In the debut episode of the “PickleballGrit” podcast, hosted by Rico Figliolini, pickleball enthusiasts and entrepreneurs Daniel and Laura Hardeman discuss the growing popularity of pickleball in the Atlanta metro area. They share their journey from sports enthusiasts to regional developers of Dill Dinkers, a company dedicated to improving pickleball facilities and community engagement.
The podcast delves into various topics, from the challenges of finding adequate court space and the advantages of cashless and streamlined playing facilities to the overall impact of pickleball on community and entrepreneurial spirit.
Daniel and Laura highlight their commitment to creating high-quality playing environments and discuss plans for expanding access and facilities to foster the sport’s growth in Atlanta. The episode underscores the cultural shift towards more interactive and community-focused sports, emphasizing pickleball’s role in enhancing social connectivity and active lifestyles.
Resources:
Dill Dinkers Website: https://dilldinkers.com/
Timestamp:
00:00:00 – Pickleball Passion in Atlanta
00:01:17 – From Sports to Entrepreneurship: A Pickleball Journey
00:04:24 – Passionate Pickleball Pioneers Bring Community
00:07:53 – Choosing Dill Dinkers: Passion for Pickleball Community
00:10:24 – Streamlined Cashless Tennis Experience
00:12:10 – Ensuring Competitive and Skill-Based Pickleball Gameplay
00:15:19 – The Need for Dedicated Pickleball Facilities
00:17:56 – Challenges of Reserving Pickleball Courts
00:20:47 – Repurposing Spaces for Pickleball Facilities
00:23:09 – Balancing Retail Spaces and Community Engagement
00:27:36 – Inspiring Community Engagement through Pickleball
00:29:24 – Embracing the Southern Community Spirit through Pickleball
00:33:51 – Pickleball Entrepreneurship and Community Building
Podcast Transcript:
Rico Figliolini 0:00:01
Hi, everyone. This is Rico Figliolini, host of a brand new podcast I’m starting called Pickleball Grit, where we have special guests today. This is a brand new podcast launching ahead of our debuted issue of Atlanta Pickleball magazine. So I appreciate you guys joining us. Two great guests talking about pickleball, talking about investments and the area of Metro Atlanta. So let me introduce Daniel and Laura Hardeman, regional developers of Dill Dinkers. Hey, guys, thanks for joining us.
Daniel Hardeman 0:00:29
Hey, how you doing? Thanks for having, thanks for having us.
Rico Figliolini 0:00:32
No, appreciate you guys being with me. It’s a Friday afternoon and beginning the weekend, so, you know, you all may be going to play pickleball later or not, but this is a great subject and a growing, a growing trend. Actually, it’s beyond the trend at this point. There are cities right now looking to open up their own places, county parks looking to do that. College is fielding their own teams, summer camps away, summer camps for kids. So it’s kind of cool that it’s going all out there. But to get started, tell me a little bit about yourselves and let’s start with Laura. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself? And then Daniel.
Laura Hardeman 0:01:10
Sure. So, actually, I’m an Atlanta native, which you don’t hear a lot of. We’re a fairly transient city, but I grew up in the area, involved in a number of different sports. Never racket sports, though. And so as I became an adult, you know, have my full career going. I work in marketing, have been in that field for more years than I care to admit. But I love it. And along the way have had dabbled a little bit in entrepreneurship. I was involved in a startup in a prior role, prior to the one I’m in now, helped create a nonprofit. So I’ve always oriented towards entrepreneurialism. And then outside of work, of course, pickleball, I’d be remiss not to say that’s my number one addiction. And close in line with that is my family. Daniel and I have four kids and amazing friends and family in Atlanta.
Rico Figliolini 0:02:11
You have your own pickleball team right there. Right? Right. Daniel, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Daniel Hardeman 0:02:19
So for me, I’m actually far from being here from the Atlanta area. I was born and raised in Central America and, you know, to the point of playing some soccer down there as a goalie, which influences my pickleball game. But yes, I surprised people with that fact. Typically, I look like someone who wasn’t cooked long enough. So missionary group or my parents were missionaries there, and so I was born and raised, raised there until I came to Georgia, back to Georgia in 97. But that was the thing with being here in Atlanta and with Laura finding pickleball. At the beginning of the pandemic, we had thought we were going to start playing tennis. Those rackets came in the mail. We got introduced a pickleball and those rackets are still sitting in the closet. So that’s, that’s part of our origin story. But yeah, I currently am working also in the it field and, and have now, you know, we’ve, I’ve previously looked at other franchises and now with our entrepreneurial spirit, as she said, we, we found something that we love and something that we can bring to the city and share with them.
