Barstool Sports Adding Another Leg with Pickleball

The Quick Points

3️⃣ Three for three for the APP. 1️⃣ First, the APP reached a new milestone with the upcoming Newport Beach Open. Registrations have now surpassed 1,400 amateur + pro players, making it the largest APP Tour event in the league’s history. The surge in popularity, particularly at the amateur level, is in-line with what we’ve been hearing anecdotally from amateur tournament players, who have the perception that the APP events are more ‘player-friendly’ and a little more organized. 2️⃣ Second, the APP announced a new partnership with Pickleball Sweden to host the 2023 GAMMA Sweden Open. As we covered in prior weeks with Australia and Uganda, it’s always exciting to see one of the major professional brands in the United States bring the sport internationally, particularly if they can implement best practices and a structure for future tournaments in the region. Not only does that benefit rec players, but starts building out the infrastructure for more serious competitors to play in tournaments and potentially enter the pro circuit. (For more int’l news see: Franklin becoming the official sponsor of Pickleball Canada). 3️⃣ Third, the APP and DripDrop Hydration have partnered as the official hydration mix of the Tour. DripDrop’s mission is to provide an oral rehydration solution (ORS) for everyday use, professional athletes, and humanitarian aid. By designing an ORS for situations when IV therapies are unavailable, DripDrop has made a serious effort to distribute their solution to disaster stricken areas globally. While not a pickleball-native brand (despite the 3rd shot drop play on words), amateur players are always looking for new ways to enhance their performance, often first looking to the brands used by the pros.

🏌️PCKL and the PGA. You can now find the fun and recreationally focused PCKL brand in PGA Superstores. It’s a nice win for the emerging brand as its paddles and balls now sit alongside the more established players in what seems to be a small but focused pickleball offering for the retailer.

💼 It pays to play. Financial advisors provide a service that many others can offer. So it was fun to see how many advisors at Edward Jones self-identified as “pickleball enthusiast” in their introductory bio. 49!

What’s on our mind

👀 Barstool looking for another leg with pickleball. One of the biggest sports media brands in the country is looking for a location to host their first tournament, the Barstool Pickleball Open. Many have a love/hate relationship with the brand and its litany of personalities, but they are often at the forefront of capturing the popular moment and putting a unique spin on otherwise straightforward events. And while there are numerous sports media companies with large followings and established brands, few drive discourse and action among their followers like Barstool. The company made a foray into running amateur golf tournaments in 2019, with the Barstool Classic, which now probably hosts about 200 players per tournament. Their massive reach to millions (e.g. their website has 66 million unique visitors a month) enables them to put pickleball on the radar of their fans, encourage new first-time players, and often influence the perception of their loyal base. Importantly to pickleball’s demographics trending younger, Barstool is one of the most dominant media platforms among younger audiences, with nearly 70% being <30 years old. As with any social media-centric brand, they attract a wide dispersion of opinions on almost any topic they’re in support of, or against. So it will be fun to watch the inevitable positive and negative publicity that will come of it - as we’ve said about other controversies like the Tennis Channel snubbing Tiafoe in favor of MLP, all press is good press for pickleball right now.

🎰 Making a bet on pro pickleball. While the Barstool Pickleball Open appears at first glance to be an entertaining amateur tournament, it’s important to remember that Barstool is a wholly owned subsidiary of Penn Entertainment after Penn purchased the remaining 64% of the company in February 2023 for $388M. So, Barstool and Penn are often looking at any new sporting property as a long-term opportunity to drive incremental traffic to their online and in-person sports books. Keep in mind, that the PPA has already been laying the groundwork for this as the sport matures and more money enters, with its 2021 partnership with sports data provider (the basic necessity for sports betting), Genius Sports. And most recently, the PPA’s Commissioner, Connor Pardoe, tweeted that betting could begin as soon as the Denver Open in mid-July. The good & the bad in our view…

The Good:

• Further professionalizes the sport and draws new money.

• Brings greater fan awareness, as it opens up the viewership to a new demographic of sports bettors who may otherwise have not followed pickleball.

• Greater viewership and engagement lead to higher rates of conversion to first-time players.

The Bad:

• We don’t think there’s sufficient on-court infrastructure at the moment to support sports betting. All paddle sports often require a more formal line calling system (e.g. tennis having multiple lines judges + a main chair umpire), as well as a sophisticated way to review calls (e.g. Hawk-Eye). No professional pickleball league has yet to implement a technology to review misjudged line calls, and most calls are already made by the players themselves.

