The Quick Points

👂 When Steve Kuhn talks, we listen. Steve can be described as the Willy Wonka of pickleball, always trying to experiment and create magic within the sport. He is the founder of DUPR, Dreamland, and Major League Pickleball. There are few people thinking + executing at the level Steve and team are when it comes to growing the sport in all future dimensions. He recently sat down with Zane and Thomas on the Dink Pod for an extended talk about his many projects. Few highlights from us of his thinking but you should queue this pod up.

• Actively starting lobbying in DC to find dollars and support to bring pickleball to more communities and schools across the country. Pickleball gets people (tens of millions 🚀) outside, moving, and building social connections at very low costs and friction…it should be seen as much by local reps.

• Consistent advocate of rally scoring. But as always, open to experimentation to ensure the pro and amateur games benefit most. See this in-depth comparison with side-out scoring.

• Some slick DUPR updates which include faster match entry updates, anti-sandbagging measures, and more clarity on what will happen given a win-loss scenario.

• Pickle Mall is partnered up with Simon Malls to turn vacant big-box leases into places to play for avid pickle fans. ‘Eatertainment’ venues like Chicken n Pickle serve as a top-of-the-funnel introduction to the sport and drive more serious players to indoor venues.

• Pickleball as an NCAA sport would be a great story and win for all. First co-ed sport, would kickstart the high school / youth <> coaching food-chain, bring in classic college rivalry tension + loyalties, etc.

• 🏸 Asia is generally a bit more primed for pickleball to take-off given its culture of racquet sports and the strikingly similar court dimensions with badminton. 20×44 but with a slightly narrower service-line/kitchen.

🎙️We’ll take it. All press is good press for pickleball right now as it continues to enter the country’s consciousness. We are adamant that normal everyday people are always just one game away from getting hooked. It may be you hit three great feeling shots, met a new friend, or just found a fun way to get a sweat on. The more people saying "what is this thing” —> “I’ve heard of it, I wanna try it” the better. Casual week for the sport when Elon, Andy Roddick, and the TNT crew during an NBA finals are chatting about it.

📝 Pro pickle perspective. The gents at NML have a new blog up talking about major themes for the first half the year. tl;dr Ben is elite, Anna Leigh is elite, Tyson is v good, can Tyra be v good?

🍿 Pickleball is the new office perk. Spotted in Utah + Oregon startup job postings.

🧠 No-brainer for engaging communities. In our first issue we discussed how effective pickleball events are for fundraising and engaging large groups of fans and supporters. 106.7 The Fan, a sports radio show in DC recently hosted their first pickleball challenge at a local high school. In their radio recap they shared “It was cool to interact with hundreds of our listeners. It was so much fun. I think this thing has legs to happen several times a year. My right groin is still bothering me.” 175 people showed up with a $75 registration fee ($13,000 in revenue + various sponsors) on a Saturday morning last week. Talk about fun financials.

What’s on our mind

🚴 Ride with us. “It’s just a bike indoors with a screen that doesn’t move. It’s just miniature tennis with a wiffleball”. If you are a classic cyclist with a slight hint of snobbery and cherishing of tradition, you certainly could find it easy to turn your nose up at indoor cycling (spin bikes like Peloton and classes like Soul Cycle). We feel that is one way to understand what country club or “grew up playing competitive” tennis players may feel about pickleball. And yes, we are completely open to the idea that elite tennis may outshine elite pickleball as a television event. Just as that would be the case with the scenery and history of the Tour de France and an intense endurance fitness competition. But that comparison is a particularly narrow one when you consider overall health factors and participation rates.

Indoor cycling and pickleball share quite a few elements:

• lower social anxiety for beginners, more serendipitous social energy

• generally a lower cost of entry to try or buy

• potential gateway to more advanced forms of movement

• very high frequency for those that get hooked

• convenient access when traveling

Pickleball has undoubtedly already turned millions of people into first-time court sport players that are now familiar with nets, volleys, paddles, angles, and lines. We would be stoked as cyclists and bike manufacturers if millions of people suddenly knew about zone 2, cleats, and cadence. Playing several times a week, week after week, may just be a bit more impactful than the gripping drama of a grand slam four times a year. 🌶️

⚡️ The spark of tourneys. In an interview with the PPA Tour President, Bryce Morgan, he made two interesting points of note.

1. The PPA has been in discussions with the recently opened facility, The Hub about bringing a major PPA tour event to the location. We noted in last Thursday’s newsletter that we expect a greater number of destination cities around the country to open larger facilities not only to attract the growing number of pickleball players, but also to capture the ancillary revenue and spotlight from hosting professional tournaments. It seems that Morgan and The Hub also recognize these benefits, as San Diego has yet to host a major PPA event, despite the growth in the sport in the area and general attractiveness to visitors.

2. Morgan also noted the benefits that the PPA Tour brings to the local economies of the cities in which events are held, commenting that the PPA events typically result in selling out hotels, and bringing greater foot traffic to restaurants and nightlife in the area. We also commented on these potential benefits to hotels and hospitality locations in our May issue, “Hotels Banking on Pickleball”, noting that those with the infrastructure in place to convert existing facilities, or capital to invest in new courts are able to become destination locations for larger tournaments and capture the ancillary revenue opportunities.

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.

The city of Burlington North Carolina is in the midst of a debate around the budget to renovate existing tennis and pickleball courts, and importantly to build a massive pickleball complex in the center of the city park’s land. The $5.3M pickleball complex was pitched by the city’s capital projects manager as an endeavor that would make Burlington a more attractive city and the “envy of other communities in North Carolina”.

The pickleball courts in Perrysburg are getting a facelift, as they’re being shut down alongside the tennis courts for renovations starting this week. They expect to be done within three days, which would be a very quick turnaround time and demonstrating the speed to market advantage for court transformations vs. new builds.

Piney Wood Park in Durham, NC is making plans to construct outdoor public pickleball courts as the East Campus courts at Duke are being converted to a private facility.

Aces Pickleball and Kitchen had their grand opening in Norwood, Ohio on Saturday. While it could arguably sit in the “entertainment” category of pickleball facilities (kitchen, bar, firepits, dog park), the company is definitely trying to capture the growing demand in Ohio (peep that spreadsheet for all the public/private courts going up). The facility boasts 11 total courts, both indoor and outdoor.

Dropshot Pickleball opened in Shakopee, MN with the design of a fitness facility, but with a little more casual atmosphere. This 28,000 sqft facility was a vacant grocery store and Jo-Ann Fabrics for the past 25-years, and was converted into 8 indoor courts and 1 instructor court, with plans to open outdoor courts adjacent to the facility and an outdoor court. Unlike some of the other facilities we’ve covered, Dropshot decided against the membership model, opting solely for pay-to-play court rentals, open play, and leagues.

1. Finding a way to get reps in New Orleans.

2. Under the bridge…in Milwaukee.

3. Indoors in Saskatchewan. Those court lines have us 🤢