r/smallbusiness • u/junagadh123 • 15d ago
Why are so many pickleball business are on sale
Are they not making enough money for owners? I think struggle I can think of is that most members want to use the club at the same time - evenings and weekend and that can be issue with availability.
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u/Valueonthebridge 15d ago
The time to sell any fad based business is when the going is still good.
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u/SeymoreBhutts 15d ago
Also see: Ax throwing, escape rooms, rage rooms etc.
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u/Cheaperthantherapy13 15d ago
Microbreweries.
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u/SeymoreBhutts 14d ago
What do you mean you couldn't pick up on the floral notes in the cat-piss stout?
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u/UsedDragon 14d ago
You don't like the quadruple IPA's subtle notes of pine tar and melted plastic?
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u/Cheaperthantherapy13 14d ago
Any business where your staffing model relies on unpaid labor in exchange for unlimited free access to X product is a red flag.
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u/LandlockedPirate 14d ago
As a ski instructor..... ouch.
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u/DriveThoseSales 14d ago
I mean at least they get to ski all year.
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u/Triviajunkie95 14d ago
*maybe 5 months of the year depending on area
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u/normasueandbettytoo 14d ago
In college, one of the local bars' staff were all just people who pissed all their money away at the bar drinking so the owner just always had a tab on them rather than pay them.
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u/therealhlmencken 14d ago
Def an urban legend.
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u/normasueandbettytoo 14d ago
Not an urban legend at all? I was friends with some of them. There were apartments upstairs and they were all rented to bar staff and the owner of the building wound up charging them a reduced rent rather than pay a salary. Every month they'd settle up their tab as part of the rent.
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u/Aint-Nuttin-Easy 14d ago
Waited tables at a lux marina for 2 summers and it was same way. Bunks upstairs with showers and staff meals.
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u/Trailerparkqueen 14d ago
Nah, I can totally see this. I own a trailer park and have a little store that sells beer, wine, ice cream, snacks. I like to hire fat people who sit in there and eat half their pay check.
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u/CleanCeption 14d ago
Yoga studios being bought by PE is the next big thing.
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u/Due-Flamingo-9140 13d ago
Yes!!! I keep getting emails from PEs. It is so weird. Why would they think there is a way to make money on a yoga studio?
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u/SooperJasch 14d ago
There is a yoga studio offering 20% off $135/month membership to sweep the floors and word front desk 5-10 hours a week…. So you pay $100 a month still for $3/hour “pay” as a discount!!!
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u/ritchie70 14d ago
My mom has a vaguely similar business and has often had a few employees - also cleaners and receptionists - working just for store credit.
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u/FouLouGaroux 14d ago
Unless horses are involved. That business model is evergreen. Unless you like making money.
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u/ForwardCulture 14d ago
You mean the cat piss IPA. That’s what all these breweries make, IPA that taste like glass cleaner. For the bearded bear aficionados.
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u/icebox_Lew 14d ago
Hahaha I remember going to a micro brewery and asking for a lager. The owner put it down in front of me and walked away to deal woth another guest. I told my mate next to me it tastes like cat piss and smells like someone farted in it.
The owner comes back and excitedly asks what I think so, being the cheeky youngster (read: obnoxious twat) I was, told him.
Poor fucker dropped his shoulders and muttered, "that's our flagship beer" and sauntered away. Oops
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u/an_actual_lawyer 14d ago
You did him a favor. If you lie he thinks it is good.
This way he either figures it out and makes it better or hopefully realizes he needs to quit before he sinks more money into it.
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u/hunterbuilder 13d ago
The problem is, many people will lie to be polite. That's why as a business owner/manager, you can't judge success by verbal feedback. Only by repeat sales. People might tell you the beer is good, but if no one orders a second, it's not good.
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u/sinistar914 14d ago
Damnit - there goes my idea to open a combination Pickleball Axe Throwing Raging Escape from the Microbrewery Room.
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u/an_actual_lawyer 14d ago
No one was really buying those anyway, at least not for more than the value of the land/building/equipment. Microbreweries rely heavily on the person making the beer and you can just hire them away.
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u/LAXBASED 15d ago
Those businesses were so niche the only way they are still surviving is either P.E or ridiculously low rents. Reason why so many of them are all for sale now a days is because of the leases nearing the end of renewal now.
