Perhaps one of the most underutilized and high potential means to increase a pickleball club’s revenue is their pro shop. A pro shop offers clubs an excellent avenue to attract new customers, retain current members, and communicate the club’s individual brand and identity. In this article, we get to hear from three particular clubs on how they maximize their pro shop’s opportunity for sales through strategic measures such as product placement and merchandising choices.
When a pickleball Grand Opening event requests no street shoes, you know they mean business! Such was the invite from Pickledilly Skokie in Illinois for their Grand Opening and ribbon cutting ceremony on February 20. With an Emmy Award-winning sportscaster, Peggy Kusinski, as the emcee, the mayor and Skokie Chamber of Commerce President in attendance amongst other guests the event was a great way to introduce the new facility to the community.
The people at Southcoast pickleball are all about community. Co-owner Adam Rogers calls the Southcoast a “community-centric” club. Everything that the club does centers around forming and growing a vibrant sense of community. Southcoast has a large number of regulars, but it does not offer traditional memberships. Rogers remarks, “We are not a membership-based club.” Instead, the folks at Southcoast rely on strong programming and hospitality to bring in regular attendees. For Southcoast, hospitality and community bring people back to the facility, not necessarily memberships.
Solitaire, skiing, knitting – some things are just fine to do as a single pringle. Others, like pickleball, are reliant on another person. But what does a single player do with a paddle but no partner? Pickleballerz in Chantilly, Virginia wondered the same thing. And in the spirit of adaptation and innovation, they came up with a solution.
Pickleballerz was the first indoor facility in Virginia and essentially the entire East Coast when it opened in 2019. It is now home to nearly 600 members who enjoy a pro shop, a fully stocked bar area and most importantly its six fully dedicated pickleball courts with hard surfaces and permanent nets.
Since its inception, SPF Chicago has been devoted to forming quality relationships on and off the court. The folks at SPF are all about being social, playing pickleball, and having fun, hence the name. All their activities are centered around community—the yard games, the dining and drinking options, and of course, the pickleball. Now, SPF is taking their communal dedication to the next level by participating in the CIPL (Chicagoland Indoor Pickleball League), a massive inter-club pickleball league in the Chicago area.
With an eye on the future of pickleball, Pickleball Lincoln in Lincoln, Nebraska is actively working to attract and engage younger players to the sport with great results.
Formed in 2017 with six dedicated outdoor courts, the club has grown to 40 outdoor dedicated pickleball courts around Lincoln with over 1,500 members and 3,000 website members and 18 indoor courts. Lincoln Nebraska has been recognized as a top pickleball hot spot one of the biggest pickleball clubs in the state.
