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Hey Padel enthusiasts welcome to Padel Smash Academy, I am Cesc and I am here with Julian and we're all about Padel! Whether you're new to the sport or an experienced player, you've come to the right place. Our goal is to provide you with the best tips & tricks, news, and weekly lessons to help you improve your game and take your Padel to the next level. So grab your Padel Racket and let's get started with all things Padel on Padel Smash Academy.
Today we have, uh, Patricia
Mirano from Sport House.
Welcome to Paddle Smash Academy.
Oh, and we are All Things Paddle.
Welcome to the, to the channel, Patricia.
Well, thank you for having me.
It's exciting to talk about ballet and
everything that else is going on with us.
Great.
Let me, let me ask one thing.
Um, where are you located?
Where is the club, where it's gonna
be located and the size and all that?
We have a warehouse that we are
turning into an indoor country
club with paddle courts, pickable
courts, and gold simulators.
In Norwalk, Connecticut, Norwalk is
divided into a couple different areas.
One of them is South Norwalk, right
on the water, probably an hour north
of New York City, Manhattan, and
the warehouse is 35,000 square feet.
We have ceiling, ceiling heights that
go from 22 to 24 feet high, so it's.
It's pretty cool.
There are not that many
buildings that are that high.
Yeah.
And, and so that's, that's where the,
you know, facility's gonna be located.
And we are literally about
to break around any day now.
And we have to do some work
inside, obviously doing, you
know, installation of the courts.
We're gonna put all new lights
that are gonna be, we partner
with someone who does a lot of.
And LA lights, um, installations
for sports facilities and, and
then we're gonna do is install
and locker rooms, bathrooms new.
Hvac.
So if it's super hot in the summer
or if it's super cold in the winter,
it's gonna be climate control.
And then we're doing some changes
to the outside to add more parking.
Now, how many courts are you gonna have?
How many, uh, paddle
courts are you gonna have?
We're planning to have five paddle
courts and four pickable courts
and two golf simulators were using.
Which we think is, you know, top of
the line, TrackMan called simulators.
They're, I, I tested them
and they're pretty cool.
So I'm excited about that too.
Awesome.
Uh, how far are you in
the, uh, construction part?
I mean, have you got permits already?
Are you guys, they, yeah, so we, we are.
Right now, so we have all the permits
to do whatever we need to, to do, and at
the, at the site, both outside because we
are reconfiguring the driveway and adding
more parking, and then also the inside.
Everything has been approved and it
took a while, but, but we're there.
And we are waiting on the last few
bits from a few different contractors.
And once we cut the, you know, the
last, the last few, we'll sit down,
we'll decide which ones we are gonna
work with, and then we are ready to go.
The, the longer, believe it or not,
the longer we wait to get the right
bits, the more quality of contractors
and the better pricing we're gonna get.
So we wanna take a few
extra days to decide.
Now, and, uh, what's your timeframe?
When do you guys see,
when's your grand opening?
You know, and we don't have a
specific date, but we think it's
gonna be later in the summer.
There's really not that much, um,
that we're gonna be doing there.
And a lot of the things can be done at
the same time where there's work outside.
We're gonna be doing
some work on the inside.
The first thing that's the, the
first things that we're going to
do are the, any, anything that is.
And such as lights, like in the ceiling.
And so once that's done, then we can
start working on the floor, which we're
gonna do, you know, some, some nice things
on, on the floor in between the courts.
And we're gonna have a pretty
cool area for, you know, drinks
and, and things like that.
We're gonna be able to sell
and beer and wine and, and a
few other alcoholic beverages.
And we don't have space for a
kitchen, so there's not gonna be.
Any food prepared by us, but we're
gonna outsource that to um, uh, you
know, we're gonna do some catering
events and, and things like that.
And then have some food trucks that
are parking on the parking lot and.
We'll manage our events that way.
So I have to tell you, I'm
from Connecticut as well.
Uh, I came down here a few years ago,
but I'm also constructing a, a paddle
club there, uh, in Weathersfield.
