Paul Starita is one of the owners of The Flying Pickle in Meridian, ID, the first dedicated pickleball facility in the area. He shares some insights here about programming, growth, and guest players.
Pickleball Club Mag: How many members do you have at your club?
Paul Starita: We prefer to not share membership numbers, but we have had over 6000 unique visitors at our club since opening 2 months ago!
PCM: What specific ways do you organize pickleball play at your club? Is there any particular style of organizing play that has worked well?
PS: Programming has been very popular at our club, so we are constantly thinking of new fun ways to play. We do open play in 3 hour increments, by skill level, as often as we can. We only allow 6 people per court to minimize wait times. We also do round robin and king of the court formats. We also offer league play (currently we are doing individual ladder leagues and team style leagues.) We are starting to do moneyball tournaments with cash prizes. And lastly, we try to do fun seasonal events. Most of this is free for members and at a cost for guests.
PCM: Do you think that any one specific thing has helped your club grow?
PS: This biggest thing that has helped our club grow is trying to serve the pickleball community in every way we can. We have a tight knit pickleball community here in the Treasure Valley and we have worked tirelessly to try to deliver a facility, culture, and offerings that our community deserves.
PCM: How many coaches/ trainers do you have on staff?
PS: We currently have 7 instructors on staff, including APP gold medalist and MLP pro Susannah Barr. Our instructors do an amazing job! Not only do they offer lessons, but they also lead clinics, drill sessions, and help facilitate private group events.
PCM: How many guest players do you have on average per week or per month?
PS: We opened in November so take this with a grain of salt, but we had about 100 guests (non-members) play at our facility each day in December. We think the holidays helped with people coming in from out of town and most having work off. It has slowed down slightly so far in January, but not by much.
PCM: How do you make sure to have interesting youth offerings?
PS: We have had a few youth camps during the holiday breaks that were a great success. However, we are working to expand our youth offerings and should have more to offer starting next month.
PCM: Do you offer food or drinks at your club?
PS: Yes! We have a professional chef who runs our restaurant called The Kitchen. Chef Gabe Gagliardi has curated a cantina style menu with amazing tacos, burrito bowls, nachos, and wings while also offering breakfast foods, smoothies, and coffee. We also serve beer and wine at the club.
PCM: Do you have a pro shop? And if so, how do you decide what goes in there?
PS: We do, and it has been a pleasant surprise for us. We have a partnership with our fellow Idaho company Selkirk and keep many Selkirk. We have also worked with Braydon Unsicker, owner of Pickleball Effect (another Idaho company) as a consultant for our pro shop. We’ve had great success with paddles, balls, drinks, snacks, and other accessories.
PCM: What advice would you give to other clubs who want to be successful?
PS: The pickleball club space feels like a land grab right now. The key to our success so far has been getting really good at executing our plans. Everyone has similar ideas, but actually following through with them has set us apart.
