We do lots of different team functions for picnics and outings. You name it, we’ll go there.”
Vidmar hopes to have more WickedBall locations around Chicagoland in the future, and maybe even beyond.
“Hopefully within the next three to five years, we’ve got four, five more locations all over Chicago, and then kind of expanding nationwide from here,” he said.
There certainly won’t be any age requirements.
Young or old.
“There’s something here for everybody,” Vidmar says.
Visit wickedballchicago.com for more information, or follow the business on Instagram at @wickedball.
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