Rico Figliolini 0:03:32
Cool. So entrepreneurs, it’s always good to do startups. It’s an exciting process, right? To be able to do that and start a business. It’s roller coaster of emotions maybe and investments and. All right. It’s good to have a passion for what you’re doing. So that’s the number one thing. You also have other investors, if correct, you have a us. Well, explain who are the other investors that you have with you.
Daniel Hardeman 0:04:01
So Laura. Laura actually has known them much longer than I have. Evelyn is, Evelyn Orenbach is in Stuart naption. They’re a couple that we have known for quite some time and very close to us. And Evelyn was, and you can correct me if I’m wrong, Laura on the USA team for Dragon boat, is that right?
Laura Hardeman 0:04:22
Yeah, yeah. She’s quite athlete.
Daniel Hardeman 0:04:23
Quite an athlete. On top of that was, is a vet, an astounding vet and had opened her own practice and even sold that back in the day. And Stuart is a professor up at Kennesaw State in business and strategy and is one of our go tos for those sort of, that sort of information. And we also have Destin Dunham, who has ties to some of the Dill Dinkers founders and the group that started it. He’s the nephew of one of them of the CTO there and he was the one that kind of brought it to us. And here we are now.
Rico Figliolini 0:05:04
Takes a village to start a. Oh, it does. Well.
Daniel Hardeman 0:05:09
And Evelyn and Stuart were actually the ones who introduced us to pickleball. They’re the ones right there at the beginning of the pandemic when we thought we were going down the tennis route and ended up, they introduced us to it and the rest is history.
Rico Figliolini 0:05:22
Interesting. And you know what I find about, I started with play a little bit of pickleball, but I started with tennis initially and tennis, obviously, a huge court, pickleball. You could put four courts on that tennis court.
Daniel Hardeman 0:05:34
Oh, yeah.
Rico Figliolini 0:05:35
So anyone that’s played knows how social and how close those, those courts are, too. I mean, you could have your friends eating, you know, chicken wings on the side and having a beer while you think in your ball and stuff.
Daniel Hardeman 0:05:48
So, yeah, we’ve even had one guy who would play with a beer can in his hand with, with flip flops. With flip flops. Like, we, we’re part of that original group that we still carry a net in our car with chalk and a leaf blower in case just, you know, you never know when the game’s going to break out, right?
Rico Figliolini 0:06:09
So, so, yeah, and we’ve had that on tennis courts where it’s pickleball. Like you said, you could actually hold it on the court versus going to the cooler. And so, you know, you’re dedicated, you’re passionate. What made you decide? I mean, there’s several other businesses right within this space. What makes you decide on dill dinker as being the one that you want to go with?
Daniel Hardeman 0:06:34
I mean, for me personally, it had to do with, one, our passion for the sport and the fact that we seen, especially here in Atlanta, a lack of availability for courts. And on top of that, it is something that has brought community to us. It is something that has just been just a wonderful cornerstone of our relationship and our friendships and community and passion. So with all that combined and having to deal with battling tennis players or the elements or the park systems or whatnot, to try to even get courts and neighbors, you know? Cause we know that there’s a sound element to it as well. And so all that kind of combined, like, kind of, it became something like this is a need that a place like Atlanta where we’re ranked so low on, you know, the scale of availability.
Rico Figliolini 0:07:31
Of pickleball, I think it’s almost 77th on the national survey.
Daniel Hardeman 0:07:36
Yeah, yeah. It’s like, it’s like 19th of the worst cities, not of the, but not ranked in the top. It’s 19th of the worst cities when it comes to pickleball.
Rico Figliolini 0:07:46
Pickleball.
Daniel Hardeman 0:07:47
Yeah. And so, you know, when you have that kind of demand, but that kind of passion and wanting to help bring something to community, I mean, it was kind of a no brainer in our eyes.
Laura Hardeman 0:07:56
And have you.
Rico Figliolini 0:07:58
Go ahead, Laura. I’m sorry.