So we're kind of a, at a race to see who
has the first paddle club in Connecticut.
Okay.
We're also there trying to, uh,
get to around June the same time.
So, uh, that's pretty awesome.
Yeah.
You probably gonna be a little bit
earlier than us and the way we see,
you know, Patel, at least as our group.
Is that we want more paddle courts to
be built and more clubs to be built
because we want the sport to grow.
And even if we have a club that
is right next door to us, it's
gonna give us the chance to create
more leagues and then tournaments.
And we don't see it as competition.
We're not there yet.
The sport has to grow and grow and grow.
So any other clubs that we
see that are opening, it's,
it's, it's good for the sport.
I feel the same way.
And I think we have to talk
a little bit to try to work
together to, uh, yeah, absolutely.
To give some exposure to the sport.
And that's why me and
Julian are, are doing this.
Yeah.
Uh, but the other question would
be is, is how did you come up with
building a Paddle Corps in Connecticut?
I mean, it's New England.
I have my reasons, but I, I
wanna see what your reasons are.
It's New England.
Uh, you are gonna do it indoors.
There's not a lot of exposure and, and,
you know, and knowledge of this sport.
Uh, so what, you know, what
made you think, okay, I'm
gonna open up a paddle court.
Besides obviously the passion of it,
and I may not look too old, but I grew
up in the eighties and nineties playing
in Argentina, and so that's my first,
uh, you know, connection with the sport.
You know, born and and
raised in Buenos Aires.
I used to play every day.
And one of the partners, so the other
three partners that I have in this, in
this venture, one, his name is Juan Raja.
And Juan and I were the same age.
We, when we were 15, we played in
tournaments together in Buenos Aires.
And I mean, we used to train
tennis together and then we became
friendly and we played, um, some
tournaments when we were 15.
So that's our first connection to a sport.
Both of my brothers in
Argentina, they still play.
Whenever I go back, I, I, I try to play.
So that's my, my first
connection with the sport.
Then we have two other partners who
are both, um, in the Rockets industry.
One is also a director, one director club
in in Connecticut, and then Mark Parsons
also, you know, great college player.
He was one of the best college
players when he was in college and.
Then one of the best platform
tennis players, the same as one.
And they're both starting to play a ton
of, um, paddle tournaments now these days.
And we have the, the fourth partner
who it's also in the rockets industry
on Mark Fishel owns the club on Long
Island, has been super involved with
platform tennis and we all love paddle.
And there's a, a court nearby
at someone's house and.
And we try to use it as much as we can.
Well, you, everyone,
you have to invite me.
I'm in Connecticut, I'm, you
know, I'm in Connecticut.
I have to go to New York.
It's not, it's a paddle house.
It's not, it's not my court.
So actually I don't e So the owner
of this, this, um, house, he has a
house and there's a paddle cord on it.
Half the time, maybe
Mark, he's not even there.
But let, let, let me ask you,
is that the famous Ron Batman?
Yeah, that's alright.
Oh my.
I play with him every day here
now he's here in Kiwis Kane, so
we get to play with him quite
often, but he'll be here on Sunday.
We are on a, on a WhatsApp group and he's
like, okay, I'm gonna be there on Sunday.
Want to play Sunday,
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.
So I'm gonna play with him on Monday.
Exactly.
He's leaving us, I mean, tomorrow
we're doing actually a third world,
uh, uh, lunch, uh, with him and,
and, and the whole group because
he has another WhatsApp chat here.
And he, he's super addicted to paddle
and he's looking forward to it.
So, yeah, so, um, you know, we all got
involved, one, you know, from going to
Miami, uh, to, he started playing again.
And, and I, I, this is what we
think is gonna happen in our area.
There are so many pros that we know
in our area, which is Fairfield
County, Connecticut, and then
Westchester County, New York.
They're like, you know, side by side.
And there are so many clubs in our area.
I'm gonna say a hundred, maybe there
are more in a 30 to 40 mile radius.
And everyone, especially on the
pro side, all the, the teaching
pro, they are dying to play.