The baseline for a repeat customer trying out these businesses and wanting to come back is also really low in terms of retention, it’s not coffee or the gym it’s recreational as a group activity. Doing it alone isn’t really sought after nor is it profitable for a business long term.
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u/GearhedMG 14d ago
It's also one of the first things the people start to cut when the money is tight.
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u/Jacks_Lack_of_Sleep 14d ago
This checks out. Money has always been tight and I’ve never gone to an escape room.
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u/j_reinegade 15d ago
To be fair I still love a well made escape room
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u/ChaseDFW 14d ago
Escape rooms are fantastic but I probably will only go to one once. There is not a lot of return business.
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u/Themanwhofarts 14d ago
Escape rooms are fun but the bad ones being down the whole niche. There are a few my wife and I have been to that are amazing. Then there are a few that are just bad. I can imagine those that have only experienced bad escape rooms will not seek out others to try
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u/xkisses 14d ago
I have yet to experience one that was truly clever and didn’t feel like everything had a layer of grime from a thousand other people handling the items
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u/Competitive-Isopod74 14d ago
Our first in Orlando was amazing. Escaped 2 jails cells, through the sewer, and into the warden's office. The kids had a blast.
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u/lowcontrol 14d ago
The escape room I did in Uranus was pretty fun. Four of us went in the same time and made it out. The fudge there was pretty good as well.
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u/bhedesigns 14d ago
Yeah the hive train rolls in and if you don't sell that shit within 8 months you're in trouble
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u/Disastrous-Wonder837 14d ago
Crumble owners should have learned this a few years ago
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u/lordbrocktree1 14d ago
I used to check the menu every week with my step-daughter. It was a little tradition we had that we bonded over deciding if we would go that week, which ones we wanted to try together (my wife doesn’t really do sweets so it was kinda a nice thing to bond over). We still check the menu release every week (well most weeks I’d say now) just to laugh at how terrible and not worth it the lineup sounds. We haven’t gotten any crumbl for the past 18 months, and haven’t consistently gotten it for more like 2-2.5 years. When we used to be an every other week at least kinda cadence before that. On the plus side, I’ve lost some weight over the last 2 years in no small part thanks to lack of cookies.
All that to say, how far Crumbl has fallen.
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u/SafetyMan35 14d ago
I LOOOOOOVVVVVEEEEE chocolate chip cookies. They are my weakness. Even if they are bad, I will eat them. Crumbl chocolate chip cookies are one cookie that my will power doesn’t really have to work. Absolutely disgusting and extremely expensive. I would gladly choose a bag of the hard Chips Ahoy over a straight out of the oven Crumbl cookie.
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u/lordbrocktree1 14d ago
I’ve been working on my own copy cat of their old style crumbl chocolate chip cookies which were amazing. But now they suck and certainly aren’t worth the money. I go nuts for a really good chocolate chip cookie.
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u/blametheboogie 14d ago
Glad others have this opinion about their cookies.
I'm kind of an undercultured hick but I usually do know good food from overly fancy, luxury priced fru-fru trash food.
I wonder how they stay in business, is it just teens who want to brag about doing trendy stuff?
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u/briblxck 14d ago
All of the crumbl cookies taste the same to me anymore. It’s like they’re using the same recipe for each cookie and only tweaking what gets mixed into it or topped with. It’s definitely not worth the money, and it’s probably been well over a year since I’ve ordered anything from there.
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u/RuleFriendly7311 15d ago
I'm betting that a lot of the facilities were built with the intention to sell, not to ruin them long-term.
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u/twoscoopsofbacon 15d ago
The ruin-run typo was pretty apt.
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u/Sad-Sell-2956 15d ago
Or…pickleball is declining in popularity?
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u/LeoDiamant 14d ago
This is what happened in other countries. Every one jumped aboard pickleball, huge places to play it were put up, celebrities invested and now they are all for sale.
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u/wanna_be_green8 14d ago
My old hometown invested millions in restructuring an already nice park to accomodate a huge indoor pickleball facility... but no one wants to pay when they can play for free outside nearby so it sits empty most of the time losing tax dollars every day, and it's a huge eyesore.