Laura Hardeman 0:07:59
Oh, I was going to say, I think you’re curious specifically about dildinkers and why we chose to go Dill Dinkers, because, you know, right now there’s a lot of a lot of people entering this arena because there’s so much demand, as Daniel described. And, you know, prior to even a choice within pickleball and how to go about bringing that in, we actually explored other franchise opportunities several years ago. So we’ve long. We’ve long been interested in that model. We think it makes a lot of sense. I can go into numerous reasons why, if you’re curious, but I’ll stay on track with Dill Dinkers. But, you know, as we started to look around, you know, first you got to decide, okay, are you going independent with this? Are you going with support?
Rico Figliolini 0:08:42
Right.
Laura Hardeman 0:08:42
That’s piece number one. And I think it’s just overwhelming to try to do this independently. And so then you get to everything that dill jinkers brings to the table. And first and foremost, we liked that it was created for players, by players. So they’ve been very particular. They’re not so concerned. Dinkers and we are not so concerned about, you know, the exterior of the building or having, you know, other elements inside of it, like alcohol or food. That’s not really the focus. The focus is really for the competitive player or people who want to get better and are committed to playing pickleball on a fairly regular basis. Not to say we wouldn’t be welcoming a beginner. We always certainly are. But, you know, things that differentiate dildinkers is they use the best quartz, they use the best lighting, the fencing, the technology. Everything is oriented around players who are going to know the difference in those environments. So that was a big piece combined with their team is incredible. Just what they set up in such a quick amount of time and their mentality, inclusion about wanting involvement from the regional directors to bring best practices and ideas to the table and give them feedback has been amazing.
Laura Hardeman 0:10:06
And there just was a chemistry there with the people that we really believe in them and what they’re trying to bring.
Rico Figliolini 0:10:15
I know that there’s other aspects to it, right. The cashless aspect. They’re probably using technology that you could just walk on the court, know where you’re going, not have to worry about paying anything, and just leave if you want to, and you’re all touchless, if you will. That’s kind of neat to be able to do that. Almost feels exclusivity to some degree, right. Versus going into a place and have to deal with things and lines and stuff.
Daniel Hardeman 0:10:43
Right. It’s meant to be as streamlined as possible, that there’s different models out there in the business. Even now with ours, we do want to make it as easy as possible because you want to maximize that time when you come in, check in and get your court and be able to know where you’re at and, and have the most state of the art, you know, system for making it easy because nobody wants to deal with that when they’re trying to just get on and play and have that social time.
Rico Figliolini 0:11:11
And I think having complete indoor makes sense, especially in Atlanta. Atlanta, right. So this gets you around and you’re, you don’t have to worry about the heat, the sun and all that.
Daniel Hardeman 0:11:24
Well, and even here, even in here in the spring, you got the wind.
Rico Figliolini 0:11:27
Right, right. Yeah. Oh, God, the last few days. Even today, actually. Even so.
Laura Hardeman 0:11:33
Yeah. But I think with the technology, there’s, you know, other elements to that. So, for example, you know, there’s cameras on the court so that you can actually go back and watch your play or have a coach review it for you. So that’s something you’re not gonna get outside. And again, it’s designed for the people that, that really want to get involved in this sport and get better. So you’re going to want things like that. There’s also, there’s a coaching app, Daniel, you, you can speak better to that than I can, but again, you know, how do you progress? That’s a big, that’s the big million dollar question, right? How do you level, get the levels accurate so play gets competitive and people know where their skill gaps are. And so rather than it just be kind of here and there, there’s actually a system, you know, that’s based on an app that, that we provide.
Rico Figliolini 0:12:18
So can you all, would you all be able to stream games, anything?
Daniel Hardeman 0:12:23
So all of that is our end goal. It would have that ability, and we are looking at the technology for that. And as she was mentioning it, we’re teaming up with Colin Johns, who is, as we all know, is part of that duo with Ben Johns, and he is our brand ambassador and loves what we’re doing and as part of the team, too. And with that, he’s also a co founder of my pickleball coach, the app, that app. And so we are looking how to bring that in the best way possible to integrate it in with the entire experience to the point where in the app, it currently has things where you can have, you can upload clips, you can upload video and have a coach give you feedback on it and so forth. And so it’s just to have that kind of team. When we talk about the team, where we’re not joking when Colin Johns is coming on board, saying, we really love what you doing and want to be a part of it. I mean, it says a lot right there.
