Racket Sports Briefing No. 39
WORTH A READ
The Picklr Files For Chapter 11 With 70+ Clubs Still Open
CEO Jorge Barragan blames too many corporate lease guarantees, after a $4.4M loss on $10.3M in 2025 revenue and a franchisee stepping in with $4.5M to keep the parent alive… read more.
Operators Say Indoor Pickleball Isn’t Broken. The Way Clubs Get Built Is.
Dill Dinkers, Epic and Ballers weigh in on unlimited memberships, lease risk and why full courts still don’t guarantee a club pays its rent… read more.
CourtsApp Wants To Be The Expedia Of Racket Sports, And It Just Mapped 67,000 Places To Play
280,000 courts, instant booking and court inventory pushed straight into Google, ChatGPT and Claude… read more.
Cliff Drysdale Is Retiring The “Tennis” From Its Brand
The Troon company now pitches itself as a full club operator across padel, pickleball, F&B, fitness and wellness, while insisting tennis is still the core… read more.
Padel Just Made It Into An Arizona School’s After School Lineup
Desert Garden Montessori students head to Conquer Padel in Tempe with Wilson rackets and a shot at two USA Padel sanctioned tournaments a season… read more.
Pickle Money Ball Is Putting $1M+ On The Line For Amateurs In Vegas
Every division from 3.5 and under up gets paid at Mandalay Bay next July, and starting in January you need a membership just to enter…read more.
The Brand Behind Padel’s No. 1 Player Says Its Pickleball Paddles Cut Vibration 35%
NOX brings nearly 20 years of padel foam to six X-FOAM paddles, backed by a university lab test against honeycomb cores…read more.
Bela And Wilson Just Launched America’s First National College Padel League
The ACPL starts city stages this month with 200 players from 35 schools across four U.S. regions, and crowns its first national champion in March… read more.
Serena Williams Gets Her Second Barbie Of The Year, And This One’s For The Trophy Case
Mattel’s new doll recreates her 2005 Australian Open outfit, the sports side to the business Barbie she got earlier this year… read more.