Success is rarely immediate, even in the fast-growing world of pickleball. It usually takes a while for a pickleball club to take off. There are other cases, however, when a pickleball club catches on almost instantly. Performance Pickleball is a prime example. They opened their doors in January 2024 and have not looked back since.
In May of last year, the Performance Pickleball facility was nothing more than a hollowed-out Macy’s store that had been vacated seven years prior. Now, Performance Pickleball sports 12 spacious, state-of-the-art indoor courts, has 400 active members, and hosts a variety of leagues, tournaments, and events. Performance Pickleball did not have a membership base before breaking ground in May 2023, but now they are the largest indoor pickleball facility in Virginia. Besides being a prime pickleball destination, Performance Pickleball offers a fully functioning food and beverage operation with a mouth-watering menu of items like flatbread pizzas, wings, panini’s, and appetizers. They also have a fully-stocked bar offering alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Jon Laser, one of the founders and owners at Performance Pickleball, was willing to share some of his insights into what it takes to build and run a largely successful club in a relatively short time frame.
Every pickleball club has to begin with a vision, and knowing this, the owners at Performance Pickleball were both methodical and ambitious while forming their vision. Laser says, “Our first intention was to build an exceptional, top-of-the-line club that was still affordable to the everyday player.” The facility’s quality and future affordability for potential customers are worth considering when sketching out a club vision. When it comes to forming a vision, Laser offers a couple of pieces of advice. First, look at the potential club from the player’s perspective: “What would they want in terms of this being an enjoyable place to play?” Second, take things one step at a time and be ready to adapt the original plan.
Quality gameplay and player experience were also at the forefront of the vision for Performance Pickleball: “Our other general concept was to see what would happen if you would try to create a facility that is a preeminent competition facility.” The owners’ devotion to quality gameplay is evident in the very structure of the facility. There are 12 spacious courts available, along with a 13th warm-up court. Each court is surfaced with “top of the line” Laykold Master’s Gel. Laser says, “We didn’t want to cut corners anywhere in terms of the court surfacing, fencing, padding, and the myriad decisions that you make along the way.” Building a premier pickleball facility is no cheap enterprise, but Performance Pickleball proves that the reward can be worth the initial risk.
The folks at Performance Pickleball also had a broader goal of expanding their brand to multiple locations—what Laser calls a “regional play.” This goal is also becoming a reality as Performance Pickleball anticipates an expansion to Roanoke, VA in the near future.
On top of these goals, the people at Performance Pickleball desired to provide a profitable food and beverage operation. Their restaurant has also succeeded, and they call it the “Kitchen RVA.” Laser shared a sharp insight into the relationship between pickleball and the food industry; he says, “We had seen in the industry places were kind of slanted one way or the other—they were either ‘Eatertainment’ as we call it, or all pickleball and no food or beverage.” Performance Pickleball is an attempt to bridge that gap and combine top-notch gameplay with upscale food and drink options. Though time has yet to prove the concept, Performance Pickleball currently exists not only as a prime center for competition but also as an excellent location for enjoying food and drink.
Many aspiring club owners are likely wondering, “Is offering a fully-fledged food and drink service really worth it?” And the answer fully depends on the owner and their situation. In terms of resources, Laser remarks that food services require a larger number of additional employees and more overhead costs. Cutting corners in either of these areas could get a club into “a lot of trouble.” However, a quality food service can significantly increase a club’s success. Laser says, “If you are able to do it, it definitely boosts your revenue potential.”
One noticeable characteristic of the Performance Pickleball website and facility is that they do an excellent job of representing themselves through branding. Their facility, website, and social media pages have all kinds of colors, fonts, and graphics that consistently communicate what Performance Pickleball is all about. Jon Laser, the other owners, and a local branding company called Whalehook worked together to capture the essence of Performance Pickleball in various graphics and logos. Branding is another huge part of making a pickleball business, or any business for that matter, successful.
According to Laser, if a club owner wants their large-scale club to flourish, then they “got to perform in a variety of different avenues.” Those at Performance Pickleball are not the first to enjoy multifaceted success, and they won’t be the last. Countless individuals likely want to run an operation like Performance Pickleball but don’t know where to begin. Laser has some advice for these individuals, for those who might be lost in the sea of ideas and decisions to be sorted through:
- Focus on gameplay experience/playability: Laser assures owners that if they start with the playability of the facility, then other decisions about the aesthetics and functionality of the facility will “naturally follow.” Some aspects of court playability worth considering are the court sizes, lighting, and sound.
- Be flexible and ready to adapt to the club vision: Various factors like finances, construction setbacks, and outside feedback might change the initial vision, so it is best to be ready to go with the flow. Performance Pickleball had to undergo many adaptations before taking its current form: “Along the way, we changed courses on a couple of things, but the one thing that we never deviated from was our court layout and court playability.”
Performance Pickleball is proof that in the span of a year, a pickleball club can go from being non-existent to being a multifaceted enterprise thriving in the fields of food, drink, gameplay, and overall player experience.
