Just found out about this Pickleball app that's apparently starting to catch on in Europe: https://raqt.com/

It's primarily for tournaments, but it also has capabilities to "find and connect with your pickleball friends." The main app used in North America for tournaments -- PickleballTournaments.com (and now PickleballBrackets.com) -- is completely disconnected from the apps that are used for leagues, to set up casual games, find places to play, etc. ... so it's interesting to see an app that (at least attempting to) pull those disparate parts of pickleball together.

I have never played pickleball but I would love it because I love playing similar sports such as badminton and it is a community building game. In building a startup I could imagine the problems that you may encounter. I just read an article about the noise level that some people do not like because of pickleball. It was an interesting article and they also shared some solutions such as a noise reducing mechanism within the ball and playing games in old malls. While we are building that s startup, it would be wise to consider some of these threats and opportunities.

Article: https://www.mensjournal.com/news/pickleball-courts-disturbing-residents-noise

Hi all,

I’m a Gen-Z Co-Founder building a gamified marketplace for amateur sports - like pickleball, basketball, and soccer. We are focused on how we can connect these sport competition organizers to athletes with a universal rating system for skill.

Coming from the Gen-Z perspective, we are focused on making this rating feel like a video game, so that it can engage people in authentic real-world connection. Many of our peers are stuck in an unhealthy cycle of virtual work, social media, and online relationships. Our mission is to counteract that - thinking how we can build tech that is engaging/fun, but promotes healthy in-person relationships at the same time.

This thread has been super interesting to read for me. While we are a team that has the tech expertise and user empathy to build this product - we are trying to gain all the knowledge we can about how the pickleball industry operates. Our primary focus has been basketball and soccer to date - but pickleball’s accessibility makes it a compelling sport to focus on.

Jack and I have talked about the common tendency for pickleball events to revolve around a well-known “community leader” - but would be interested in hearing thoughts from Jeff, Greg, and Christine with your convos on coordination.

One interesting tradeoff I find with these convos is between authenticity and scale.

It’s impossible to establish deep relationships with many, many people due to our constraints as humans.

Yet, to discover a great community niche we may have to have access to a scalable tool that helps us narrow things down.

How might we develop scalable solutions to create these introductions through pickleball - yet still provide a pathway for authenticity and community growth? Greg made a great comparison that I liked with matchmaking and dating apps. Yet often, these dating apps prioritize this scalable, swipe-able volume of relationships (as it's best for their business) and don’t do enough to develop the authenticity. How can we do better through athletics?

Interested in hearing your thoughts!

Solution to needing more courts and makes something from these "nothing" malls scattered across the landscape of cities.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/picklemall-hopes-to-bring-pickleball-to-a-mall-near-you-203039745.html

i played pickleball for the first time this week. I see what all the hype is about now

While pickleball does have a low bar to entry -- certainly when it comes to cost and athletic ability -- what I think is the bigger problem (and opportunity) is the amount of work it takes to actually play with a group of people on a regular basis, or "break in" to a pre-existing group ... and how these challenges just reinforce the "cluster in small pickleball bubbles" reality.

One group I'm a part of uses GroupMe to organize Monday evening play at the same place every week. We use public courts, but it's a private GroupMe group, so you need to know someone on the list to get you on the list (and even then only the administrator can add you). Every Monday there's a flurry of messages with people saying that they can play or can't play that night, some asking what time people are getting there or how late they're staying, some asking whether we have courts reserved. Court reservation happens through a separate system run by the town -- and then we have a Google Spreadsheet to track who's reserved what courts on what days/times. Even if you follow the (many) messages, it's not obvious who'll be there any evening.

Another group I'm a part of uses text threads. Play is more ad-hoc, and rather than "we have a bunch of courts reserved so anyone can show up," the messages are usually organized around trying to get an "even" number (4, 8, etc.) to allow for continuous games without anyone sitting. And that group plays at different locations, so even if we can get 4 people together, then there's the challenge of agreeing on a place to play and making sure we can get reservations (or chance it by showing up and trying to walk on).

These are "you need to know someone" groups, so they reinforce the "we all tend to cluster in small pickleball bubbles" problem.

There are more "public" groups -- one set of people use PlayTime Scheduler, and they post to a local pickleball-focused Facebook group when they are organizing things. Another group I know uses Meetup. But even then, you're still dealing with multiple systems, you don't know the level of people playing, and even if you do go and meet some people you like to play with, you have to exchange numbers (and probably resort to text threads) to try to arrange future games.

