Episode 78: Scott Winters of Pickleball Management Group Brings Mobile Pop-Up Pickleball Courts Anywhere

[00:00:00] Thank you for joining in. I'm Mike. I'm Kazeana. We're the Pickleballers Next Door. Want a pro-level pickleball court without pouring concrete? Discover rollout courts from Pickleball Management Group. They offer quick setup. The standard rollout court uses five textured polyvinyl rolls seamed together to make a 30x60 court customizable. Or choose PickleDeck, interlocking panels for any surface. Perfect for backyards, schools, events.

[00:00:25] The complete Pickle Deck system install in under two hours and saves big versus concrete or asphalt. Pickleball Management Group is an official sponsor of USA Pickleball, Pickleball Canada. The APP Tour and the 2025 US Open Pickleball Championships. Learn more at PickleballManagement.com.

[00:00:49] All right. Well, we have a great podcast coming up. He's been with us for about a year now, right? Or over a year? Yeah. Scott Winters. Scott Winters. You know, he has, just like everybody in this pickleball world, he's finding how and where and he's selling courts and it's starting to take off. I mean, he's a busy man. Yeah, because it was, I mean, at the beginning of any kind of business, right? Even pickleball, it takes some time to get your name out there.

[00:01:18] It does. And especially when you're selling, it's kind of a high ticket item. I mean, this is a big, when you think about selling pickleball courts that roll up and you can travel or put them somewhere there, there's a lot more to it, you know? Well, and we're talking about Scott Winters with Pickleball Management Group. And we want you to stay and listen to, you know, how big he's starting to get and where he's traveling and all these like festivals that he's going to.

[00:01:44] Yeah. And if you want a court or know somebody needs a court, these courts can go in your house. These courts can go outside. These courts can go in small buildings. You can have a court that rolls out in the front of your parking lot of one of your businesses. So these are what, if you're looking for a court, these are the perfect court that you can have, you know, they're pop up pickleball courts, right? Right. Basically, that's what they are. And they are great for events. Like, you know, if you're having a corporate event and you want to make it a little fun.

[00:02:10] Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's it's the perfect thing. So we just wanted to come in and talk, you know, about it. And he's a great man. We've done a lot. We've traveled with him and actually put it. We've actually experienced putting a court in. Yeah, we did that for Macy Neely out in Utah from the Secret Lives of the Mormon Wives.

[00:02:33] Yeah. Well, and if you actually go to his new website, we're there doing he actually has that video of us clips of us actually installing that. So it wasn't that hard. It was just we drove straight through and then we were putting a court in and and the dimension. In the heat. And the heat and the dimensions weren't exactly right. So we had to modify. And any time to modify something that was built to be not modified. Oh, yeah. You were cutting and you don't you didn't have all the tools to cut that.

[00:03:03] And it was. And then I think I left you guys there for a little while without water and all that. Yeah, we just got passed on me. Well, anyway, I hope you guys enjoy the podcast. If you're looking for a pickleball court and you want him for more information, he leaves his his he leaves his email information on their information on their phone number. Yeah. He's the person I would contact. So if you guys are anybody that works in the corporate world or any if you just want one at your house, you can have it.

[00:03:30] Yeah, he's doing when this I think this coming up weekend putting a court in a gym, somebody's gym in their house house in California. So it's a pretty big house. Yeah. I mean, you have to have a pretty nice house to be put in a pickleball court inside inside. Yeah, there's there's there's a there's a dimension that has to fit, but it can happen. I mean, you could have it in your garage and literally roll it out in your front yard and play pickleball and then roll it back up and put it in your garage. Oh, yeah.

[00:03:58] Now, it's heavy. It's this is not like light, but it works. It's made to be heavy so that you can play on it. But then he's going to now aren't there the new court that's kind of coming out there in pieces. Oh, yeah. We're putting it here at the Hilton Inverness in Denver, Colorado. Yeah. And so we're we're actually going to have a couple of the courts here. So if you're in Colorado or visiting Colorado, come to the Inverness. You can actually call us the podcast or you can get a hold of Scott and come actually experience playing on the courts before you buy one.

[00:04:27] Yeah, that's a great thing. And Christana Elliott will come right out and put it in. Yeah. I mean, I know how to put them in. She does actually slap it. You're ready to go. Yeah. All right, guys. Well, enjoy the podcast and you'll hear us next time. Thank you, guys. All right. Hi, Chrisanne. Hi, Mike. How are you? Well, we're doing a little better than last time, but your headphones still look a little funny to me. But I won't look at you. OK, don't look at me. I won't look at you.