Rico Figliolini 0:13:24
Yeah, that’s exciting. I can’t imagine being able to go and play and then get feedback from a coach later to tell me you need to, you know. Yeah, I can see that. That’s kind of cool to be able to do that. And the sport is expanding enough that there are a lot of new players coming in. I know, for example, I was talking to someone from Malta the other day in their marketing department, and I think last year they had 4600 players on Malta. This year they may have 5800 registration ends, I think the end of the month. They have to find places to do this.
Daniel Hardeman 0:14:01
Right. Well, we actually, you bring up Alta, and that’s actually the interesting part because we actually just finished playing in their winter league. And, you know, the crazy thing is we’re having to drive all over the place to have these games and, you know, humbly, we’ll say we got silver in our division, but that’s fine. But, but, you know, having to go all the way up to Woodstock, all the way down, and, you know, and playing on and you never know what the conditions of each court will be because I do know where we play. Like, Grant park hasn’t been resurfaced, even for tennis and decades. And so, you know, the, you never quite know if the ball is going to hit the right thing to pop up or slide or whatever.
Rico Figliolini 0:14:47
That’s the Atlanta Parks Department.
Daniel Hardeman 0:14:49
Grant park. That’s a grant.
Rico Figliolini 0:14:50
Yeah.
Daniel Hardeman 0:14:51
They don’t have pickleball courts.
Rico Figliolini 0:14:52
Yeah, yeah, but I think that’s part of length or something. Right.
Daniel Hardeman 0:14:57
But that’s where also currently is using either neighborhood courts or, or, you know, even, you know, even other facilities and locations that’s all over the place.
Rico Figliolini 0:15:09
And even they are seeing the growth in the sense that they also realize the pain because that’s what she was saying, too. You know, at this point, with not enough players, they’re going all over the map. And if they can get enough players, though, they can condense that map, if you will.
Daniel Hardeman 0:15:24
Correct.
Rico Figliolini 0:15:25
But you all would be, you know, one location could actually have several leagues going on. So it’s a whole different story. Mike Broad’s almost like intramurals anyway.
Daniel Hardeman 0:15:36
Well, and even with that, when you talk about, when we talk about community, like we want to build this in a way where, you know, when you talk about 30 locations, we could even have our own little, you know, leagues within, within the facilities have, you know, those neighborhoods have then challenge other locations and stuff, but it’s really just a great setup because with ours, you know, the community aspect is the biggest piece to the point where if you are a member at one, you can play at another, you’re not having to like, it is network wise. That way, if you travel to Maryland, where the headquarters are, and have a business meeting there, you can play at that facility with our membership. So it’s, it’s, it ties in all across the board.
Rico Figliolini 0:16:17
Yeah. To get back to the community part, I can appreciate that, because Hoas and other places, you know, with tennis courts, a lot of them don’t want it even penciled in, if you will, for pickleball. And, you know, and sometimes there’s not enough practice time even, because in Alta as you, as you know, you have practice time during the week, then you have matches. There’s never enough court time or space to be able to do what you need to do. So, yeah, pickleball needs its own place. Some luck, right?
Laura Hardeman 0:16:48
Well, and I think to add to that, you know, some, some courts, public and neighborhoods allow you to reserve a space, but a lot of them don’t. And so we’ve all had an experience, I bet, where you go out to an open play or you go out with your friends and try to play and you can’t get a court or you’re waiting around a lot between games, you know, I love to be outside, and so there’s certainly a place for outdoor play, but also I love the certainty of when I can, you know, sign up for a court, because let’s face it, after traffic in Atlanta, you got, you know, a couple hours, you’re probably willing to get out there in the court, and then you want to get home. And I don’t want to take it my whole weekend. So I like knowing I’m going to get there, 530, I’m going to play till 730, and I’m going home. And my experience at a lot of the other shared outdoor courts is I’m going to get there at 530. And if I want to have a decent number of games, I’m probably there for at least an additional hour.