• Unclear how it impacts the integrity of the sport if the winnings and salaries of professional players don’t keep up with the money to be made from throwing a game. For a sporting brand that brings so much joy to casual and serious players alike, it could be a pretty severe blot on the sport if the professional circuit gets caught up in scandals. As someone who doesn’t follow baseball, this piece provided an interesting historical look into the betting problems that America’s pastime faced in the 1900s that could have dealt a major blow to the sport after a World Series scandal in 1919.

💰 Funny Money. One late night on a side-court at MLP, Ryan watched an owner and a GM play for $1,000 (with 2-1 odds for the slightly lesser skilled owner) in a singles match. Sweat and smack talk made this a fun one to watch. It dawned on us though that there was more financial pressure on these two random 4.5 and 4.0 players than what a lot of pro PPA players have had riding on the line.

Breaking Ground

The Reset is beginning to track publicly available court construction data to keep track of locations, costs, and development projects across the nation. Our tracker can be found here.

Featured Developments:
In Mishawaka, Indiana, the CEO of Mishawaka Fieldhouse’s developer, Card & Associates, mentioned in an interview that they plan to construct a high-end pickleball facility with 12-14 courts, and the ability to host tournaments. This is part of an ongoing $38M project to build a regional sports facility that will also boast 10 indoor basketball courts and two football-size turf fields alongside the pickleball courts. The complex was designed in order to meet the underserved demand for sporting activities during the long winter months.

In Sonoma, CA, Cassidy Ranch Farm Club is taking a very unique approach to pickleball. Unlike the typical trendy indoor entertainment venues we’re seeing popping up around the country, this location is bringing family-focused pickleball to their farm where attendees can also pick vegetables, make flower bouquets, and take classes. Where many facilities economically need to maximize utilization and throughput, the massive space (5-acres) provides Cassidy Ranch a unique opportunity to give patrons a place to spend their entire day, benefiting all adjacent experiences they offer. It’s a small pickleball venue for now, but the availability of land leaves the door open to expand as the sport grows in the region. Definitely a spot we’ll be checking out.

Hornig Capital Partners acquired the Port Washington Tennis Academy in Long Island for $8.5M and plans to add a sizable pickleball presence to the legendary tennis academy where players such as John McEnroe learned to play. The facility will convert two tennis courts to four pickleball courts, as well as install another six new permanent courts. They plan to have the facility up and running by the fall.

Park City, Utah has a number of massive sports facilities projects under consideration. One of the latest is the construction of the Park City Sports Complex. This would be a massive project with 8 indoor courts, 16 outdoor courts, 100 parking stalls, a Nordic training area, and access to hiking trails. The project is estimated to cost $9M. It’s worth keeping on our radar given the scale for a public project, however, we’ll see if it gets final approval and where the funding is sourced (right now discussing a public bond alongside private funding).

Best of the Rest:

• Elk Grove Village in Illinois has given approval to a new development that will add a massive data center campus and six pickleball courts to a plot of land. The current facility owner, Nexstar Media Group, will lease a one-acre park to Elk Grove Park District, who will manage the pickleball courts. The city originally was planning to build a dog park, but the plans were later scrapped in favor of pickleball.

• Wheat Ridge, CO will become home to Colorado’s largest indoor pickleball complex, with 3rd Shot Pickleball taking over a vacant Lucky’s Market. This facility will offer 13 indoor courts, a bar, and kitchen, and will cost nearly $1M to construct. They’re planning on offering memberships, leagues, clinics, and open play.

• Checotah, OK opened a pickleball court in their local public library, which will host an exhibition match with city council members and then be open to the public. Maybe this will be a new local government playbook…convert unutilized space —> drive more foot traffic to the library —> build community.

• Monroe County, GA is seeing eight new pickleball courts opening up through a partnership between Forsyth Monroe County Rotary Club and Monroe County Schools. They are converting existing tennis courts into pickleball for ~$128k.

• Bullhead City, AZ opened four new pickleball courts in Rotary Park, bringing the total to 16 courts.

• Dartmouth, MA is constructing two new pickleball locations, with 6 courts total. The project is budgeted at $460k and will be finished in the fall.