[00:04:57] I'll be laughing. Looks fine from this side. Yeah. Oh, good. Well, that's good. See? It looks lopsided from my side. OK. I'm lopsided today. Well, anyway, we're here with a special guest today. Yeah. So we have Scott Winters with Pickleball Management Group. And so you have pop-up pickleballs, huh, Scott? Yeah, we have pop-up pickleball courts. Yeah, he actually, we just are here at the Hilton today, Inverness, and he just put, we're putting, he's putting two courts here at the Inverness Hilton. Yeah, we're excited about it.

[00:05:26] We've been wanting to do this for a long time, and it's going to be great to have something in my own backyard, so to speak, that I can bring people over to, to show them the courts live and get on the court and experience our product. Yeah, because these are outside courts, too. So it will be, you'll be seeing how the weather is with it. I mean, it's going to be good. Yeah. We're excited to play.

[00:05:50] Every time we install courts, it's always, we learn more, and so this will be a great opportunity, and hopefully they work well and the Hilton sticks with us. And, you know, we grow the program from there. Yeah, well, I mean, we were off air talking of how many courts are going out now every month. It's crazy. Like, you're flying all over. I mean, you've got to get some miles now. Yeah, we're having a great, especially second half to the year.

[00:06:17] We worked really hard the first half, and it's really paying off. So we're getting a lot of pickup with trade shows that are buying courts instead of renting them because we can custom brand them. So the sponsors and the organizers get great branding and sponsorship visibility, and they can reuse them for other shows. They can promote outside of the show. We're also getting a lot of business with clubs.

[00:06:46] So a lot of clubs are expanding or getting into pickleball for the first time. And pop-up rollout courts are a great way to test the waters, so to speak. And add it onto their program. Right, before you go the big investment of building a separate pickleball facility next to what you have or whatever, utilize the space that you have and get a pickleball program going and then determine from there how big your program needs to be. Yeah. Yeah, it's awesome.

[00:07:16] I mean, it's crazy how many courts. Oh, wow, that's what I was doing. I got all twisted there. A ton twisted. But if you want to really see something, go to his website. He just built a new website, which I got to see today. And we're on there, of course. Pickleballers Next Door because we're special. Sorry, we're on the special side of the website, but we're special. We're on that side. Yeah. But you got to go on there because it's really neat. I mean, they got videos. They got Hawaii. They got stuff from Utah. They got all over the world.

[00:07:46] So, I mean, you're going to see some neat stuff. You're going to see some big sponsors that are part of their organization. Yeah, thank you. Pickleballmanagement.com is the site. And like Mike said, there's a lot in there. There's everything from product specifications, information about us. There's a library section that's very robust.

[00:08:09] A lot of pictures, a lot of videos, how to install our courts, detailed description on that. We also have a club development part of the business, and we're actually opening our first club in Los Angeles this week. As a matter of fact, my partner Charlie Hauser is there right now today. They have a soft opening going on in Los Angeles right now. It's a nine-court facility, but they're opening with four courts for right now.

[00:08:39] Very high-end cushion courts. It's going to be great when it's all said and done. So we're probably about 30 days away from really being where we want to be. But that's another side of the business that we're trying to grow and has great potential as well. You need to do that new court in Parker. You know there's a new one coming, right? No. Yes. There's a new facility. Mood Swings? Are they doing a second location? No. No.

[00:09:05] It's over off of, I don't think so, off of Hess Road. I'll look at the article and get to you. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I kind of heard about it. I knew Mood Swings wanted to do one in Parker because Chicken and Pickle was going to do one, and then they backed out. So that's great. I mean, courts are popping up all over. It's crazy, though, Colorado, though. You know, I was just in Branson, Missouri, and I thought, you know, there because of the humidity and heat and stuff, and they got some pretty cold winters, but they don't have what we have here.

[00:09:35] We're like 7-Elevens when it comes to pickleball courts, and we have nice courts. Not saying nothing bad. Yeah, they're growing there, and some pop-up courts might be showing up there because I haven't talked to Scott about this yet. But anyway, there might be some pop-up courts coming soon. But they need some indoor facilities, and the ones they have, they haven't perfected it yet. The lighting, there's no dividers between the courts. I mean, it's kind of the old gym court that's just, buy mine, buy ball, ball, ball, ball, ball, ball. That sounds like you now, though. Yeah, it can be me.

[00:10:04] But when I started in my first time playing in a gym rec center, that's all I heard. Ball, ball, ball, ball, ball, ball, ball, ball, ball, ball. And you just see a ball flying across all the courts. Ball, please. Yeah, ball, please. But anyway, yeah. It's funny you mention that, Mike, because the club business that we've been picking up is mostly in the east, and it's because they have courts or there's a lot of courts outdoors that their members can play at.

[00:10:31] But going indoors, of course, is another animal in the east. Well, if you like playing in a sauna, that's what it's like. I just played there. It was 80 degrees at 7 in the morning with 93% humidity. Wow. So if you like to be in a sauna and sweat, well, it's a great thing. Or if you're on a diet or you need to lose those five pounds really quick. Did you lose some weight? I did, but I gained it back. Yeah, when you came to Colorado. I'm right back. Well, because I got the luxury courts here, air conditioning, soda machine, somebody taping up my racket.