Rico Figliolini 0:17:40
Okay. And I can see also, listen, and in other places especially, I’ve experienced it where people will register for the courts, reserve the courts, and you’re playing next to it, and you could use that court, and it’s empty all of a sudden, and no one’s showing up. Two people just reserved it. You know, it’s just like for 2 hours, it’s just crazy. No, there’s no sense of respect anymore about cancel your reservation. This way someone knows it’s open, you know? Right, right. So it’s hard to do that even if, you know, bringing your own net to a place like that. Can you imagine? It’s just that people would be like, yeah, I can’t even see doing that at the set of courts that we have saying, you know what, I want to play pickleball. Because the next court over, there’s no fence between the courts. It’s like it’s not going to so dedicated. So we’re, I mean, there’s a lot of counties in the metro area, so you’re not stuck in one county, but do you, can you share maybe the top three counties you may be looking at?
Daniel Hardeman 0:18:40
Or, I mean, we are looking from right now in Fulton County, DeKalb County, Cobb County. I think Clayton is one of them. I mean, the whole territory encompasses any Atlanta folks know ITP inside the perimeter and then a good portion outside the perimeter, too, all the way up to, you know, the Woodstock area and over, you know, over, I think it’s Suwannee air, you know, all the way out and all the way down and stone mountain, everything. So, but the primary ones we’re looking at to start is coming a little more centralized because I know Atlanta proper.
Rico Figliolini 0:19:18
Yeah.
Daniel Hardeman 0:19:19
Is very underserved in comparison to some of the other suburbs. And so we are definitely close to getting something started here.
Rico Figliolini 0:19:28
So how much of a space, square footage wise, do you need to be able to do this?
Daniel Hardeman 0:19:33
So at minimum, it all comes out to the layout. At minimum, it’s about 15,000 sqft for about six quart with a minimum of 18 foot clearance to the ceiling, which is PPA suggests between 18 and 20 minimum. And that’s for six. That’s for six courts. And that would going up from there. It all, again, all depends on the layout. But typically about every 2000 sqft more, you can fit another court if it’s laid out properly.
Rico Figliolini 0:20:03
So talking a little bit more, getting into the weeds of the business a little bit. For those that are looking at this as an investor or something like that, or someone that wants to open or invest in something, if you’re, you’re looking to, is it easier to repurpose a building? Because I’ve seen warehouses, I’ve seen certain places all of a sudden become other things, you know, former, former, what do you call it? Costco. Not Costco like Sam’s Club, or maybe one of these places are bumper cars. All of a sudden those things are vogue anymore, but there’s a lot of space.
Daniel Hardeman 0:20:37
So yeah, you’ve got the, yeah, you got the big box stores, you’ve got light industrial, some mall spaces, you know, and that’s where the industry as a whole is still evolving. And so we are looking at, at all these spaces all the way down to one of, one of the locations, original locations in Maryland was a hockey rink and they took out the ice and now it’s this gorgeous facility there. Another one was, was like a church facility. It wasn’t an actual church, but like the facility where they did, you know, other, other events to the point where they got, they filled up those six courts so fast they had to cut a hole in the wall and go into the next section of that building. Right. And so now they have twelve courts and it’s just a testament to how much demand there is for it.
Laura Hardeman 0:21:27
Yeah. And I think, I think different franchises are approaching that different ways. So for us, you know, I mentioned that obviously location matters a great deal and we want a building that is going to have climate control and air conditioning, all those things. But our focus is more on the interior. So old warehouse spaces, for example, ample parking, a lot of them are free from pillars and other barriers. Big space. So for us that’s fantastic. I think there’s another approach where you’re looking at a little more prime real estate with retail spaces. Nothing wrong with that. I think it’s just a little bit of a different model because our focus is we want to put the investment in the quality of the play environment. So like for example, our floors, you know, they’re going to have the, what is it called, Daniel?
Daniel Hardeman 0:22:18
The software, you know, that sort of thing. So it’s a layer that helps soften, you know, for those of us with bad news and stuff, but not take away from the quality of actual play. Like you don’t want the court, obviously, where the ball doesn’t bounce properly. Properly. So it’s got something that PPA promotes to.
Rico Figliolini 0:22:38
Okay, I was going to say because it’s competitive.
Daniel Hardeman 0:22:42
Right. We got the thumbs up from Colin himself.
Laura Hardeman 0:22:46
Yeah. Legitimately. He’s tried it. But I say that because that’s just where our focus is. Whereas you may have another independent or another franchise that’s focused more on one of the higher end retail spaces. Well, both have their place.