And all the people that we
know are also dying to play.
And there's a club in Brooklyn called
Paddle House that opened up last summer.
It's very hard.
They have four cards.
It's very hard to get a court time there.
Yeah.
So actually, as a matter of fact, uh,
these, uh, couple weekends ago I did a,
a paddle certification up in Orlando and
out of the 10 players that came to do the
certification aide were from Connecticut.
You know, Carl Levette, uh, Macy Madero,
and they fell in love with the sport.
So they're really looking forward
for you to open that cloud.
They were actually telling me.
And that's, yeah, and that's where I go.
Uh, when I go to Kinetic,
I go to Paddle House.
I was there the first week they
opened when Santiago and, and
I'm always, you know, uh, and
driving over there just to play.
Um, it's a great, great course.
Um, the, they have their, and that's
the biggest, I think, Issue is
getting a building with a high enough
ceilings, you know, in, in New England.
And I, I tend to see 'em about
20 feet at, at, at the most.
And do you, do you think
that's tall enough?
I mean, um, cuz you're limited
to types of labs that you can
do or, um, you know, in path.
Yeah.
So the labs, you have to hit them perfect.
They, if they're a little too
high, then you hit the ceiling.
If you hit them shallow but deep,
then they hit the back wall.
So it is a little, you know, frustrating
at times, but you know, sometimes that's
what it is until there are not more
places with a lot of different options
for us to choose and say, I'm gonna go
play here versus I'm gonna go play there.
Right.
Right.
It is what it is.
The rules are the same for everyone.
A as long as nothing is, you know, so
you have the ceiling, but if you have
the, all the ducts, Or the lights,
they're not in the way, like making
the, the clear area above the net even
lower than, you know, I think it's fine.
And I, I'd rather play on a court
that every once in a while I hit
the, the ceiling than no court.
Yeah, you're right.
That, that, that's, that's a mentality.
And l let me ask one thing about the club.
Let's talk about membership cause of
the court, of the courts and all that.
How's it gonna be that structure?
So we are going to, in.
We're gonna focus on em, on on membership.
We want to grow the
membership and the membership.
There are a couple different
types of memberships.
One for family.
One for an individual.
Most of the people, believe it or not,
we have, um, a ton of people already
who signed up and paid an initiation
fee, initiation fees, a couple hundred
dollars, and so some of them, and sign
up as a family, most of them sign up
as an individual because some of the
people that are gonna join our club
or the ones who join, are gonna play.
Some golf, some pickleball, some paddle.
And then after you pay that initiation
fee, there is a monthly fee of
about a hundred dollars, I think
it's 1 0 5 for, for an individual.
And then every time you go and play, then
you're, you are, um, paying for the court.
The, the, the thing that we are going to
do is also we're gonna allow non-members
to come and play, but only once a month.
Because we want them to become members.
And then we also want to control
how many members are we're gonna
have at the club, because we heard
from other clubs experiences that
they accepted way too many members,
and then no one could book a court.
So we don't, we don't wanna go that route.
And we wanna give members the benefits of,
for example, playing as many times as they
won and playing in an in-house leagues.
If you are not a member, you cannot pay.
No leagues having priority on bookings,
having priority on sinus for tournaments,
then being able to book an indoor
seasonal court, which is a thing, you
know, in, in the Northeast or indoor,
in, in, at indoor clubs where you can
have the same time at the same day
for, you know, for a period of time.
So there are a lot of different
benefits from becoming a member.
But we're still going to allow,
and we want people to come and walk
through the door and then play.
And just the, the booking windows
pricing will be the same with the only
difference of a guest fee for the day.
Okay, Patricia?
So it's a couple hundred dollars for
initial, uh, you know, uh, membership.
Then it's $1,200 a year.
As a member, correct?
Yes.
More or less.
Yeah.
And so now, how much for a member does
it cost per hour to, to book a court?
You know, so if you wanna play paddle,
so the in peak time is 120 for the court.
Okay, the off peak is a hundred
dollars for the quarter,
so you divide that by four.