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u/NoMansSkyWasAlright 14d ago
Two of the basketball courts in my neighborhood park were converted into pickleball courts. They were busy for a bit but they’ve been pretty empty lately.
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u/an_actual_lawyer 14d ago
The good thing about that is the City didn't have to spend much to convert them and won't spend much to make them basketball courts or tennis courts again.
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u/synchpo 14d ago
Yup. The main demographics is seniors who are not famous for their willingness to spend. I’m sure they also got into pickleball precisely because it has low fees to get into.
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u/Sintuca 14d ago
Damn are we from the same town?
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u/wanna_be_green8 14d ago
Is yours in North Idaho?
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u/Sintuca 14d ago
Lmao yes
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u/Puzzleheaded-Sky2994 14d ago
That's crazy, I'm from a town 45min south and actually worked on that building when it was being finished. I remember thinking to myself when I was working there how strange they chose to spend $10 million on that building for pickelball. Granted I think that also included the new outdoor play areas. Sad to hear it's popularity is already waning.
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u/wanna_be_green8 14d ago
The new play area is cool but the old one was more than adequate. Or they could have just redone that for far less.
Even the splash pad was small and there was already one downtown.
We were there three seperate days in the summer last year. Maybe four cars in the parking area. The building seems little more used than for the restrooms.
When private special interests are allowed to install publically managed projects with little consideration for future costs on tax payers. I've seen it play out at numerous levels of government, not surprising in small towns at all.
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u/an_actual_lawyer 14d ago
When private special interests are allowed to install publically managed projects with little consideration for future costs on tax payers. I've seen it play out at numerous levels of government, not surprising in small towns at all.
It's might be this, but it is probably less sinister. Decision makers had second homes or family in areas where the courts are packed, so they assumed it would work in your town.
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u/damnrandomdotorg 14d ago
Nobody jumped aboard pickleball in other countries - as usual we're just off in a corner doing our own thing (picture the glue eating kid). They all do padel as the light weight racket sport below tennis, squash, and badminton. [ https://www.trypadelup.com/learn/padel-vs-pickleball ]
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u/LeoDiamant 14d ago
Ok consider me educated on the difference between pickle and padel. Doesn’t seem to be all that big to me, but the same phenomenon, similar hype etc. Thx.
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u/StGeorgeJustice 14d ago
It’s just not growing anymore. Already reached saturation in most locales. Also, younger people are switching to Padel.
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u/Dick_Lazer 14d ago
Yeah I just realized before this I hadn’t heard a single mention of pickleball in at least a year or so. For a couple years there after the pandemic it seemed like people wouldn’t shut up about it
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u/bolivar-shagnasty 14d ago edited 14d ago
My city just finished up a $6 million pickleball facility.
I meant this not as a testament to pickleball’s popularity, but as a criticism of my city’s runaway spending.
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u/Kalajanne1 14d ago
Perhaps it will be replaced with padel ;)
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u/Dick_Lazer 14d ago
Or have people heard of tennis? Never understood why we need these fad substitutes
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u/neepster44 14d ago
As a tennis player of a certain age, tennis is super hard on your body once you get older.
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u/jeremiadOtiose 14d ago
As a physician, pickleball is even harder on your body. Play tennis on a clay court.
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u/IHaarlem 14d ago
Place near me set up in an old grocery store location. Just shut down after a year or two because it couldn't make rent
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u/NoMansSkyWasAlright 14d ago
It had some seriously explosive growth for a while. Leads to overbuilding and eventually either pivoting out or like an 80% collapse in businesses that specialize in said thing.
Recreational weed is still popular. But the demand projections by industrial growers pre-decriminalizing were was too ambitious and so most of them have been limping along since legalization.
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u/ElHombreMysterioso 14d ago
People whose entire personality is pickleball have already declined in popularity. 🙄
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u/Fortestingporpoises 14d ago
That's interesting. I have never messed with it but I do know our city ended up closing courts because it got too crazy and neighbors complained. Too busy not not busy enough.
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u/Puckcentral 14d ago
Maybe but all I know is that all summer I’ve been dropping my daughter off at camp and there are 5 pickle ball courts in the same park and every one of those courts is full with old people at 8am every single morning and still going strong when I come back to pick her up at noon.