Daniel Hardeman 0:23:03
Yeah. And our goal in providing to anyone who’s interested in getting into it is to make it, you know, this sort of thing isn’t easy as a whole, but we want to make it as easy as possible. And give them support they need and to be able to come in and work with us and with the landlords, to be able to have it at a point where all we got to do is come in and put it in the courts and go and have something ready to go for them.
Rico Figliolini 0:23:28
So it’s really up to the individual franchise or franchisee, I guess, to say, because this doesn’t come, this is not like you guys are into the courts, obviously, which makes sense, right? You want a good experience, right. But there’s no concession food portion to this or other things.
Daniel Hardeman 0:23:47
So now we do because. Right.
Rico Figliolini 0:23:49
If it’s a good place and you have plenty of parking, plenty of space, an inventive, an entrepreneur or person would say, you know, two food trucks on a Wednesday or a Saturday, you know, that would be, you know, outdoor dining, you know, would be an area where they could go or indoors or set that space so the individual franchisee can adjust for the community or the space they’re in, I guess.
Daniel Hardeman 0:24:13
Correct. And we even provide the ability for them to look, if they want to do food, they can. We don’t necessarily encourage it, but that’s, that’s on them to do. We can’t really, you know, that’s not really our model, but that’s something that we allow that flexibility. But in all honesty, that style, like the eatertainment ones, if you will, that they’re actually complimentary to what we do. There’s people that are going to hang out with our friends and drink there, eat there, that will then get introduced to pickleball. And that just continues to educate the community on what pickleball is and get more eyes on it. That can only benefit all of us as a whole. Right.
Rico Figliolini 0:24:55
With Atlanta in particular, in the counties around here, there’s so many opportunities for cross marketing, cross promotion. Do you see any opportunities that you’d like to engage in, any community programs, other things? I mean, we talked about Alta a little bit, but are there other opportunities that are out there that you, you all think would help in this?
Daniel Hardeman 0:25:20
Go ahead, Laura.
Laura Hardeman 0:25:21
Well, I’m just going to say one thing that is really important to us, and I think Tilde anchors as a whole is being able to give back to the community. So, you know, not so much cross marketing purposes, but more just community building purposes. I certainly see us doing a number of different, you know, whether it be a charitable fundraiser or bringing in, you know, a group of people, you know, boys and girls club, for example, to come in and learn pickleball. Those are the kind of things we want to get involved in that matters to us as individuals. A lot to give back. You know, beyond that, I think we were just talking the other day about all of our locations have pro shops and we’re talking about, you know, lifestyle products. Like, there’s the products that you have for playing and then there’s lifestyle products. So I think that’s a good example. I know personally, I own pickleball earrings and I have, you know, a cute bag and I’ve got my clothes. Like, that’s just something that’s part of it. So I think some of that exists. And, Daniel, you may have more to say about those opportunities.
Daniel Hardeman 0:26:24
Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, we’ve. Between teaming up, we have a partnership with EULA, you know, partially because of the tie to Colin, of course, but, you know, we’ll have other, other suppliers as well, but they’ll be the ones that are our primary partner there. And even looking at opportunities with the growth of tournaments and the PPA, the app, the MLP, I mean, Atlanta has, unfortunately, we moved down from the premier level of MLP. Now we’re on the challenger level, but hopefully we’ll be moving back up there next season. But things like that, because you have so many ties to the community and to those sort of opportunities that you can tie into. And to Laura’s point, we really do love the idea of giving back as much as possible, including things like schools. Before we even signed on with this, at my kids own school, they had a rainy day field day, and so I ended up taping off a court inside their cafeteria and playing every kid in the school. I played the lunch lady that day. So for five and a half hours, I taught the entire school pickleball, and I paid for it. I’m not as young as I used to be, so for the next three weeks, I was sore, but it was just such a rewarding experience to see these kids who’d never even heard of the sport get really excited and just be able to have some fun.
Rico Figliolini 0:27:54
Yeah, I’ve seen twelve year old semi pro kids. All right, on TikTok doing. Doing this. I mean, yes, you don’t have to worry about tennis. A whole big court. You know, it’s just like. It’s almost like a paddle ball court on a little tennis court. Yeah, I mean, they started from young age, and you’re right, the community, you know, being able to provide that, that space like that, I think will grow this sport really well. I think over the next few years, you’re actually growing a. A funnel of players coming to you over the next ten years, maybe.
