Scott Winters, Pickleball Management Group

Just want to give a shout out to Pop-Up Pickleball. They supplied our court downtown here in Denver and if you're looking for a portable indoor or outdoor court go to pickleballmanagementgroup.com Thank you for tuning in. I'm Greg. I'm Mike. And we are the Pickleballers Next Door. We are for the Joes and not the pros. Your courts, our court. Thanks for tuning in to the Pickleballers Next Door. My name is Greg. I'm Mike. And we're here today with Scott from Pickleball Management Group. Yes. Right? Is that right? It is. That's me. Heck yeah. Scott Winters. Heck yeah. Sweet. So what have you been up to, Mike? I know I've been not there and I know it's been kind of hard on you, right? Yeah it's been it's been rough. I've been having to be the lead guy here and I don't know if I like that. It's hard to riff with not in person. It is. It is. And I'm not seeing your beautiful eyes so you're not sitting across from me. I got to look into Scott's eyes so it's getting a little weird here. As I said, I do enjoy looking across the table into your soul. Sometimes it's really good. Sometimes it's just really dark. It's dark, yeah. So no, it's been good. I mean I can't wait for you to get back. We have a lot going on so you're gonna be a busy man. Yeah. I can't wait. We have the relish that's coming up. We have the chicken and pickle. Yeah, that's it. There's a bunch going on there. We have the Rocky Mountain. I mean it is bad. I mean we're back to back. We have some private events. That's June. This is just June. This is just June. Yeah. So yeah, we have some private events that are set up that I haven't even told you about yet. So. Oh yes. I can't wait to hear about those. Yeah. But how about you? How's it going out there? Like enjoying the beach and all the weather while I'm in this stuffy podcast room? Yeah, it was good. We stopped off in Long Beach to see one of my friends. As I told you before, you know, found the Billie Jean King Pickleball facility. Didn't get to play there. But then the next day we went up to Santa Monica. No, not Santa Monica. West Hollywood. Almost Santa Monica. And we ended up doing pride there, which was a lot of fun. I met I met the people. Who I want to say claim, but like probably is true. Brought Pickleball to West Hollywood. Wow. So that's pretty cool. I didn't get a chance to get their information, but I know that I can get their information. Yeah, I would love to have that. Oh, yeah, that would be nice. So but you enjoying? Is it nice weather and everything out there? We're at it's 86 degrees, but it's it's like dirt. It's desert. It's 100% desert. Yeah. But when I was in we then we went to Fresno. And I played in Fresno with a good little group called the Fresno Area Pickleball Club. Oh, nice. Yeah, it was pretty cool. Everything there is bring your own net line tennis courts. But I had a good time. I just don't. I just really have found that I don't like those temporary nets. Yeah, temporary nets. And then you've gotten spoiled being inside. You know, I have. Absolutely. So they're talking about how they're like the city's building 16 courts and in one spot and like 10 in another, which are purely dedicated pickleball courts, which is nice because they absolutely need it. Yeah, it sounds like they need it. That's it was just crazy that you think that they'd be a farther than us here than, you know, from, you know, their development in it than we are here in Colorado. But we're I think Colorado is doing well in pickleball. They are. So but, you know, Fresno is Fresno. And, you know, it's sometimes I don't know. I don't know. It's California. It's California. I'm not going to start talking trash. Yeah, they just need those courts. They need those courts. Well, I am lucky to sit across here from Scott. What a great guy. I mean, he has supported us from day one. Yes. When we were trying to remember our experience, trying to paint our own court. Or you remember me having a few fits that I had to leave the room? Yes. And that was rough. I tried to spread that stuff, too. And I was like, whoa. Scott saved us with the pop up pickleball court. Oh, my gosh. He's our best friend because we did a lot of work and it was going very bad. So how are you doing today, Scott? I'm doing great. Thanks for having me. Oh, we should have had you sooner. We've been we've been talking about it for a while. We have. We have minutes. You know, finally, you know, you had but you've had also had a lot of trips to China. Yeah. Yeah. It's been business. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Balls booming. And we're trying to get right in the middle of it. Well, we're just like you guys. Yeah, we're right there behind you. We're on your coattails. That's great. So. So tell us about your company, Scott. You know where it came from and where it's headed. Yeah. Well, we have. So I have a primary partner in the company, Charlie Houser, and Charlie and I have known each other for decades. We both started out of college and the health and fitness club industry back when Racquetball was booming and there was a racquetball club on every corner. And we were totally absorbed in the sport, you know, teaching, playing, running a club. He continued in that same industry, health and fitness. I went over to sporting goods. And my main background is I worked for Prince Sports for over 20 years and head sports for four years. So heavily into racquet sports, tried to get Prince into pickleball. They never did it. But when I was done with Prince, that's kind of all I've done. Charlie and I hooked