[00:11:00] I mean, it's like the, what do you call it, the country club of pickleball here in Colorado. Can you make me a pizza, please? I'll be done with my match in 30 minutes. Moon swing and relish, right? Yeah. I mean, it is that. When you go there, you're lucky to find a drinking fountain, and I'm waiting to see if there's outhouses. Like, you've still got to go outside. He said his clothes were wet the whole time. You couldn't even dry them. You couldn't even dry them. I mean, if you didn't dry them, you had to put them in the dryer or wash them.

[00:11:26] So the washing machine companies are getting some money out there because, I mean, it won't dry. It's so wet. But a lot of fun. I did have fun. Now, again, I talked about the play. The play is hard and fast because you're down at sea level. So that ball is cooking. But I love the serving. You can just hit that ball like you hate it. And it just stays in the court. So here, I look at the ball and I hit it out, you know? Well, altitude makes a difference. It does make a difference. So your courts can go into people's homes too, right?

[00:11:56] Outside and kind of tell us about that. Yeah. So actually, we have an indoor install in Southern California happening. Charlie's over there tomorrow after the soft opening today. He's installing a court in somebody's gym in their house. Wow. You know, you build a gym in your house. You discover you're not using it enough. You know, you can roll these courts up to get it out of the way, play basketball or whatever

[00:12:26] if you want. We also have a subfloor product called Pickle Deck that you can put down in your backyard and then roll courts out on top of that. Yeah, you're working. I'm not going to say the name, but they're working with someone right now to put it on the beach at a resort. How awesome is that? Miami Hotel. All right. Look at that. I mean, how awesome would that be? Because that levels the Pickle Deck levels it out, correct?

[00:12:52] It levels it out and it provides a hard surface to put our rollout courts on top of. Nice. And I bet I can get some points. I put a thong on there. I'm getting some points. You're invited. You're getting something. You're getting something. No, I don't know. Thong optional. Thong optional. Can we make it? I'm not sure that people really want to visualize that when they're Mike. I probably know, but it's a fantasy. When you get older, you might as well put it on. Who cares? Again, it's good. We're not on camera.

[00:13:22] Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But, and then you're coming back from, you know, I know you've been itching to play pickleball, which you're coming back from, you had a shoulder replacement, right? Right. Whew. And you can, I know you're done. Great. Yeah. Really great. No pain whatsoever. Playing, playing well. And it was well worth it. It was a, you know, it's a six month process to come back, to do it the right way. You could come back faster and risk injury. And then you injure it. Yeah.

[00:13:51] But I did it the right way and I'm actually rehabbing at Stedman Hawkins right across the street from here. And those guys are great. Yeah. Well, I'm ready. I want to go play him before he gets good again so I can body bag him and then he can, that way when he gets good, I can, oh, I can't play. So I'm half bionic. I have two hips and a shoulder. Hopefully my knees hold up and my other shoulder. He's newer than you now. You know that, right? You old guy. Yeah. Isn't that crazy what they can do though?

[00:14:20] So it's incredible. I mean, it was scary before doing that type of stuff and today it's, it's nothing. I mean, it takes time to come back, but it's nice that, you know, but I'm sure you're itching to play more pickable. Oh yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Now, have you played any golf? Any golf? I have. Yeah. Yeah. So the golf swings back. It's really nice because I can actually follow through on my swing. Yeah. It wasn't going to dead arm. Wasn't, couldn't do that before. I can only go so far.

[00:14:50] So where are you heading off next? I know you just, I mean, did I say that? It'll be an hour because he's going everywhere. So next is Nashville, leaving Saturday for a UPS store convention. They bought two courts. So we're setting that up. They're having their, all their franchise owners and managers come for a, you know, learning and bonding session. God, how fun.

[00:15:14] We also have that with the YMCA, which we're very excited about because, you know, that's the club business. And hopefully a lot of YMCAs will want to put our courts in their gyms or vacant spaces. So that'll be in New Orleans in September. And we've got several installs coming up in September and we'll be at the nationals, USA pickleball nationals again in San Diego in November. Now that's a place they're doing at the same place, right? Right there. Wow.

