Invited Clubs Is Embarking On A Nationwide Pickleball Strategy And Is All-In On The Sport

As pickleball continues its explosive growth, one of the only things that can really hold it back is court access. Organizations operating in industries that service those seeking to play the sport are starting to hear the demand from their constituents regarding court availability all around the country. The principles are as simple as Economics 101: “Demand drives Supply,” and as the demand for pickleball facilities rises, the supply inevitably must follow. As a result, we’re starting to see significant strategic movement by entities operating at all levels of sports club court access begin to move on pickleball.

I will be reporting at different economic levels of pickleball access over the coming months, discussing the various strategies organizations are pursuing to meet the growing demand. From private clubs to health club chains, to schools and universities, and down to parks & recreation departments building public facilities, every entry point has a strategy for best servicing its members or constituents.

At the high end of the consumer pecking order is the country club/private club space, where members pay thousands to join and thousands more per year in fees, and are flocking to pickleball. Not all country clubs are created equal of course, but generally speaking these are initiation-fee driven clubs with natural barriers to entry that thus cater to a higher income patron. These discerning players demand more than just painted lines on an old tennis court, but the creation of permanent, dedicated pickleball courts to service the growing trend. Country clubs have long been a driver of the tennis industry in this country, and it only makes sense now that they pivot to be inclusive if pickleball as well. These clubs have the resources to build facilities to support their members, but these courts also run the risk of becoming afterthoughts if they’re not properly curated at the individual club level.

Earlier this month, I sat down with David Pillsbury, CEO, and Jonathan Fralick, VP of Racquet Sports at Invited (formerly ClubCorp) to discuss their corporate strategy to tackle the growing trend of pickleball. Invited is an excellent company to discuss strategy with; they are largest private city/golf club operator in the country today, with more than 200 properties and 430,000 members. Their racquet sports portfolio is the largest in the world and boasts 800 tennis courts and 400 pickleball courts (according to internal company records), and it stands to grow significantly in the coming years.

Invited made a major splash into the pickleball community awareness earlier this year, when in early March they joined forces with the PPA tour and USA Pickleball to announce that the 2023 USA Pickleball Nationals was moving out of Indian Wells and would be held at Invited’s Brookhaven Country Club in the northern suburbs of the Dallas metroplex. This was not Invited’s first deal with the PPA; they first signed on as partners in 2021 and Invited clubs hosted four PPA tournaments in 2022. However, signing a deal to host one of the most significant events on the pickleball calendar was ground breaking.

Brookhaven as a host made sense for Invited, because Brookhaven is the club where the company started. Noted Pillsbury, “This is a very special place to us. This is the first club at ClubCorp (now Invited), established in 1957 by our founder Bob Dedman with a big, big vision. We started with this foundation of inclusion, and over the last 67 years, Brookhaven has grown into this incredibly inclusive club that is this big platform for wellness, racquet, sports, golf, food and beverage, aquatics. And now, we plan on really planting the pickleball flag at Brookhaven and make a statement.”

It only makes sense to kick off Invited’s strategy discussion with a preview of their plans for revamping Brookhaven for Nationals, because it will serve as a blueprint for what is possible at the rest of their clubs. Fralick detailed the changes in store for the upcoming Nationals event: “We are completely transforming Brookhaven into the pinnacle of pickleball. We are going to be repaving all of our courts. They’re going to have brand new asphalt, fencing, and mesh. We’re going with all new LED lights, inside and out. The entire facility will be state of the art. We’ll have the ability to have 68 fully converted pickleball courts for the event, including three stadium courts. There’s going to be a whole new food and beverage space. And when this event leaves, we’re going to have 28 Pickleball courts left for the members, and we’re going to have 15 brand new tennis courts outside.” For those planning on attending Nationals this year, the player experience and facility make-over sounds amazing, and they plan on building a recurring event that rivals or surpasses the largest events of the current day.

The Brookhaven transformation and the USA Pickleball partnership is three years in the making; that’s how long ago Pillsbury and his team made the decision to pivot across the entire portfolio to Pickleball. “We had some areas where we were early adopters, For example we built some courts in Peachtree pre-Covid. Post-Covid we really jumped in. We felt like we needed to get ahead of the curve, and now we feel that we’re beginning to be leaders in the industry. With 200 properties, it takes a bit longer to assemble a strategy, but now we are working at lightning speed.”

It is one thing to build courts and hope that players come; it is entirely another to ensure there are dedicated resources at the club level to build the programming that will fill those courts. Invited comes to the table with a comprehensive plan to ensure newly built courts are used from the get-go. Says Fralick, “We have a turnkey approach when we bring a conversion to a club. We start with marketing 3-4 weeks out from go-live and then have a branded program rolling out day one. By the time construction is completed, we are ready to go. Pickleball at the club level is still heavily in the “meetup and group play” organization, but our program puts up enough guardrails to ensure growth and tries to cover all aspects of desired play.” As part of the Invited turnkey solution, they partnered with leading brand Selkirk last month, signing a two-year contract to provide the Selkirk product line in every Invited club, equip the club pros with gear, and leverage Selkirk instructional offerings.

