District 10

Hey all,

We have been having some trouble getting registrations for our pickleball leagues and I wanted to see if anyone else was having these problems. We are able to get ok numbers when we host tournaments, but our leagues just aren't getting off the ground. Has anyone else come across this issue? If so, how did you adjust to get those registration numbers? If you host leagues, but do not have a problem with filling them, what format do you use (price, # of games, prizes, days and times, where do you advertise)?

Any help is greatly appreciated,

 

Eric Barraza

Recreation Leader III

City of Norwalk

We are full with massive waiting lists, and don’t have any tournaments. We contracted with 4 of the players as instructors so they can run the program like pickleball players would want. We just provide the space, time, and equipment. Word of mouth is how the program has spread.

Kolleen Wallace
Recreation Coordinator | City of Dana Point
949.248.3538
www.danapoint.org/recreation http://www.danapoint.org/recreation

Parks Make Life Better!

From: Eric Barraza [mailto:district_10@lists.cprs.org]
Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2019 3:13 PM
To: district_10@lists.cprs.org
Subject: [district_10] - Trouble filling pickleball leagues


Hey all,

We have been having some trouble getting registrations for our pickleball leagues and I wanted to see if anyone else was having these problems. We are able to get ok numbers when we host tournaments, but our leagues just aren't getting off the ground. Has anyone else come across this issue? If so, how did you adjust to get those registration numbers? If you host leagues, but do not have a problem with filling them, what format do you use (price, # of games, prizes, days and times, where do you advertise)?

Any help is greatly appreciated,



Eric Barraza

Recreation Leader III

City of Norwalk

-----End Original Message-----

I run 6 different 10-week round robin leagues in Mission Viejo. We don't contract them out, but we do up to 16 players per league. I had ample wait-lists and that's why i'm running 6 leagues (we advertised 5, had to add a 6th because the waitlist was so large I had enough people for a 2 court league plus a healthy sub list). For the smaller leagues with only 8 people in them, we do 7 of round-robin matches, and the balance is playoffs, but everyone still plays the play-off weeks, we just do an upper bracket court and a lower bracket court so the last few weeks are really enjoyable for players because skills match up well.   

• Register as an individual by division (men and women play in the same division).
• We offer Beginner (2.0-2.5), Intermediate (3.0) Advanced (3.5+). I offer them at night and in the morning.
• It's $30 for our members, $80 for non-members, for all 10 weeks (the $40 difference is our $5 non-member drop-in price over 10 weeks. Usually after a season, they get a membership). This includes balls, prizes for 1st and 2nd place, and an end-of season banquet dinner to present plaques to the winners, superlative player nominated awards and do some raffle prizes for the people who used the least amount of subs all season.
• Beginner leagues do 3 games each time they meet (once a week) and can stay longer for open play. This helps the real beginners who don't have the stamina for more than an hour of play, but allows those that are really into it to play as long as they want with those who come after league. Intermediate and advanced leagues do 6 games when they meet each day, 2 games with each person assigned to their court. 
• I do all the rotations and scheduling in excel, so each season I just swap out names now that I built the files.

We advertise in our pickleball e-newsletter (bi-monthly with click here to register links), city website pickleball page, we have a full page in our quarterly magazine for pickleball programs and place flyers at the Rec Center where the leagues take place. I'll do social media posts in some local pickleball groups on facebook if i'm struggling for a couple people for our advanced league, which is usually 8 people each season.

On our member registration day (24 hours before general public), there is usually a line out the door and around the building and a few leagues will sell out in an hour.

Happy to discuss options and ideas 949-859-4348 x 5722. I'm also covering leagues and pickleball programs and marketing at conference if your going to be coming to Long Beach this year.