Pickleball Charlotte
A new sport needs new court management software that’s fit for the task
61 courts
including 47
indoor courts
100% visibility
of court bookings
4 locations
in 4 years
When Allan Haseley, owner of Sports Connection - a multi-site sports and family entertainment center in North Carolina - was shopping around for new volleyball court flooring for his facilities, he noticed something.
Little yellow balls. At every venue he visited, he noticed people playing a game on court with these little yellow balls. Pickleballs.
He kept asking about Pickleball, and quickly realized it was going to be the next big thing. So, in 2019, he opened Pickleball Charlotte to take advantage of the fastest-growing sport in the US. It quickly grew, now boasting 4 locations across Charlotte, NC, with 47 indoor courts and 14 outdoor courts
“We knew Pickleball was going to be big, and within a few weeks of opening, we had a couple of hundred players on court every day!” says Allan.
But how was Allan and his team going to handle all that court management?
The Challange
Customizing club management software to meet the demands of pickleball players
Having managed volleyball courts, soccer pitches, and a host of kids' entertainment events for over twenty years, Allan and his team were no strangers to club management software.
But their existing software just wasn’t built with this exciting new sport in mind.
“We have sport management software that runs all our volleyball programs, our soccer, our birthday parties and family entertainment, and we used that originally. But once we became a pickleball facility versus a volleyball facility with pickleball lines, we realized we needed different software,” says Allan.
“We needed to get software that was designed for the pickleball industry, and stop trying to jury rig a system designed for team sports.”
Because pickleball players don’t benefit from generic sports management software. They have unique needs and requirements, as Allan explains.
“The one thing where pickleball differs from all the other sports, is that people want to see who else is playing. They want to show registrants, and want to play when there’s other people they know, with the same skill level and abilities as themselves.”
Pickleball players want visibility. They want to see exactly what they can sign up for - which court, which event, and which players - almost like a shopping list.
Allan’s current software might not have been built with Pickleball in mind, but CourtReserve was.
The Solution
Court reservation software built by pickleball players, for pickleball players
With CourtReserve, Allan and his team were immediately able to give players what they wanted: instant access to court bookings based on player ratings and player types.
And it wasn’t just for individual court reservations, it extended to events too.
CourtReserve let the team at Pickleball Charlotte define whatever type of event they wanted, customize it, and set search parameters.
“With all our events, we have the ability to set parameters based on gender or sex, some are open to all levels, and some are based on ratings. Players can pick and choose what they want to attend, like “Oh I want to come to this one because it’s ladies’ night.”
For Allan, that visibility, that option to search and filter events and booking options based on individual player preference was key.
“We have four locations in Charlotte, and we run them all under the same CourtReserve system. Giving customers the ability to browse by location, by level, by skill or by activity, and narrow down 800 events to exactly what they want without scrolling through pages and pages has been very helpful.”
Add to that the simple-to-use software, and the simple pricing structure, and Allan was hooked.
“They’re not trying to gouge people on the front end, it’s based on the number of users, number of instructors and number of courts. I think it’s a pretty ingenious pricing structure.”
CourtReserve also helped Allan and his team take online court rentals and reservations, something they’d never done before. Previously, it was all done by players contacting the club and telling staff what they wanted.
“It’s like the Amazon of software. Players can just go online and shop for what they want, without needing to talk to anyone. They can look at courts, or groups, or leagues, and they can say they just want to get on a certain court at a certain time, with certain people.”
It’s been a huge asset for the team at Pickleball Charlotte, which can now focus on building and managing events, maximizing court availability and delivering a better experience.
This is exactly what Allan tells other clubs when they ask him about CourtReserve.
“It allows you to manage your facility with less staff, and spend more time doing lessons.”
The Results
The industry standard for Pickleball: frictionless, automated player experiences
“In the last five years, CourtReserve has become known as the number one pickleball software.”
And not having CourtReserve? That puts you at a disadvantage.
“In Charlotte alone, there are 15 or so tennis and pickleball clubs using CourtReserve. Everybody knows what it is. Everybody asks about it. It’s really an industry standard.”
CourtReserve has been essential to Pickleball Charlotte’s day-to-day operations for more than four years now. Without it, Allan says he’d have had to hire his own programmer to get the functionality required.
Thankfully, CourtReserve has everything he and his team need. The difference, says Allan, is the fact that:
“It’s designed by people who know what pickleball is, who play it regularly.”
It’s saved time, saved effort and improved player experience. Allan notes the automation of CourtReserve specifically when players can book themselves within a certain time limit that allows Pickleball Charlotte to maximize court usage.
The player picks a time, and the software automatically adds a player from the waitlist without staff needing to touch it.
So would Allan recommend it?
“I would, absolutely yes. For any racket sport, anything that involves court management where customers sign up for courts and/or events, CourtReserve is hard to beat. We’ve even looked at switching our volleyball program over!”
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