A thriving pickleball club in Knoxville, TN has utilized unique tactics to transform curious strangers into loyal members. Established in 2020, the Pavilion of Pickleball has exploded in membership numbers and interest since its founding and now possesses over 1,000 active club members. Uniting the surrounding community and creating personal engagement in sports clubs are crucial steps to success, and are beneficial to the club and its members alike.
Lee Martin is the owner, player-manager, and a class instructor at the Pavilion of Pickleball. He boasts over 54 years of tennis experience, as well as a pickleball title from the 2019 East TN Senior Olympics. Martin planned to open a pickleball club as his retirement plan but never imagined that the venture would gain the amount of traction it has. In August of 2020, the business underwent a joint venture with a local tennis facility with the hope of converting tennis players into pickleballers in an aging community. The club shares a parking lot with that facility but is independently owned and operated. Currently, PoP owns 4 indoor courts, 7 outdoor courts, and a 2,000-square-foot common area.
The key to this club’s recruiting success spawns from a few established tactics. “One of the best strategies we used to gain members was personal training classes,” Martin claims. “We would serve 4-8 people with one teacher from how to hold the paddle, to dinking, serving, and doubles strategies. During the first year, we had about two-thirds of the people in our classes join the club as a member”. In addition to Lee Martin’s charisma and experience, the club maintains a plethora of professional players, coaches, and even a competitive marbles player who all teach these classes. Once Pavilion of Pickleball gathers potential members through their doors, personal training classes keep them coming back.
As for contacting the community, Lee explains that “there is a Facebook group that we use to buy a few ads and promote our products, but we also have a website with a calendar that includes the Court Reserve application and a window into events and availability.” The website is an efficient, extensive overview of the club, and appears to be updated frequently to remain aesthetically up to par. The most important facet of the website is also the strategy that has helped the business gain the most members. “In all honesty, Court Reserve has done a great job for me, the product runs my whole facility, from text messages reminding people when they have a game, to billing, to scheduling… they have been very helpful.” Court Reserve is a trusted event management application designed to help run pickleball and tennis clubs online. Global organizations like the USTA, PTR, and PPR utilize Court Reserve for scheduling and reservations alike.
For the Pavilion of Pickleball, the club keeps its members and increases word-of-mouth praise by going above and beyond with the little details about the facility. “We have cushioned floors, and believe it or not it makes a noticeable difference. The gameplay is exactly the same, but the difference comes an hour after you have played. My folks can tell the difference when they play in other places… it is a differentiator that creates loyalty,” Martin claims.
The energy and love of pickleball that come from Lee Martin and the rest of the staff play a huge role in capturing the Knoxville community. Consequently, word of mouth reigns supreme in the popularity of the club, and putting members first sets it apart from the competition.
