Club In A Box with The Pickleball Club

The Quick Points

🎬 The show goes on. MLP starts on Thursday (Challenger) and Premier kicks off on Friday. It feels like it will be a full house, but there could be a few key names missing. There is definitely some odd energy in the air but hopefully, that gets resolved by having owners and players focus on the most important thing…trying to win this weekend as a team. Control what you control on the court, and the sport/tour/league will be better off.

🆕 Get in with a new exhibition. PBX is interesting to us and we have written about them before. As a quick refresher, they sign and work with former professional athletes (NHL, MLB, NBA, etc.) to play pickleball where they compete against each other across many events. They’ll also introduce golf-like pro ams where the athletes play with you. It’s a compelling combination of intimate star power with the game so many people love. We believe an older crowd with money to spend will find this very compelling and could also be an exciting way to bring a younger demographic into the fold who have existing fandom towards these non-pickleball athletes.

What’s particularly interesting about PBX, in addition to the large roster of signed athletes, is that the parent company is quite familiar with facilities, sporting events, and in-person experiences. In fact, the company behind it is called The Sports Facilities Company. They advise, build, and manage prominent sports facilities around the country. Think mega complexes where youth and recruiting sporting events converge on 10 soccer fields, 6 baseball diamonds, etc. This large footprint is, to us, an immediate advantage to bringing these professional athlete exhibitions to life. Consistent and cheaper access to quality courts is a great starting condition to kickstarting this new format.

They’re hiring for quite a few roles including a marketing director and event manager.

What’s on our mind

⏹️ A court isn’t a court. Cities are rapidly starting to have a variety of private court offerings for players. In addition to your public courts, you may now have an independent mom-and-pop club. You certainly have a franchisee group of ACE or The Picklr making rumblings. Maybe you have a Life Time converting its basketball courts. This is all becoming fun and confusing for a lot of people as pickle moves away from paddle racks at your packed public facility. Some people scoff at the idea of a $40-50 per hour court rental. Others love a managed open play for $12 and think it’s a beautiful offering that values their time. Jaws drop with private indoor clubs with $299 / mo memberships. All in all, a court is just a format for people to have fun and interact so it’s important to remember there will be almost an infinite number of ways to package up a playing experience.

• Some courts are going help you become part of a social scene (Rally)

• Other courts will help you get into pickleball and get your first DUPR (Life Time)

• Sweat and compete with the best of the best in your area (Picklr)

• Drink some beers and have fried food with your work friends (Chicken N Pickle)

It goes on and on. It’s up to the operators to know what they’re particularly good at, what their market can support (Boston’s PKL charges $150 per hour in the winter…), and that you can’t be everything to everyone. Entrepreneurs are in for a world of hurt if they think can provide a social club, pickleball-focused facility, co-working space, tournament host, and corporate event center.

📦 Club in a box. The Pickleball Club in Southwest Florida (first location in Lakewood Ranch), donated 47 Club-N-Boxes through their organization, Play For Life. The org donated these boxes across Sarasota and Manatee counties to the local Bradenton police department, various firehouses throughout both counties, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Sarasota & Manatee County, and multiple schools throughout the area. We love this idea for many reasons. First and foremost, it’s a great way for facilities to give back in a way that’s authentic to who they are. Second, it’s a great way to grow the game locally. You’re providing that first jolt to get people hooked by giving them the right equipment to have a great first experience. Third, and important to us when assessing the business side of these ventures, you’re creating a pipeline of future customers to convert to paying members for relatively low customer acquisition costs. This is creating opportunities for students and adults alike to fall in love with the game and seek out lessons to improve, more competition, and structured play for repeat serendipitous experiences. And if you were the facility that put this box together for them, then you’re likely first in line to capture their attention when they come looking for a facility to join. We had a chance to speak with their team recently, so stay on the lookout for more to come from us, and if you’re in Lakewood Ranch, go give their facility a try.

🎤Another pitch for Minor League. Ryan and Braxton played in a tournament this weekend and were lucky enough to get through their brackets (and medal in their respective divisions) despite a 3-hour rain delay. Some of the other divisions weren’t so lucky, as they were canceled entirely. This meant that nearly 100+ people drove 1hr+ to a tournament, waited to see if the rain cleared, just to be sent home. Another subset drove out, played 1 game, lost, waited 3hrs, played their backdraw game, and were sent home. It once again highlighted another unique opportunity for the minor league pickleball amateur tournament format. Yes, minor league isn’t immune to rain delays (or even potential weather cancellations), but the player experience of having a guaranteed set of games within your group feels like such an untapped opportunity when the alternative formats offer some players 30 minutes of total playing for $100+ and hours in commute + wait time. We’ve noted in recent pieces the lackluster brand awareness and player conversion of MnLP to date, but we’re still optimistic that the right team can focus and build it to be the premier amateur format.

🍻 Pour one out for Nicholas.

Breaking Ground

The Reset tracks publicly available court construction data to better understand the locations, costs, and development priorities going into projects across the nation. Our tracker can be found here.

Featured Developments:
Middletown, CT is getting a new 60k sqft indoor pickleball facility. The location, Pickleball Park is going to host 20 indoor courts, a clubhouse, a daycare, an event space, and locker rooms. They’re also constructing 8 outdoor courts, which will be covered by a translucent fabric to enable year-round outdoor play (though might get a little cold in the winter). They’ll offer your normal programming of leagues, clinics, and lessons. Tbd on pricing and renderings of the design.

Naperville, IL is seeing Sure Shot Pickleball come to town. The facility will offer 11 indoor courts, alongside locker rooms, seating areas, and a pro shop.

The DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Sonoma unveiled new pickleball courts earlier this month. You can read the synopsis here, but it effectively touches on the points we made in greater detail in The Reset’s first publication back in May. Interesting to see it come full circle again.

The city of Greenwood, IN is constructing a 16-court pickleball complex at Freedom Park for $1.3M. The city believes that with 16 courts, they’ll be able to host tournaments which they see as a revenue driver for local businesses.

Best of the Rest:

• Pocatello, ID (where?) began construction on 7 new courts at Lower Ross Park. The project is expected to cost $500k.

• Metairie, LA is installing 9 new and 4 refurbished courts at Mike Miley Playground for $938k.

• Chicago, IL is converting three existing tennis courts to 10 pickleball courts in McKinley Park.

• Henderson County, SC received a $70k donation to construct 3 new pickleball courts.