up about about seven, eight years ago. We started talking. We go, we got to get into this pickleball because we we had the vision. We saw that it was going to be big. And one of my first our first ventures was to try to get pickleball going in China because I was traveling over there doing product development and sourcing for a couple of different companies. And then the pandemic hit. So then we switched courses and we decided to get into events, mainly doing events where courts aren't. So in unique, iconic locations, popping up tournaments and city streets and convention centers, you name it, getting the sport out in front of people. And that's primarily what we've been doing. I mean, we you know, we saw a racquetball boom back in the day. We feel that same sort of energy and we know it's got a lot more legs than racquetball did. I think so. I think it has a lot more legs. Just the fact that anybody can play. That's right. We were scared of racquetball. You're a racquetball player. You know what I'm talking about? You know, in talking about events and popping up tournaments and stuff, I know Mike and I are kind of talking about wanting to do a tournament right there on 16th Street. Yeah. Yeah. I would love to do that with you guys. I was kind of hoping we'd have at least one court out in the grand opening last weekend. You were out of town, but Mike and I came out and it was amazing. The turnout. It was. I was totally expecting to be like dead. Yeah, because I didn't hear anything about it. I don't know how they promoted it, but there was thousands and thousands of people. You would have loved it. It looked like the old 16th Street Mall. It really did. It really did. I was kind of upset that we're not there because I really wanted to be there, but I didn't find out about it until well after this was booked. We were supposed to have a court and then it just didn't work out. But, you know, the story is what we learned is that the potential is there. Yeah. So we'd love to do one there. We'd love to do one in the convention center. That's where our product really shines. Taking the product indoors and on a flat concrete floor like that, it performs great. Well, that's where we were last year. We didn't quite know you that quite then. What was the pickle con, which we're going out with you this year to pickle con, which we're excited. Yeah, absolutely. We're really excited for pickle. We really are. So we all go eat. We know we like to eat. So you're going to be with us. So the char bar, he knew what I was thinking. But, you know, when we met you, you just got back from Hawaii setting up like 48 courts or something. 50. It was a lot. Yeah, it's been busy since November of last year. We sold the Hawaii Convention Center, 46 of our rollout courts, nets, all the court dividers that go around it. They asked us to do their first tournament and we did. We had two months to pull it off and we got over 600 players. Wow. Wow. The amazing thing about that is we really didn't know if people from Hawaii with perfect weather all year round, pretty much would want to come inside and play. And they did and they loved it. So it was a big success. They're larger people, not to say any bad. They're big, big. Every time I go to Hawaii, there's some big man. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So but it's it you know, if you want to play on his court, we have it actually here at our studio downtown on 16th Street Mall. It plays awesome. I mean, and now now we did a lot of good work on our prep under the floor because this is a hundred year old building. But it is awesome. Scott's been behind it a lot. We did a lot. We did a lot of work. That was that was really work. We hugged Scott. He didn't know why we were crying when we were hugging him, because it was it was a moment when that court got here. And how long I was shipping all the clothes, all the shipping, getting the court here. What's amazing with the court is that when I was worried because I'm going to I'm an extra floor guy. I've been doing floors for 40 years. And so Scott's telling me, you know, this we're going to put this out and it's got to put pieces together. I think we did this court in less than an hour. Court was up and ready to play on less than an hour. It literally is a pop up court. You can roll it out in less than an hour. You know, the basically our product is a vinyl roll that's textured and it's extruded from a mold. So it already has the color in it. So it's not painted. So it's it holds up to UV. You can do anything, any type of graphic logos, colors. You can have three different colors on the court. It's not a problem. And, you know, so this particular court was a little smaller than our standard court because we didn't have as much room. But four rolls rolled out and, you know, it was so way, way less than an hour. Yeah. I was worried. I'm ready for an all day project. We were playing pickleball an hour later. So it was ready to go. But here we also have the nets. We also have the dividers that go around the court and we custom brand everything. Yeah, it is. It's it's you know, we're going to video live this next month. So you'll see a lot of this. The other part is they have a new court that they're working on right now that's out, actually, that is I'm really excited about. Basically, all those people that you're trying to pour concrete and you want to put a court out there and, you know, they're going to save you a lot of money. But this thing is incredible. So go and tell a little bit more about it. I'm just I'm excited for it. Yeah, it's it's it's