Dinkers Pickleball Club sprouted up in Denton, Texas less than two months ago, but they’re already doing many things right. Dinkers’ mission is to “create a community around pickleball.” The folks at Dinkers are building new relationships and drawing new members to their state-of-the-art facility, by reaching out to other local businesses.
In August of 2023, current club owners Doug Rogers and Blake Bearden came up with the idea behind Dinkers. They saw that pickleball was exploding and that now was the time to join the pickleball boom. They also noticed that Denton, just north of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, was a perfect place to start a club because of the absence of established competitors. Doug says, “There were no clubs around here.”
What was once an idea is now a vibrant reality. Dinkers Pickleball is an impressive facility spanning 45,000 square feet with 17 pickleball courts, 15 of which are regular courts while the other 2 are skinny courts for single’s play. Doug remarks, “The facility itself is top-notch, and the courts are unbelievable.” The courts are surfaced with hard, outdoor material, and beside the courts are plenty of open spaces for watching matches and enjoying the facility. Customers also enjoy free Wifi along with men’s and women’s locker rooms.
The Dinkers facility is as pleasing to view as it is fun to play in. The staff prides themselves in the “look of the facility.” Colors abound at this new Texas club; all different shades of blue and green cover the interior: “We have a dark blue, lime green scheme as well as bright white lines.”
Membership is foundational for Dinkers Pickleball Club: “We are membership-based.” A couple hundred members already call Dinkers their home, and many more are on the way. The current member-to-non-member player ratio is around 1 to 3, but this is no surprise since Dinkers is a new club.
The owners at Dinkers attract new members by offering a wide range of amenities and free-play options, but they also attract new members by building relationships with other local businesses. By Texas standards, Denton is a small town with a population of about 150,000 (2022). The local businesses in Denton have been friendly and open to spreading the word about Dinkers pickleball. Rogers says, “Business-to-business communication and outreach is where we’re drawing from, retirement communities, schools, and children’s activities.” Pickleball’s appeal to all different ages and demographics has encouraged the owners to go out on a limb and reach out for help from local businesses: “Word of mouth is unbelievable. So is free advertising.”
When asked if other pickleball clubs should start reaching out to local businesses, Rogers replied, “Absolutely. Reaching out, business to business, is a huge draw for everybody.”
Attracting members is one of the many challenges of running a successful membership program. Another hurdle is deciding what to charge people for memberships. The owners at Dinkers Pickleball employed two strategies for calculating their membership fees. First, they researched other clubs from around the country and found out what they were charging. Second, they gathered feedback from the local pickleball community: “We had roundtable meetings as we were preparing to open. Many of these people weighed into our membership fee decisions.”
Rogers left with a couple of pieces of advice for new pickleball clubs. First, he said, “Get your name out there.” Marketing is becoming increasingly important as the pickleball world grows and evolves into a “cutthroat business.” Second, focus on branding. Branding is communicating the identity of a business in everything that it does: logos, colors, websites, and special events. Lastly, Rogers encourages clubs to partake in community outreach. Pickleball is social, and pickleball business can be too.