And this problem is compounded when you're traveling -- yes, you can do it, but finding a game/group in a new city takes a lot of intentional effort: Where to play? (look on PicklePlay or Places 2 Play); When do people play? Can I join in? What level/type of play is it? (PlayTime Scheduler, or more likely posting in a Facebook group); Do I need to pay or sign up in advance? (yet another system). As pickleball is becoming more popular when on vacation or traveling for business (see https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/16/travel/pickleball-travel.html) this will only grow.

Pickleball is a great way to meet others, both in your town or as you travel, but there are a lot of hoops to go through to actually play, and certainly even more to break out of your normal bubble and meet new people.

excerpts:

• "The cities that have really good park systems tend to be the ones that have a lot of pickleball courts," says Will Klein, associate director of parks research at TPL.
• "Those are also the same cities that we found are the healthiest places to live," with the best measures of mental health and physical activity.

https://www.axios.com/2023/06/07/pickleball-courts-padel

I'm new to platform studio but I'm a community minded technologist/entrepreneur and avid pickleball player in the SF Bay Area.

In my mind, pickleball already exemplifies the type of civic engagement and community building that Robert Putnam highlights as the foundation of social capital in his book "Bowling Alone." Every day I go to the public courts I have meaningful interactions with folks outside of my normal spheres. All around I see social connections flourishing across age, race, social status, etc. Connections that, as Putnam documents, have become scarce in modern America. As a friend and long-time player shared with me in 2020 during the presidential election, the pickleball court was the one place you could go and not know (or care) whether the other folks on the court were voting red or blue.

For me, the key question has become how to build businesses that align with and strengthen these values? Are there business models which help drive civic engagement and grow social capital?

As pickleball grows and commercial enterprises rush into the space I worry that the predominant business models are crowding out those social values -- perhaps unintentionally so.

For example, most of our community pickleball courts were created through a kind of modern day barn-raising. Members of the community coming together to tape lines and set up temporary nets and/or spending countless hours working with local governments to eventually get permanent courts. Like barn raising, these efforts fostered a sense of community and reciprocity – and most importantly a space where everyone plays together.

Now private capital is rushing in to build private courts, most with monthly membership fees that price out large segments of the community. Members of those clubs may gain exclusive court time but they are likely to end up in the kinds of social bubbles identified in the statement of unmet needs above. Are those members losing opportunities to make social connections? Would they even know what they are missing? Are the folks excluded from membership losing out? Do these models represent a loss of social capital for our communities? Are there alternative models that grow social capital while creating profits for investors?

Similar questions arise when considering the business models that are emerging for Pickleball competitions (tournaments and associated software platforms), the pro leagues, court locators, and the many other related endeavors.

Personally, I believe the space is ripe for “pro-social” business models that reinforce pickleball’s culture of equality, engagement and social connectedness. (More on that in future posts, but this message is already too long for an introduction and I’m curious to hear the view of others.)

@Jack McMackin I’m building indoor Pickleball Ultratainment venues in WA and TX. Let me know how I can help you develop a new concept. How about a Pickkeball and Dog Park social concept?

https://vollientertainment.com/

Indoor courts in minutes:

https://pickleroll.com/

Court scheduling:

https://courtreserve.com/

Surely there is a way to utilize these malls who are bringing in pickleball and 'building a community'?

https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/retail/pickleball-malls-experiential-118954

https://www.pickleballgetaways.com/

I have joined various Facebook pickleball groups as I am traveling in my #vanlife. I love seeing the charity tournaments that are popping up, expecially in the Mississippi Gulf Coast area. Doing good while playing the game -- raising awareness of the game and funds for the underserved!! They are well-organized and working together to get new courts, upgrades to existing courts, mentoring players, teaching newbies, and have even brought a group of military vets in to learn how to play. Keesler AFB is putting in pickleball courts as recreation. Those folks are intentionally bringing folks from their communities into the pickleball fold rather than playing clique-leball. It can be done!

@Jack McMackin seems like accessibility is going to be key in democratizing the sport + onboarding as many people from as many places as possible. I'm thinking catchy/viral ad content --> free or low-cost tutorials --> platform to facilitate online-to-in-person networking. Excited to see what you come up with!

I'm working on building a private pickleball club business in Canada

Happy to connect

Jack, I think this is a fabulous idea! Here is an iinteresting infographic for those who aren't part of the pickleball craze ... yet. With this many participants across age and location demographics, community building is going on. Just need to harness the power and include those who truly need to belong to and benefit greatly from a group of people who believe 'community' is far-reaching and all-inclusive.

https://thepickleballplayer.com/pickleball-popularity-statistics-demographics-infographic/