[00:15:44] It's right next to SeaWorld. It's a great facility. They have 40 courts already. And Padale and tennis. I mean, this is huge. Yeah, that was, I mean, you would walk and walk. You need a golf cart. Yeah. You need a golf cart to get around to go play pickleball there. That's right. You guys were there. We were there last year. Yeah. We're hoping to go again this year. I think you came after me. Yeah. Oh yeah. That's right. We did. Yeah. We saw Charlie and Charlie was kind of bad mouthing you, but you know, we like them. We like, we like, we like, we like, we like, we like,

[00:16:13] Scott and they had the worst weather that they've ever had. Oh yeah. It rained every day. Oh my gosh. Did it rain when you were there? Probably worse than when we were there. Yeah. But I was impressed with the machines that they could take that water off with. Yeah. Those are neat. I mean, those things clean the court and they're dry. So it's pretty neat. Yeah. That place was huge. That's when we first saw the adaptive play there. Yeah. And, uh, now there's a lot of, uh, um, uh, oh, that's my phone. Not. Yeah.

[00:16:43] Not mine this time. Yeah. Sorry. But, uh, yeah, they, I mean, they, they ran it well though, even with all the, the problem, even with all the crazy weather, they still got through it. Yeah. I mean, we got in there when it was kind of nuts, but it was, you know, it was fun. They did a good job. They did. It was so organized. And to think that they, uh, ran it like they did with that much rain and stuff, it was great. Yeah. They do a great job.

[00:17:06] Um, one of the most unique events, uh, for us this year is we set up two courts at Summerfest, which is the largest music festival in the world. Where's that at? In Milwaukee, Wisconsin. So are you bringing your two friends? Well, I said it was. Yeah. Next, next year. Okay. You guys can come. Um, so you did it this year, right? 800,000 people. Oh my gosh. Come through the doors in three weekends, separate weekends.

[00:17:35] So I think they had roughly 3000, 3000 pickleball people. Wow. A day. Oh my gosh. How did they do it? I was going to say, how did they do that without people just staying on the court and just drinking and it's needs to be organized. Yeah. Yeah. It's a four on four off. And this is telling you where, where your pickleball is going, right? There's no stopping. There's no stopping. What was great is the courts were right out in front of the main entrance.

[00:18:03] So everybody that came through the door saw pickleball courts. That's so cool. Now they all didn't stop and play, but they all saw it. And what was interesting is a lot of people that I talked to who do play pickleball regularly, those were the people that didn't stop to play because they said, I already played this morning. I don't need to play anymore. That's fine. Or I'm here to do something different. So there are a lot of new people exposed to the sport through this event. Was that a country event?

[00:18:33] Country music? Or was it a... It was everything. Wow. Everything. Garth Brooks was the headliner. They had a lot of jelly roll. They had a lot of big acts. Wow. That was really good. Well, the crazy part is, is, you know, pickleball used to be an hour, two hours. The average play now is three to four hours. Like that's how much we're playing pickleball. A day? A day. What? A day. Do you play that much? I try to play two hours every day if I can. Yeah. I play the morning. I like the early morning. I get it done because then nobody can be...

[00:19:01] My wife can't be mad at me if I'm playing pickleball. Yeah, we can. People should probably not play that often. That's why there's so many injuries. That's the truth too. That really is the truth. So maybe an hour. It's still a sport. You still have to pace yourself a little bit. You do. Tomorrow's another day. It is. But it's just, it's crazy. It's nuts. And it's full. The place I play out in Highland Hills, there's eight courts there and it's every day there's almost all the courts are full. Wow. Yeah. Until the wind comes or the heat.

[00:19:31] It's pretty hot here right now. Today it's hot. It's going to be a hot one tonight. Yeah. Yeah. We're going to be here training tonight. You're going to hang and play with us? So anyway, Scott, you know, this is, we've had a great relationship with you and it's been so nice and it's just growing and growing. And now we're all together at the Hilton here, which I'm excited. That took a bit to get, you know, the corporate. It took forever. We've been talking to them. Well, because of the change of ownership and everything, I think kind of took a little

[00:19:59] No, you, it was funny at lunch today. I have literally almost tackled the guy. I said, hold on, Scott. I ran over and boom. Finally, I said, Hey, my guy's here. I said, he had a piece of the court. It was done. Nice. Yeah. Well, you guys have done a great job growing the program. And, uh, thank you. I'm very excited about the potential to grow it even further and work with you more closely. Oh yeah. It's only going to get bigger. We plan to be number one, maybe next year. Next year. Number one. So, well, thank you, Scott. Thank you.

[00:20:30] Have a great day and we will be keeping you in touch with Scott. And again, go to his website. What's your website? Pickleballmanagement.com. And then if they want to call you? Um, there's a number and an email. Okay. Okay. My, my, my number is 303-995-4305. I'm soliciting you out. Please give me a call anytime. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good night. Bye. Denver.

[00:20:59] Feel that energy? Professional Pickleball is here. Your hometown heroes, the Denver Iconics are serving up nonstop thrilling action. We're more than a team. We're a community. Be part of the movement sweeping the mile high city. Get the latest news. Grab your gear and join the Iconics family. The action starts at DenverIconics.com. That's DenverIconics.com.