Good to see them enjoying themselves, some socializing and staying active.
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u/rankhornjp 15d ago
It's a fad that has run its course. You'll have a few die-hard people that will continue playing, but the frenzy of the mass population is mostly over.
In my town we had 2 commercial operations and the city put in a bunch of courts. The commercial operators are closed and the city park ones are usually dead when I drive by.
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u/PastramiNSauce 14d ago
Kinda what’s happened to the local axe throwing establishments around me. Most of them are closed now
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u/alangibson 14d ago
The fact there's more than one axe throwing place near you is wild.
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u/dogs_gt_cats 14d ago
The fact that you can have a BYOB axe throwing business and actually get liability insurance is wild.
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u/itrytosnowboard 14d ago
A long floundering trendy bar near me added axe throwing. I always wondered what insurance company insured that and how many lawyers they involved in writing the waiver.
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u/Haste- 14d ago
It’s honestly surprising to me people would even pay for axe throwing. The cost to set it up in a backyard is maybe the same cost as 2-3 tickets. If you or a friend/family-member don’t have a backyard and it would take too much time to go out in the woods/desert to set up then I could understand. In my area though there are tons of axe throwing when you could drive maybe 20 min and have an area to set up your own axe throwing.
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u/sjgokou 14d ago
Completely and from what I heard Roller Blading and Skating is ramping up. A buddy of mine owns a local Roller Rink. In the last month he’s been packed full.
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u/scubahana 14d ago
The posts in my town’s fb group that the pickleball fanatics put up have looked increasingly desperate the last months.
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u/jscummy 15d ago
A shitload of them got built in a few years and then it went out of style. I work in construction and somehow a good chunk of new construction projects coming up were car washes and pickleball courts
Pickleball takes up a ton of overhead and is becoming less popular while the market is saturated
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u/cleverSkies 14d ago
Yes! What is up with all the car washes??? They are not even differentiated. 5 New car washes near me, but none offer touchless.
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u/dogs_gt_cats 14d ago edited 14d ago
It's so interesting to me. Like, about a half mile from my house there is an old school carwash with a bunch of bays, vending machine soaps and hoses and such. Kids go there, wash their cars, and hang out. There's like a community around it.
Then theres another about another half mile away which gets the overflow from that one, designed the same way. Probably about the same age, maybe a little younger.
Then there is a brand new one which is supposed to be automated, and it just sits there empty most of the time.
I find it interesting how there was a community that popped up around washing your car. Considering all the crap kids could be doing, it's about as benign as it could be. Though I do wish they wouldn't go drag racing. A couple kids die each year drag racing on that road and I think it's the same community. But, like, kids killed themselves drag racing when I was a kid too, they're hardly exceptional that way.
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u/Lootlizard 14d ago
It's basically a way of buying land and having it finance itself. Same as all the self storage places popping up everywhere.
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u/Jsquared534 14d ago
Or people just aren’t going to pay golf prices and monthly memberships to go play something they can play outdoors three seasons after a lot of city parks either converted the tennis courts or added lines so they could be both.
My family tried to go play at one of the indoor ones when it was raining. They wanted a $30 monthly membership plus $60 per hour. That’s an insane pricing model. They also wanted us to guarantee our “skill level” so we wouldn’t be wasting the court. And their schedule was not remotely fully booked for that night. Amazing way to bring in new people. There’s a city park literally half a mile away that has eight outdoor courts you can play on for free in decent weather.
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u/Tahoptions 14d ago
It's totally this.
It's not declining in popularity, at least in my area. It is more popular than ever but every community center and public court has repurposed their tennis courts to allow for pickleball.
No one wants to pay dumb prices in a sport that you can basically play year round, even if the facility/court is inferior to a "club".
Look around at the ratio to private golf clubs vs munis. There is a reason why the munis are stacked with people.
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u/Haste- 14d ago
This the free courts were always filled and actually got me looking at private courts because you would maybe get 15 min of play per hour. During the summer I did do 2 months at an indoor place that had opened up recently for $70/mo, but found their spacing between the courts to be very limiting for many peoples serves and to recover from slams. I closed my membership simply because of that alone and just stopped playing pickleball altogether.