So each player is playing
$30 for an hour or 25.
So it is, it is compared to what's
going on in the area in terms
of tennis or other, you know,
paddle and clubs in the area.
It is, it's cheaper.
You know, and, and we want people
to come and play and we want the
courts to be both most of the time.
And, and if we, you know, keep the
prices like we have now, we think
that people will come and, and play
because we think they're relatively,
uh, I'm not gonna say inexpensive,
but you know, they're affordable.
Now, uh, how many members,
what's your goal on members?
How many members do you want?
We don't, we don't have a specific number.
In mine, and it's a couple
hundred, we're not there yet.
And as we start operating, then we
will make some decisions based on
where that limit is going to end up.
And, but like I said, if some, you
know, if the members are complaining
that there's no court time because
they're already booked, Then we
know that we are at that limit.
Or we might have to cut it, but we, we
won't know until we, we start operating.
All right, Patricia, I
wanna be a member for sure.
Awesome.
I'm from Connecticut.
I'll reach out to you later on.
Okay.
Well, I'll tell you what, so one
of the things that we want to
do is grow this sport, right?
Yeah.
So we created another membership
for club professionals that
is going to be $65 a month.
Which means one.
And what are the benefits?
You mean a club professional?
Me, uh, paddle coaches.
Well, or, or pickleball.
Yeah.
So for that matter.
So anyone who's working at a club,
it could be a golf professional.
It, it doesn't matter.
Someone who's working full-time
and teaches full-time and they
don't need to be at a country club.
They could be someone who's working
at a private club to someone who
does this, you know, for a living.
We want them to come and use our
facility because we want to grow the
sport, especially on the paddle side.
We believe that if you came and then
you're like, oh, I never played this.
I never played ball, I love it.
Then you're gonna go to your tennis club
or to whatever club and you're gonna
say, Hey, come and check this place out.
So we want a lot of pros for,
that's one of the reasons.
The other one is, we need
pros who are going to be, who
be able to teach and coach.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So if we don't include them,
we got that deal there.
And we want, we want to encourage
the, you know, the, this.
Tennis pros to come and play.
So the, the membership pricing for
them is gonna be a little discounted.
So, so it will be $65 and then
the pro will charge the lesson,
uh, will be allowed to teach a
lesson there, or how's that work?
So I, in order the, the ones who can teach
lessons at our club have to be members.
Okay.
And yeah, so they'll
basically will rent the court.
They have to be certified.
Okay.
And have on call
liability, all that stuff.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But then they can bring
their own, um, students.
W we don't know how many are going
to take advantage of that, but it is
one of the benefits of being a club,
professional, paying, uh, discounted
membership rate when they join and
then bring more folks to the door.
Okay.
But let, let, let me choose blue numbers.
So 65 a month.
Now I'm paying 120, a hundred
dollars for a court time, right.
If I bring one person.
So that person, for me to make a profit
as a tennis professional, I have to charge
plus a hundred dollars, whatever, 150.
So I make 50 bucks.
That's we, we have, we have some
discounted rate for club professionals.
Okay.
Interesting.
Yeah.
Um, I mean, that will be great for
all the teaching pros and all the,
you know, the, the tennis coaches
that, that want to move into paddle.
For them to get their
feet wet and all that.
I think it's a very, very important Yeah.
I don't know.
So, and we, we really don't
know how it's gonna work out.
We think that the club professionals
are gonna come and play Yeah.
More than bring their own lessons.
Yeah.
But my question, are you gonna
have in-house coaches as well?
Yes.
We're gonna have, so, and that will
be a different deal, or they will be.
Yeah, no, they, and so the, the,
and I'm gonna be one of them.
I'm gonna be the sort of the.
Director slash general manager.
We are sort of deciding on, on what
the title is going to be, but I'm gonna
be doing some encore teaching both
for pickleball and Paddle, and then
we're gonna have one more pro on staff.
Great.
So I'm assuming that they're, your
goal at Patricia is, is, uh, those
professionals are going, they know
about paddles, so they're gonna be.