Invited’s approach includes programming aimed at all skill levels and all age groups; they also include a unique approach to youth programming to help build up future generations of players. Details Fralick, “We have youth programs at our clubs, but it’s not as popular yet because the sport hasn’t reached down into the youth yet. We’re also using our entry level pathway tennis players on the pickleball court. So we have our age 7-9 year old kids on a 36 foot court also using our pickleball courts. So it’s not uncommon for them to have half of their lesson with pickleball paddle and ball and then the other half with a tennis racket and a low compression ball. So we’re kind of growing that segment through our programs. This year we’ve got pickleball in our summer camps. We did not have that last year, so we’re making sure that we’re bringing the sport younger, making it younger.”

Invited also emphasizes instruction and certification, ensuring that the teaching pros have a consistent and standardized teaching methodology across the portfolio. Says Pillsbury, “We certified every single one of our racquet sports directors in PPR; that’s unheard of in the industry. So we’re leading the education in pickleball. And you know what? We’re also leading it in tennis because we certified every one of our directors USPTA. So we are making sure that the delivery of these sports is professional. There is education behind it and we’re rolling it out.”

Inevitably, pickleball court construction sometimes comes at the expense of tennis courts, and there can be tension between the groups. Invited is endeavoring to balance the desires of its existing tennis base with the growing pickleball market. The last thing you want to do with a high-paying customer base is to take away a feature they’re paying for. Says Pillsbury, ‘We have clubs that are very tennis purists that don’t want pickleball, and we have clubs that are just clamoring for pickleball. We have a long-term strategy approach for both. We know pickleball is going to be everywhere. For example, we just made a conversion in Austin at the Hills of Lakeway. After the PPA event was over in March, we left two of our tennis courts converted to eight pickleball courts. Despite it being very much a tennis purist community, we now have 145 players on those courts, and it’s been under a month. So we have enough data from the field to know that as soon as you enter into pickleball, it grows and it explodes.”

Committing to building net-new courts or transitioning existing tennis courts is an expensive proposition. What if pickleball is just a fad? Are the Invited executives worried that they’re building white elephants? Pillsbury had an interesting take on the question, which goes to the heart of what private clubs endeavor to provide: “People say, we’re in the country club business, what do we sell? Do we sell golf? Do we sell food and beverage? Do we sell fitness? And the answer is, we sell human connection. We actually sell what we call ‘Micro Communities.’ The biggest micro community we have is golf, but there’s a micro community for fitness, there’s a micro community for tennis, there’s a micro community for wine. And we curate these communities and we drive connectivity because what keeps the program sticky is the human connection.

“Well, pickleball is an emerging micro community. We see it just like all of our other micro communities, except it lends itself to tremendous social interaction, which we then curate. So, yes, it’s about court time and it’s about playing somebody with the same DUPR rating and competition, but it’s more than that. It’s about creating a platform for people to connect, to socialize, to be together, to share a passion, which is what we actually sell. That’s what we do.”

If there’s a more succinct description of what makes pickleball so popular amongst its devotees, I have not seen it more eloquently stated.

Invited’s clubs have now hosted multiple professional tour events, and more are planned with the new tour partnership. Pillsbury has significant experience dealing with professional tournaments in his career, and had a great take on Invited’s commitment to hosting more tournament play, “I came from the PGA Tour, so I understand the power of professional athletes. And what is so unique about pickleball events is the professional athletes are playing at the same time as the amateurs. And so you not only get to watch the best players in the world play, but then you get to go compete on the same courts. When I went to my first event with Jonathan at Mission Hills, I was blown away. The people that I was sitting with had all their gear on, right? They’re all sweaty because they just come from playing. And I’m thinking, this is super, super cool. This is why you go and you spend the entire day and you just live, breathe, and eat pickleball, right? The entire experience.”

Pillsbury is right; having amateurs compete side by side with professionals is pretty rare in the pro sports industry. Imagine if a 15-handicapper could play at the Masters right alongside Tiger Woods; that’s just unheard of. Invited’s interest in hosting these pro events ties back to service to its members, to increase the member experience by providing access to the top pros, to host camps in conjunction with pro events, and to build unique tournament experiences not unlike what is planned for the Nationals event come November.

What is the takeaway for Invited? Concludes Pillsbury, “We are on a mission. We are the largest racquet sport footprint in the United States. And as proud we are of that, we are even more proud of the programming that takes place on those 800 tennis courts and those 400 pickleball courts. We have an amazing team of dedicated invited employees that bring it to life every day for all the participants and that at the end of the day, is what is going to give us sustained growth in pickleball. “

If you’re in a town with an Invited club, it sure sounds like the place to be going forward if you’re a pickleball fan.