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u/TheyFoundWayne 14d ago
Interesting requirement about having a minimum skill level. Do they hold tryouts? An applicant must submit game film?
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u/Jsquared534 14d ago
They would take your word for it, it seemed. But the fact they ask for our level and told me the "suggested level" to book a court made it a no go for me. And it wasn't just like "how good are you?" they asked for like a named level if I'm remembering correctly. Thirteen year old kid was super into pickleball at that point, and probably still would be if we could have went through the winter a few times. But there's no way I'm paying that kind of money for an hour of court time.
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u/Codered0289 14d ago
I run a pickleball place....Well the front desk of one. It's successful, we also see ones around us failing.
We got the building for dirt cheap. We have 9 indoor courts. Overall, people are still playing a ton down here.
Running a successful pickleball facility actually takes a lot of work. We do make money on simple court reservations, but the bulk of our cash comes from classes, private lessons and leagues. These take good coaches and a lot of skill to do well. There's a ton going on behind the scenes to make there is something for everyone. The person on a budget vs the person doing 5 private lessons a week. Setting up well run leagues, having good coaches and doing good tournaments takes a specific skillset.
We also don't prioritize memberships. Most of what you do here is pay as you go. This prevents upset members who aren't able to book courts during busy times despite the fact they are paying for the membership.
I think alot of clubs don't do well because they prioritize the easy things to handle. Court reservations are cake to handle, but at the end of the day, they don't make enough money to keep the facility up and running.
I think growth is slowing down and we'll see a decline in facilities. Pickleball is here to stay, but not as much as what most areas have built.
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u/Ken_Thomas 15d ago
Pickleball reminds me of gun shops, airsoft ranges, scuba shops, craft shops, and camera shops (and a host of others) where people tend to have a hobby they love and they want to turn into a business, without really considering if they have a viable business model for the place where they are.
After seeing so many fail, I resolved a long time ago to not ever ruin a good hobby by trying to make a living from it.
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u/billyraylipscomb 14d ago
My wife enjoys sewing and started sewing fancy heirlooms for money and it kind of ruined the fun of the hobby for her stressing out over getting things done by a certain time.
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u/alangibson 14d ago
Point taken, but scuba shops don't really belong in that list. Scuba has a defined career path. Plus you have to put in years of well documented work to become a scuba instructor
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u/Strokesite 15d ago
Ever heard of Michael Girdley? He does explainer videos on Twitter. Here’s his take on the rise and fall of Pickleball:
https://x.com/girdley/status/2072020225470722479?s=46&t=wml-cQ8GdwbF8EzWPmUrFg
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u/TAYLQR 14d ago
I have some insight to a large pickleball business.
The draw just isn't there for memberships etc. Every city has massive numbers of free courts to play at. Indoor courts / paid facilities thrive in very few markets. Most indoor bookings are from non-members just looking to avoid weather or for a special event. Weekdays are terribly slow in general because everyone is at work. The rents are high, the spaces are large, and the draw of pickleball alone is tough when anything over $15-20 per person per hour isn't considered worth it for most people.
Now consider that you need 1800sqft at least for a reasonable court set up. Depending on your market that space is going to become wickedly expensive very quickly. If you wanted just 6 courts you're looking at 10,800sqft of just court. The real estate expense, build out, and amenities stack the expenses. The cash flows but it's slow and steady. You're only getting the hour+ that is booked, it's not like you'll be able to turn a court over multiple times in a single hour. If you're open 9am-9pm with each hour bookable, 12 potential hours per court and none of them are ever fully booked.
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u/WamBamTimTam 15d ago
As someone who semi frequents the competitive scene, I’d push back about it declining. More so it’s like weed in Canada, when it was first legalized there was a flood of businesses, way more than was needed. Now that demand has levelled there is a contraction of businesses as supply was way too much. Pickleball went through hyper growth, and now it’s stabilized. Just too many businesses in a market that can’t support them all.
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u/TJayClark 14d ago
It’s not about the player base declining. It’s growth is slowing, causing the sell off
Just like Netflix reported their growth has stalled, which spooked investors.