Uh, uh, bringing people in to play.
Right.
That's kind of like the goal, right?
For for those.
Yeah.
So, you know, if we have, let's say you
come and join our club and you're a club
professional that teaches, you know, at
whatever club, then you come and play.
You're gonna go back to your
club and you're gonna say, Hey,
this place, this is so fun.
Come and check it out.
And you can either bring your
own lessons if you want it.
Because you're a member and that's one of
the benefits of being a club professional
and a member at the same time.
Or you'll just say, come and check it out.
And then they come and
they play on their own.
Gotcha.
Gotcha.
That, that would be us.
Yeah.
Su super interesting.
I, I love that structure for, for the pros
to give me, you know, because clubs are
very protective of their own membership
and all that, but now you are opening
a different door, which makes sense.
To promote the, the
sport and make it grow.
I mean, I think it's a
very, very good idea.
I love it.
Yeah.
Thank you.
And you know, I I, we've never seen this
done in this way, and both Mark Parsons
and Juan Well, and Mark Fisher too, but,
Juan and, and Mark and myself, we know
we've been running clubs for combined
between the three of us, I don't know,
60 years and, and we've been trying to
nail like the structure of our club and
some things might, might change, but we
like where we are in terms of membership,
allowing non-members and what the benefits
are for members or or non-members and how
we're gonna run the structure of the club.
And because we want to, we know the
area, but we also want to grow the sport
and doing things like that, we think
that that's going to help us do both.
Fantastic.
Now, uh, are you gonna focus
on trying to transition tennis
players into, into pedal players?
Um, I Is that, is that kind
of one of your strategies?
Well, and Juan and I, we run the local
Westchester and County Pickleball League.
So we have about 2000
players in our league.
Wow.
So a lot of those players play pickleball
and a lot of those players play tennis
and platform tennis and, and golf too.
So we think a lot of them will
give it a try when they come.
And a lot of the other platform, tennis
and tennis players who don't like
pickleball or don't play pickleball,
are gonna probably start on playing
padel because they watch all these
YouTube, um, you know, videos and
they're like, oh, this is amazing.
I can go out the door like, well, that's
not that easy there pro and, but, but
the, you know, the two things about
paddle and, and pickleball that I, I think
have a little bit of an advantage versus
tennis is that they're easier to learn.
So we'll get a lot of good
tennis players who right off
the bat will be able to play.
And if they had some experience
playing platform tennis, The, the
walls, the ball bounce is a little bit
different than on the platform tennis
side, but also, you know, it's gonna
be an easier transition for them.
So we think that we're gonna get
some pickleball players that will
try paddle because they wanna try it.
And some tennis players and platform
tennis players who will try paddle.
Because they also, you know, it,
it's new, it's cool, and it's,
you know, close, close to them
and there's no other place nearby.
Yeah.
The, the last paddle certification
at that, that id, the A players that
they were from Connecticut or from the
Northeast, they are platform tennis
and they picked it up so easily.
It was incredible how easily
they picked it up and, and they
fell in love with it instantly.
Yeah, and I mean, I know Carl
and, and Macy, they're both
gonna play at, at our club.
Yeah.
They, and they, they already, I mean
they're both great, you know, platform
tennis players, Macy way better than Carl.
Yeah.
Macy just won nationals and, but yeah,
so someone who transitions from the
platform, tennis court to the paddle
court is not that hard to understand.
Yeah.
And if you had a little bit
of a tennis background, then
actually makes it even easier.
Because I, I, I, I think that
when you play paddle, you, you
attack a lot more of the ball.
You know, you're trying to win the point.
When you play paddle from tennis,
you really don't do too much of that.
So it's a little bit of the fun that
when you play player from tennis and
points are too long when you play
paddle, you can actually do all the
things that you are, that you should not
be doing on the platform tennis card.
Gotcha.
So platform term is a lot more defensive.
And the points can last longer.
Uh, well, it's harder to win the points
because the court, even though the court
is 30 by 60, very similar to the pla, to
the paddle court, the inbounds is small.