actually a sub floor that goes underneath our courts. So we have rollout courts, but you need a flat surface. The you know, the court is only going to play as well as what's underneath it. So we developed a deck system with four by four panels that interlock together, that actually lock together with a cam bolt. And you can install like we installed that in about an hour and a half at the U.S. Open. We're just at the U.S. Open, the biggest tournament of the year worldwide. So one hundred and twenty eight panels all locked together. They're thick. They're about two, two and three quarter inches thick, made out of recyclable plastic. And that literally can put a court pretty much anywhere. You could put it on sand, you could put it on grass, carpet, just roughed up bad shape, concrete, asphalt, you name it. It provides a flat level surface that produces a consistent bounce. Yeah, we have. That's amazing. It is. We have a panel. He actually brought one in. I had to carry I took this thing out of the truck and I'm a pretty big guy. This thing's heavy. So you can see why it works really well. So, yeah, this is exciting. And I can't wait. I know people I'm hoping they're listening. All you pickleballers that want a court, get rid of that backyard, give it a grass. No more mowing. You're ready to go. The beautiful thing about the backyard is you just need a flat surface. You could do it on compacted dirt or gravel. You know, the court is easy to install. The beautiful thing about it is you don't need permits because it's a movable object. It's not permanent. And you can take it anywhere. So if you decide to move, take it with you. Yeah, you can't take your concrete. And remember, if you have a barbecue and you're grilling, you have to pick waters next door. I'll be there, too. That's true. We might even help you move. We might even help you move. It depends on which barbecue you give us. For a burger and some pickleball. We're good. Move, I guess. I guess that's what Mike's saying. Pretty much. Yeah. We're enjoying the barbecue watching you move. But we'll we'll be there for you. We'll put it on the podcast. Moral support. Moral support. Heck yeah. We're good at it. But no, move it to the left. Yeah, move it to the left. But oh, my God. I mean, and this is your personal background and you're a good pickleball player. We've got to play with you. So not a bad pickleball player here either. He's got his moves. Pretty good. It comes from the racquetball. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of a lot of experience in racquet sports. I started as a tennis player in Southern California and then got into racquetball. And so pickleball was a nice, really nice transition for me. Oh, it's a lot of sport. I've been playing it for probably as long as anybody in this area because I knew it was going to be a hot sport. Oh, my God. It's a sport. You play well into your later years. Eighties. Yeah, I just weren't long. That's for sure. I was just at the relish doing a we did a podcast this weekend at the relish. Two couples were there. Look great. Look awesome. Talking to me. He says he's 83 years old. I would never know this. He plays five days a week and his wife. And you know, the wife, when the wife has jewelry, that's a pickleball. You know that. Yeah, they're serious, right? This is all their life goals. Those are like, yeah, I'm telling you. Yeah, I'm not that far yet, but I'm getting there. Well, no, I'm saying that's my goal. Yeah. Is to be playing at 83 years old. Oh, my God. Feeling great. Yeah. Yeah. And we're talking about older players. But, you know, what's exciting me, too, is seeing the younger players come into this game coming from racquetball. Getting young players to play was a huge challenge. The ball's fast. The ball bounces too high. It's dangerous when you get a bunch of kids on the court with pickleball. It's so much easier to teach a group of kids. The younger players are starting to play it because it's fun and their friends are playing it. And the sky's still the limit on this sport. I don't see any. Have you seen? And have you seen some of these juniors playing in these tournaments? It's crazy. Wow. They're insane. Yeah, they're ripping that ball. I mean, it's I mean, they can barely be over the net. Yeah. Yeah. And they're beating up on just, you know, people that are playing in men's four oh. They're they're beating them up pretty bad. And they play all day long. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We were just beat you up to play a whole tournament, beat you up and then play for fun afterwards. Yeah, I keep going. Hey, yeah. Yeah, we were just we just did another podcast for the Pickler and we were out there and we met a five point five and he was ten or eleven, ten or eleven. But he's just starting to travel ten or eleven. We want to sponsor him. He's actually already working with the Pickler. It's just incredible. I mean, that's great. Yeah. So I like Greg, what he says all the time. He says, you know, you can play with a 11 year old and get beat in the next minute. You have a 90 year old lady that beats you just at the same time. Just a bit. Just as bad. It's not worse. It's not worse. Body bags you, you know. Yeah. So that's why I'm not afraid to body bag an 80 year old. Yeah. So what's the future for you, Scott? Where do we look like? Where do we what do we look like where we're going for the future here? Well, continuing the pop up events, you know, love the idea. And you guys are doing it, too, of doing corporate events. We've done several of those. I think that's a huge