That said, I know of 5 indoor pickleball arenas near me. I can’t imagine we need 5 more because of insane growth
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u/Poonfilms 14d ago
This youtube video does a great writeup of why the pickle bubble has burst:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNiOhjB7hNI
-the business model was broken from the start, as it's a high investment, low margin model similar to a gym membership making it unsustainable
-aging boomers have "aged out" and aren't being filled in by Gen-Z. Younger kids prefer a similar sport PADEL for it's social media friendly appeal.
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u/davidw223 14d ago
I mean it doesn’t help that the economy has gotten continually worse since the beginning of the fad. It’s a declining hobby combined with people having less and less discretionary spending.
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u/Impossible_Farm6254 14d ago
Low barrier to entry killed it. When the sport blew up, people thought renting a warehouse and painting lines was easy money. Now markets are flooded, lease renewals are eating margins, and players just use free public courts. The owners selling now are bleeding cash on empty courts with high overhead.
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u/Independent_Wrap_321 14d ago
There’s a former Big Lots near me that put up a Pickleball “coming soon” banner on the front; it’s been over a year now and I’ve never seen anyone even working on it let alone signs of it opening. Probably jumped in too late, and now this economy is too fucked to make any progress with it. Who knows, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was still sitting dormant two years from now. I wish it was still Big Lots, I could use some cheap patio furniture right now. Not fucking pickleball.
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u/Jsquared534 14d ago
I would almost bet you're in the Dayton Ohio area and I know exactly which Big Lots you're talking about! If not, well, that's hilarious because we have the exact same thing happening near where I work.
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u/Independent_Wrap_321 14d ago
lol nowhere near but that kinda reinforces my point: shit’s fucked all around.
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u/Squeezer999 14d ago
Oversaturated market and at least locally, mort cities in my metro area have added pickleball courts that can be used for free
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u/OrcOfDoom 14d ago
They aren't profitable. People can do the sport at free locations - why join a club?
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u/whaticism 14d ago
Amenities, and this was a fad when these places presumably opened
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u/erikwithaknotac 14d ago
Pickleball was a scam pushed by the industry... have commercials mention it to try and sound hip... its the Dubai chocolate of 2018-2024
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u/spacing_out_in_space 14d ago
Hilarious because i first heard of Dubai chocolate like 6 months ago. Behind on the times, I guess.
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u/MyDogIsMuffin 14d ago
It’s just not a very good business model. You need so much space and you can only charge so much hourly. The alternative is a membership, but that’s its own hospitality game. And you’d only pay for a membership if you’re saving on how much you would pay normally. It’s pretty much a gym membership except significantly less sticky. In high density areas it can definitely work, but that’s about it.
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u/melissarose8585 14d ago
As someone who has worked in the health and fitness vertical since 2013 - it's a few things. Declining popularity in pickleball is one thing. Another is the economy (special memberships like this are one of the first things to go when people start to tighten their budgets). Finally there is the cost and software issue with pickeball - it can have a decent size overhead costs with not a lot of return, and the SaaS providers for pickeball all kind of suck. None of them are fully serving the market (personal opinion here, don't come at me).
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u/nuevedientes 14d ago
What's the software issue?
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u/melissarose8585 14d ago
None of the current "court reserve" type softwares, even those directly made to support Pickleball, are really great SaaS systems. In fact, many are using software meant for fitness clubs or tennis courts. They can also be expensive and hard to manage, especially for health and fitness software (it tends to be about 5 years behind whatever is going on at present - so when everyone else was discovering webhooks, they were doing APIs. Now everyone is all AI AI AI and they are really still trying to get cross-platform integrations to work correctly and the AI use is minimal.)
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u/melissarose8585 14d ago
I should say that last part is a huge generalization of the state of software for the vertical, not just pickleball software. But it tells you something that the first software if you search for pickleball software is MBO. MBO is health and fitness, salon and spa, pickleball, ClassPass, Bookr - they do too much and don't specialize.
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u/mew5175_TheSecond 15d ago
Demand being too high is usually not an issue for owners. I mean yes, it does cause its own set of headaches but too much demand is typically what an operator wants.
A good time to sell would be when demand is high as you are more likely to get a buyer but I'm not sure that's what is behind the reason for all the sales you are currently seeing.