2020, uh, 20 by 44.
I should know that, right?
Yeah.
So it's the same as the pickleball
cord, so you can miss out.
So it's much harder to actually
win points when the court is
smaller and plus you, you can't
hit it out by four by three, right?
You have to always keep it in play.
Always inside of the cage.
Yeah.
Always inside of the cage.
Yeah.
That's super exciting, man.
I'm, I'm, I'm real excited.
And tell me, I know you played the senior
paddle tour here in Orlando with Mark,
uh, results that were not very optimistic.
So what happened there?
Uh, I know I didn't, no, in so
you mean a paddle tournament?
You play, you play at the Orlando
Senior, uh, tournament, right?
Or not?
No, I saw your name on it.
No.
Then some somebody else is, is is,
you know, using my inmates playing.
No, no.
To be honest, I wanted to play and, and
I wanted to start playing some, some
tournaments and, but it just didn't,
didn't make sense for me to travel
and, and I've been fighting a little
bit of a back and injury, nothing
major, but I'm not in, in, I was in
any condition to actually go and play a
tournament, you know, match after match.
But I do qualify for the 40 fives.
For sure.
So, yeah, so, and I, and I'm looking
forward to playing some more tournaments.
I want, I want to, I know
we will host tournaments.
The, the moment we open, we're gonna
start looking to host a lot of open
tournaments and then senior tournaments,
uh uh, and juniors as well too.
Um, but no, I, Juan, Juan and Mark,
they just came from Las Vegas.
They went to play in Las Vegas.
They played there in the open.
I think Mark went to
Houston a couple weeks ago.
They, they are the ones who are
playing all the tournaments.
Okay.
So, and, and how did Juan and,
and Mark did in Las Vegas?
In the las, they, I think they lost in
the first round, and then they won all
the other matches in the back, back draws.
I don't know.
The, the rankings are not updated.
Too fast.
I think one is maybe
around in the top 20 or so.
Yeah, he was training last year with
the team that was planning to go to
the, the World Championships and also to
the, yeah, no American Games, I think.
Yeah.
So I did play a little bit with them and,
and, but yeah, in the, in the age groups,
I think that, well definitely Juan and,
and Mark, because they've been been,
and they're very good players already.
And I, I would like to participate in more
tournaments and maybe one day, you know,
play in the, in the seniors the opens
is, and I was asking them and Mark said,
yeah, I probably can play maybe two sets.
But then, you know, in a tournament it's
hard because it's back to back to back.
Yeah.
But on the seniors, in at
least everyone is the same age.
So I, I love the vision and I love
what you're doing in Kinetica.
And, and, and that's part of the, you
know, we, we are what, what we are
the pioneers in paddle here in the us.
Sadly, you know, the US is lagging
way behind compared to, to the
roots of the world in Paddle.
Where do you see Paddle going from here
in the United States now with the Pro
P Paddle League, you know, uh, and all
these new things happening, and I think
Paddle has a huge opportunity because now
with, you know, everyone talking about
pickleball and a lot of tennis courts
converting to pickleball, you have, in
my mind a lot of tennis players were
like, I'm never gonna play pickleball.
I don't like pickle.
So all those players, which are
millions, I think they're the
perfect candidates to play Paddle.
Yeah.
And, and on the real estate side,
I think that the issue with both
pickleball and Paddle is real estate.
It's because you need places where
you can build courts and pickleball
is easier because, you know, there's
no structure other than the net post
and the lines and, you know, fence,
four foot fence or whatever around it.
Then you have a pickleball court, and
you can even play on a tennis court.
On the paddle side, there is
more of an investment if you have
the site already done, if it's
indoors, like, you know, that and
paddle and the, the, the place in.
I think it's club that
they call it in Chicago.
Chicago.
I, I was just there, Chicago, I
just played there last weekend.
Um, so you, when you go to the
Midwest or the Northeast, you can
either play outside in the spring,
summer, a little bit of the fall or
e around you need an indoor facility.
And the problem is real
estate is expensive.
