When making the actual club, you have 4 important components to keep in mind:

1. Floor

2. Colors

3. Lighting & Glare

4. Ceiling Height

Floor

Some clubs use cushion courts.

A cushion court is made from a concrete base with a layer of recycled tire bits on top, followed by a layer of white cord binder. Let it sit 36 hours. Repeat the process 6 times.

NOTE: All of the standard pickleball balls still play true even on a cushion court.

Colors

A neon ball or a yellow ball come back much better than an orange or a white ball.

A good thing to remember is what items you would like to sell at your Pickleball Club.

A list of common items are:

Some clubs have a 'Pro Shop' you can visit, and others have sections set up as a 'lounge' area for players. It's always great to have an area to rest and connect with others and if you have things for purchase this could help drive additional revenue.

Membership Types

Some clubs strongly recommend using annual memberships.

A good example is if you are in an area where it's beautiful during the summer, members will only play during the summer, and they won't go indoors for the other months. Therefore, a large percentage of members are only paying for a few months out of the year.

By doing annual memberships

One of our clubs has its memberships/members as a hybrid of 'Members' and 'Public.'

At this club:

- 5 out of the 8 courts are reserved for Member Play.

- If these courts are not booked 24 hours prior, they are now available for Public Play.

Some Pickleball clubs like to dedicate at least 1 to 2 courts for lessons and/or clinics.

Lessons and Clinics can be huge for clubs - they're great for the players and can generate a lot of income for the clubs.

Some common clinics are:

***Make sure that your clinics are based on ratings and are part of a progression. After they progress through the beginner classes then make sure and have next-level classes available. This helps the player continue to refine their skills and allows your instructors to drive revenue for classes and lessons.

***Make sure that your members / public players are all rated! This will help the clinics be more productive.

Round Robins & Open Play

Some clubs like to have their Round Robin and Open Play set up in sections of '2 ratings' (3.0 - 3.5), (4.0 - 4.5).

One club has its court fees set up as such:

Public players can rent a count at $30/hour. They can bring up to 5-6 people. This way to rent a court for 2 hours would be 60 dollars, $10-12/person depending on the group size.

Members, however, get to rent their courts for a reduced rate or at no charge during nonprime time hours. This is an excellent incentive for public players to switch to a paid membership. They can rent a court up to 2 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Booking Rules

The public players can book a court up to 5 days in advance, while the members get to book up to 6 days in advance. Again, it's a great incentive for public players to purchase a membership to get the priority of the members when booking courts.

< ENTER DIFFERENT RATING SCALES TO USE HERE >

Some clubs have a Pro who can certify teachers

Note: Some clubs offer 'prep' classes for players to know what they need to work on for their rating test. They are very helpful clinics for players and are another great business opportunity!

We've talked to some of our clubs and they don't recommend playing pickleball on clay courts, as it's not likely that the ball will bounce the way it's supposed to. However, if you were to do so, you would need a very hard ball, not a soft indoor ball.

The introductory classes are the most popular:

The USAPA (USA Pickleball) often have grants.

Look into the local community, ask around at the Park & Rec programs - they sometimes have grants, or they may help you financially.

One example is the company Tennis Cushion Courts. They have done the courts for one of our clubs, The Pickleball Zone. They have also done courts for athletes like Serena Williams & Lebron James.

Getting cushion courts is more expensive, however players love the difference they make!

A beer & wine license is quite easy to obtain. You can do so online and it's a much easier process since it's a 'soft license' not the 'hard liquor license.'

That depends on a lot.

If yes to these, then it might be better to put them on an hourly rate rather than splitting rates with them.

One of our clubs breaks their classes down this way:

1 Lesson = $60

If it's 4 people, that means it's $15.

If it's 1 person = $60.

They all sign up on CourtReserve.

They all pre-pay.

There's a 24-hour cancellation fee.

Clinics are about $18/hour per person and they like to limit it to 5 people per court.

**If they have less than 3 people they cancel the clinic because then they have just 1-2 people taking up a court and a Pro.

Round Robins

Round Robins are the perfect thing to let players get to meet one another.

We usually have 3 courts for a 12-player Round Robin. Matches are timed at 14-minutes a match - this way players don't have to sit out too long.

Challenge Core Play

This is an event that occurs in the evening. Different courts are set aside for different skill levels.

'Play with the Staff'

We have found that players love to get to play with the staff, so we created a 'Play with the Staff' night where it's a mix of the Pros and the staff playing with the members.

You will need some kind of liability insurance.

We recommend going to an insurance broker and getting a few quotes.

Some of our clubs allow sponsorships inside of the club because it is a great source of revenue!

Some of our clubs use banners to cover their windows to block the glare of the courts, while also having their sponsors' banners up.

Lighting, visibility, and managing glare, are all very important.

Some of our clubs have had lighting companies evaluate their facilities to see what fixtures they would need.

The advice we get from clubs is that you definitely don't want to be cheap on the lighting. It makes a difference!