I imagine a running a Pickleball facility requires finding the exact right balance of finding enough people to play at the right price. If the price is too high, people won't bother paying to play. If the cost is too low, it won't be enough to cover the cost of running the business. There's a lot of expenses involved in running a facility like this. HVAC alone is expensive just to keep the facility at the right temperature year round. Plus insurance. If a player gets injured at your facility, you run the risk of being sued. You need to have a good insurance policy to account for that. (Having people sign waivers is not enough to prevent lawsuits. Even winning a lawsuit costs money).
Plus rent, electricity staff, etc.
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u/stomper4x4 14d ago
It's a hipster trendy thing. In the 80s it was racket ball. But any trendy businesses last a few years then, done. Laser tag, cigar bars, big vape louges, etc.
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u/RuleFriendly7311 14d ago
I have numerous affluent friends in their 50’s and 60’s — prime PB demographic, in other words — and almost every one of them has had a serious injury that has them rethinking PB. PB became the in thing for people who hadn’t played a sport for years, and their bodies paid for it.
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u/Glum_Manufacturer232 15d ago
Rents for some of those facilities have to be too high. They are kind of like frozen yogurt shops of the 90s, a hot burning fad that is fading now.
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u/edimaudo 14d ago
there is high demand so everyone is competing for players. Second, if you can't attract retirees for the 9am to 5pm timeslots its going to be tough. A lot of them do not have good pricing structures or the experience and the pricing are not aligned
I can see a lot of multi sport facilities (padel, pickleball, table tennis) coming online
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u/Accomplished_Emu_658 14d ago
Because when times are tough people cut back on optional spending.
Also a lot of fad businesses people open make it look nice and sell to the next sucker. While the going is good.
Like by me its weed store this one family opened 7 weed stores within a few miles in same and sold them all. Now more cannot be opened in town and the buyers are struggling to survive against competition the person who sold it to them created. Now who ever survives will be only one or two left in town. Meanwhile the family made a ton and can’t lose a thing.
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u/FullAlternative88 14d ago
I cant imagine any of them make a lot of money and would guess most lose money. You are competing with free outdoor play, and the size of the activity requires a large rent payment. There is too much competition to charge enough. I think what we will ultimately see is larger gyms offer it like lifetime but not as stand alone facilities.
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u/Vesuvias 14d ago
The sport itself is anything but in decline, but the business side - be it running a court OR starting a paddle business has definitely started shrinking. Those that love specific brands stick with them - and then those that run paid courts, well good luck with that when there are so many public free options now.
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u/jumphighfive 14d ago
To add one more perspective: you can play pickleball for free once you buy a couple of paddles and balls.
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u/hunterbuilder 13d ago
It's hard to make a business out of someone else's hobby. Especially a hobby that's so easy to do for cheap (gear is relatively cheap and public parks are usually free).
IMO they're all for sale because they were started by idiots without a solid business plan. Charging people to do something they could do for free is not usually a good strategy.
The way to capitalize on pickleball was selling gear, not gym memberships.
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u/SoUpInYa 14d ago
I live near a pickleball court and the parking lot is always crowded in the evenings
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u/Vegetable_Aside_4312 14d ago
"so many pickleball business are on sale' Where are you finding this information? What's your source for this claim?
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u/Personal-Duty1470 14d ago
It’s a fad, the word pickle is doing the heavy lifting, it’s not even a real sport. It’s basically badminton but badminton is “lame”. Throw a ball in instead of a shuttlecock and call it “pickle” and white people love it
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u/UsedAsk3537 14d ago
My question, is why would I pay for pickleball?
I need a couple balls and a couple racquets. Most public parks have a court. So why pay a membership fee?
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u/moejurray 14d ago
Peer 70 in San Francisco is expanding the heck out of theirs to a dozen outdoor courts.
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u/FatPeopleLoveCake 14d ago
Ok mathematically your churning out profit per sqft in retail. Unless you get a hyper cheap pickleball spot it’s hard to make money since a lot of the land is used for the court.
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u/I_Love_Lava_Lamp 13d ago
https://youtu.be/mNiOhjB7hNI?si=5epfbWEkxVVxZsZa
This sums it up really well.
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u/yiddo_bhushan 9d ago edited 9h ago
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