So I, I think that's the biggest
challenge that battle has is real estate.
It, it's not finding the players, I think.
What, what is going on with the, you know,
with the Pro League and so many clubs
that I, I we, here in our area, there's
about five clubs that are put in, in one
or two paddle courts and in Philly they're
a little bit ahead of us and they're
more and more clubs that have courts.
But it's gonna continue to grow.
I think the challenge is the real estate.
I, I think you're a hundred percent
correct and, and I think getting on
board the country club some start
putting paddles for the exposure of
the member, that's gonna be a really
huge, huge step forward because now
you're introducing the to a, to a,
you know, a permanent membership.
That has been there for years and
years and introducing the sport will
be ideal for, for us to make it grow.
Make it grow.
Yeah, I agree.
So I think something we forgot to
ask is what, what is the name of
the club, number one and number two?
Uh, do you see any other clubs you
guys opening up in Connecticut or
New England in in the near future?
Oh, good question.
See, I, I forgot how, and so the name
of the club, and it's not, you know,
sports specific, we are calling it the
sports house, h a u S, a little bit of,
um, German, European flavor in the name.
And, and we are not.
And we are not.
And you know, going to be sports specific.
We might have the same sport,
just like we have three
different sports at our facility.
And we might change based on where we are.
We are looking at multiple sites
throughout the, the East coast and we
are working with, you know, a group
that is an interested in open in
opening multiple facilities with us.
So we'll see where that goes.
You know, it's not that
easy to open a club.
This is, I've been running clubs for a
long time, but this is my first time.
And it's our first time as a group
creating everything from scratch.
Um, but we think we have a
very good product that can
be replicated in other areas.
And, and after you get one off
the ground, then you gain so much
experience from the things that you did
well and the things that you didn't.
So we would already have done a lot
of the things that we've done a little
bit different and, but you know,
that's part of the, of the process.
We understand that.
But yes, we are looking at some
other, uh, locations from Florida to
Massachusetts to, you know, the Midwest.
Or looking at a few other places.
I love, I love how you change your
profile in LinkedIn from Director
of Rackets to entrepreneur.
I love that.
Because now you're the learning, you
know, loop is getting bigger and bigger.
Right.
You're learning quite a lot.
Yeah.
You know, I, I've been a director
of racks, but I, I've been so sort
of an entrepreneur for a while with
one, like, you know, like I said
earlier, we, well, it was his idea,
but I started doing it with him.
And we run the pickleball league
in our area, about 2000 players.
We started a spring and platform
tennis league this spring just now.
And then we have almost 300
players we own called U.
We manufacture pickleball,
paddles, platform tennis
paddles, and paddle and steel.
And we have a camp that we do,
you know, platform tennis and
pickleball camp with Juan, with Mark
Parsons, one of the four partners.
We run a.
Comp consulting firm
called Tennis Pro Search.
So I've been doing some of
these things sort of on the
side, but this is gonna be okay.
We're all in and this is what,
hopefully we'll pay the bills.
That's, that's beautiful, man.
I, I really love how that sounds and
I'm, I'm, you know, we wish you the, all
the best in the world and I'm working
Thank you to help as much as possible
and expose the club and, and make paddle
grow and, and take it to the next level.
So that Great.
Thank you.
That's super, super excited for you guys.
So whe when do we have
a, a grand opening date?
Do you know?
Or you have no idea yet?
So we like, you know, we
don't have a specific date.
I think it's gonna be
sometime later in the summer.
Okay.
And sometime in August, July.
We, we don't know, as, there's
not that much construction per se.
Like the courts, they're gonna
get installed within two weeks.
The pickleball courts, there's no
side work other than some minor,
you know, Patching of the, of the
concrete and to make sure that it
is, that is flat and so on that.
Respect is very, you know, quickly
that we're gonna get these things done.
Once we have all the infrastructure,
like, you know, the lights, the hvac, the
plumbing is done, then some of these other
things could be done at the same time and
outside, like the work in the parking lot.
And that's the first thing
that is gonna, um, start.