opportunity. Continuing to do convention centers, getting the sport out in the street, doing fun festival type of events. But the other part of our business that we're focusing on is facilities development. Obviously, it's a hot topic in the pickleball space here in the U.S. Franchises are popping up everywhere. Pickler, Chicken and Pickle. We have Epic here in Denver. You name it. And we'd like to utilize, you know, Charlie's decades worth of health club development and management. He's still he's still in the in the space. He's actually a world operations manager for World Gym. So he knows it up and down. And that's kind of where I started. So we'd like to get into that side of the business as well. And not only doing it here, but we think the future growth is internationally. Pickleball facilities internationally could be a huge, huge market. Oh, yeah. And we'd love to get it. You guys should start one and call it not so pop up. Well, it sounds like you need to head to California. These sounds like they need your help there right away. We actually have a our first facility is in City of Industry. Oh, I did see that. I did see that on your. Yes. Yeah, that's where I grew up. Yeah. OK, well, we'll have we'll have a club there for you next time you go out there to visit. Yeah, that will be over a while. That'll be amazing. Where is it? What do you know where it's at now? Not exactly. Used to be a Bally's. And then after that, it was an L.A. Fitness. So I don't know exactly where it's at. OK, I think if I'm guessing right, it's right next to a Costco. That's the Costco I used to work at. OK. Yeah, it's right there. Exactly what I thought. Yeah. Small world. I want to know what's even you want to go even further back. That's where best used to be. Remember best? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's funny. You'd order something and it would come down a conveyor belt. Wow. Good old days, right? No, I mean, we got to talk. I didn't talk to you about this today, but I mean, the Hilton's like looking for a space. They're big down here, the Inverness and having a rollout going inside for this wintertime. Yeah. That's how popular they want to be part of pickleball. Yeah. Oh, yeah. We're right there. We're right here. It's it's every corner. So much opportunity. It's nuts. I tell people you can make pickleball underwear and be a millionaire. You really could get marketed. Honestly, a lot of people are making shoelaces. Yeah, there you go. Here's the guy just putting some pickleball stuff on pickle shoelaces. You know, let's go. Let's do it. Let's do it. So this has been this Greg will be our model. I like it. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, you couldn't ask for a better one. Yeah. So but yeah, this is the you know, like I said, this has been incredible to have you as part of our team, part of our sponsorship. You've done nothing but great things for us. So I have nothing but great things to say. We got a lot of potential together. We do look forward to working with you guys at the Rocky Mountain Championships coming up. That's right. We'll have we'll have two boards out there. One of them will have our pickle deck system, and it'll be a great opportunity to activate all day long on our courts and demo product. And we're going to be excited to meet a lot of people from the area. And I think Greg's bringing the barbecue. So we're going to be eating watching this all happen. I mean, I guess that's new to me. I guess I'm bringing the barbecue. I forgot to tell you. You've been out of town. I've been making my own choices. I'm going to have a new CEO here. Scott's helping me now. We're doing the whiteboard. So, so, well, anyway, I think this was this was awesome. I mean, it's finally we've been waiting, you know, because you have been one of our number ones that we wanted to talk to for a while. So we really appreciate your support. And we love what you guys are doing. We want to be part of everything you're doing. And Greg, when you get back, we'll we'll put our heads together and talk further. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. That sounds great. We'll let you vote on what you're going to barbecue. Yeah. Oh, thanks. I appreciate that. Actually, we're going to plan that menu right after this. Oh, sorry. You won't have that. We're going to be going to Costco with our with your car. We just need your card number. OK, I'll send it to you. My card number's one. So, Scott, why don't you tell us where people can find you guys if they wanted to purchase a cord or, you know, get more information on you? Sure. My email is Scott at Pickleball Management. And our website is Pickleball Management dot com. So you can find out more online or just send me an email. I'll be glad to send you more information and my phone number. We can we can talk about any of your needs and in the pickleball space. Yeah. So I know a guy that might want to get a court. Look at that. All right. Maybe we should get a hold of a barbecue place, too. I'm trying to think that we should sell it. It comes with a bar. That's a great look. That's good marketing right here. They get a cord in a barbecue and then we come with it. I think we should add that to our line. Exactly. Pickleball barbecue. I like it. I like it. Oh, well, the green egg is kind of close. It's quite a few holes in it. We just need to paint it like just paint it the pickleball color. Right. I like it. That's a good idea. Thank you for tuning in. We really appreciate having you guys. Thank you. We do. Well, have a great day, everybody. See you next time. Thank you.