Indoor pickleball enterprise signs franchise partner for region

LOVELAND – A local investment group has taken over an indoor pickleball facility in Loveland and will open other franchised locations in the region.

The Picklr, 3137 N. Garfield Ave., which had been owned by the Kaysville, Utah-based parent company, was converted on Oct. 1 into a franchised location, the first in Colorado, said Jim Lautzenheiser, a member of the Leadership Fort Collins class of 2009-10 who has owned Big O Tires franchise locations in Fort Collins for 28 years and Grease Monkey locations there for 22 years. He said his investment group plans to open a pair of Denver locations in the second or third quarter of 2024.

The Picklr already has six locations in Utah: Kaysville, Uintah, Logan, Sandy, West Jordan and St. George.

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The local franchising partner, Colorado Pickleball ADA LLC, is an investment group run by Lautzenheiser along with Kyle Yates, Chad Preiss and Randy Halfpop that signed an area development agreement with The Picklr this year to bring 16 franchises to Colorado and the Cheyenne, Wyoming, area in the next four years.

Yates is a seven-time U.S. Open pickleball champion, four-time USA Pickleball national champion, top-ranked World Pickleball Federation-ranked player from 2016 through 2019, and plays professionally for Major League Pickleball’s New York Hustlers. He relocated from Florida to Colorado this year and will facilitate and develop instruction and event coordination across all of The Picklr franchises in Colorado.

Preiss is a former Woodward Business Group president and Aerowireless Group chief operating officer who has lived in Fort Collins for 19 years.

Halfpop retired from the U.S. Air Force after 24 years as a space systems engineer and owns The Compass Wealth Group with locations in Colorado Springs, Cheyenne and Fort Collins. He moved to Colorado Springs in 1995 and has lived in Fort Collins since 2017.

The group hopes to open 16 locations of The Picklr in the next four years, Lautzenheiser said.

“We signed a three-pack for Loveland and two more locations in the Denver area,” he said, “and we’re meeting on Friday with another franchisee about another three-pack for locations in Westminster, Lafayette and Broomfield.”

He said he also has been in contact with someone interested in pursuing franchises in Fort Collins and Greeley.

Where his group’s future franchises might be located is as yet uncertain, he said, adding that “right now we have a whole bunch of leads but nothing firm.”

According to the organization USA Pickleball, “in the summer of 1965, pickleball was founded by Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell and Barney McCallum on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Within days, Joan Pritchard had come up with the name ‘pickle ball’ — a reference to the thrown-together leftover non-starters in the ‘pickle boat’ of crew races.” In 2022, pickleball was declared the official state sport of Washington.

Pickleball paddles are larger than the ones used in table tennis, and the hard plastic ball produces less bounce than tennis balls.

Once considered a pastime for older recreational players, the sport has gained traction with younger players. According to the Association of Pickleball Professionals, 36.5 million people play pickleball in the United States, and 70% of avid pickleballers are between the ages of 18 and 44. The Sports and Fitness Industry Association reports that the sport’s participation has increased 158.6% over the past three years and estimates that 25,000 new pickleball courts are needed to meet demand across the nation.

“Colorado is still catching up to the growing demand for pickleball courts and is facing many of the same issues that we in Florida have already dealt with,” Yates said – including the noise the sport generates.

“Combine the number of players with the unusually loud noise of play, thrown into a public park close in proximity to residential areas, and it’s not surprising to have some concerned neighbors,” Yates said. “The Picklr solves this issue by providing an indoor, quieter option for people to play. I personally prefer to play on a quality indoor court to avoid the elements from wreaking havoc on my games. It can be quite challenging to compete in any wind, especially the gusts that Colorado often produces daily.”

Yates said he believes the pickleball community in Colorado deserves more consistent and structured events. Colorado Pickleball ADA plans to provide more organized play for the state, including establishing large pickleball competitions that would attract out-of-state competitors and fans.

The Colorado and Wyoming announcement is also part of a larger initiative recently announced by The Picklr, which includes 80 new facilities across 11 states. Each of The Picklr facilities will have from eight to 15 courts and is expected to employ 12 to 15 staff members, including both full-time and part-time employees.

“Our growth strategy has always been rooted in understanding the needs of pickleball players and fans,” said Scott Schubiger, chief growth officer of The Picklr, in a prepared statement. “Moreover, this expansion is a significant step toward achieving our mission of fostering and meeting the desires of a vibrant and inclusive pickleball community. In summary – Connect. Dink. Compete.”