And, and in terms of grand opening,
we're planning to have multiple soft
openings, which is gonna be at least
one just for club professionals.
So all the tennis paddle pickleball,
pros, they're gonna come and play
and it's gonna be like a fun, you
know, social just, just for pro.
And then we're thinking, we know
a lot of people in the area we're
thinking that we're going to invite.
Five or six clubs, so we know
all the pro, they can invite all
their members to come and play.
And then we'll do that with a couple of
different, um, clubs in different dates.
Perfect.
And, and one of the things that I
heard, I don't know if it's true
or not, that you are building
the courts with my laab, right?
That's awesome.
Yes, my ette and, you know, they
are one of the, the, I did a lot
of research in terms of courts.
They're definitely one of the, you
know, top of the line companies
in terms of quality and Correct.
And there were others too that, you
know, we were close to deciding and,
but there, I've known Baby Augusta
for, you know, not for a long time.
I, I've met him when he was one of my
tennis coaches in the nineties before he
decided to start playing paddle, you know?
Yeah.
Professionally.
And, and he was great
throughout the entire process.
I've been in contact with him a bunch.
Yeah.
And, and we think that the
product that they're going to
give us is the absolute best.
Yeah.
Both on, on the side of the service
that they provide and the installation
and then the quality of the courts.
We're gonna get full panoramic
courts, five of them.
And with the Mando Yeah.
Graham surface.
Yeah.
So, you know, everything we wanted
to make at the top of the line.
And we think that they're going to, you
know, to be the best partner for us.
You, you made the right decision
there because I know their
products and it's outstanding.
The, the, the paddle courts.
They do.
And, and you made the
right decision there.
I congratulate you on that.
He, he's, he offered to come, so we'll
see if he comes to one of our openings.
We'll see.
Another question are, are you
guys partnering up with anybody?
Uh, when it comes to products or, or,
uh, you know, a lot of, a lot of these,
uh, clubs are partnering up with,
with big, uh, companies, you know,
that's other products and paddles.
So we, it's, you know, we are
talking to a couple of companies,
not only on the product side.
And not to sound cocky or anything,
but you know, product, we can get
the product from pretty much anyone.
So we're looking for a little bit
more, and we want to make sure that
our partnership is going to be not
something that is, you know, shortsighted.
We want to partner with someone that, you
know, wants to grow with us and has the.
The, you know, the vision to then
come with us to location number two.
Location number three, location
number four, that is gonna
support our tournaments.
It's gonna support our events,
it's gonna support our staff.
And we, we are looking at some on the
product side, like, you know, like
some big brand names, but then we
also have some other local businesses
that want to partner with us and, and
we're gonna be offering from Oncor,
you know, Signs in the back of the
paddle courts to, you know, painting
the, the side of the pickleball courts
to, um, selling well, selling, yeah.
Like, you know, to promoting in
our newsletter, which has almost
900 emails already from people who
said, Hey, I'm interested, which
I think is pretty amazing that
we almost have 900 emails from.
People from, from our area that signed
up to receive information about the club.
So we send, you know, a weekly newsletter
that has information about what's coming
up with the, you know, with the project.
And then throughout the, the year,
we're gonna start promoting different
types of events and programs.
So selling some space on the newsletter
or doing some social media posts, doing,
you know, onwards and signs and ev.
So all of that, it is something that
we're working on, but we haven't close
with anyone that we can disclose yet.
We will soon.
Excellent, man.
That sounds great.
I'm, I'm, I'm super excited for you guys.
I'm, I'm looking forward
to going visit you guys.
Yes, definitely.
Uh, both invited.
Oh, thank you very much.
Uh, Patricia, well, you said you were
going to join, so Definitely yes,
I'm joining you too, probably, but
I'm, I'm, I, I have still have a home
in Connecticut, so not properties
there, so I go back in the summer,
so I'm, I'm definitely going to join.
All right.
Thank you Patricia, for joining us.
And guys, remember, uh, learn plain share.
Thank you guys.
Yeah, thank you for having Meia Patricia.
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