Daniel Hardeman 0:28:29
And I can tell you that we don’t even know if it’ll rain this year at field day, but they are all still asking, are you coming back? Are you coming back? And it’s just to see that kind of excitement for kids that have never, I mean, they’ve never picked up a racket of any kind. It’s really rewarding to be able to do that sort of thing.
Rico Figliolini 0:28:47
That is cool. And being community minded is definitely especially what I found moving down here from New York, from Brooklyn, New York. Way different than down here, that’s for sure.
Daniel Hardeman 0:28:58
Right?
Rico Figliolini 0:28:58
And I moved down here in 95, and when we drove into our neighborhood in Gwinnett county in Peachtree corners, there were people waving to us. And as I guess back then, they knew every car that came in the neighborhood. It’s only 84 homes. And I’m like, honey, do they know us? Do we know them?
Daniel Hardeman 0:29:14
And she’s like, welcome to the south, right?
Rico Figliolini 0:29:18
Yes. Which is, which is great. And this is the whole big thing of it. I mean, Boy scouts, Girl scouts are big down here, but they’re not big up there, but a different atmosphere, I think so. Different values to a degree, also. But it’s good to see you all, you know, investing in the community, getting this going, because you’re right. This player Atlanta needs, it is just not enough places. Is there anything that we haven’t covered that you all want to share also? Besides.
Daniel Hardeman 0:29:52
I mean, I could talk about pickleball all day long. I know that, you know, the hardest thing about doing this that I found is that we’ve had so many contacts with people along the way that then pass us up. They just are that good. So that’s okay. I think that’s wonderful. Let them keep going on. But that’s the wonderful thing is throughout the pandemic, throughout our changes in our lives, this community is what has. Has really kind of fulfilled us. And we can go to just about any court in Atlanta and run into somebody we know. And we’re talking about. Cause we, you know, being down here in Grant park and wanting to go play on a real court, having to drive all the way up to Shaw in Marietta or Hammond or somewhere else just to. Just to get on a real court and being able to now just, you know, you recognize everybody. Everybody knows your. Everybody knows your name. And even the ones that don’t will still wave at you like the old show. Yeah, right? And we’re just really excited to partner with people who want to help spread this. And so, I mean, that, that, that’s the best part is the support of those who want to do something different than the regular nine to five, to want to start something of their own, to be able to be part of that passion.
Rico Figliolini 0:31:16
So if anyone wants. Go ahead, Laura.
Laura Hardeman 0:31:18
I’m sorry. I was just going to say the last thing I would just add is Atlanta. One thing I love about Atlanta is it’s a very diverse community, perhaps because we are such a transient city, and I love that about it. And pickleball to me represents the spirit of Atlanta extremely well. So bridges all ages. You mentioned the young kids, but I have been beaten very handily by people in their eighties. We’ve seen our facility is going to be accommodating for people in wheelchairs because there are amazing wheelchair players in pickleball, for sure. We’ve seen all races, all sizes, all, you know, genders. It’s just, that’s, that’s one of the things I love most about it. When you mentioned it’s a really social sport.
Daniel Hardeman 0:32:06
It is.
Laura Hardeman 0:32:07
You rotate, you get people in. So, yeah, I hope you are legacy. Yeah, I hope that’d be our legacy. Atlanta is bringing more of that.
Rico Figliolini 0:32:15
I love the fact that you can have a 20 minutes game versus a three hour set. Three sets, 3 hours tennis. It’s just like crazy. So if someone wants to find out more about Dill Dinkers Atlanta and talk to you guys, how would they reach you? And we’ll have this in the show notes when we put this up.
Daniel Hardeman 0:32:34
Right. So dldinkers.com is the base site since we don’t have our specific location open yet, which we, like I said, we’re very close to. I can’t spill the beans on where it is just yet, but we’re this close to having it signed to start building out.
Rico Figliolini 0:32:52
But inside the perimeter or outside at.
Daniel Hardeman 0:32:54
Least, I’ll give you at least that it’s inside the perimeter. It’ll be addressing a need with those who’ve been lacking for a while for courts. So it’ll definitely be supporting that. But the website, if you’re interested in franchising and working with Laura and I on this is the DillDinkers.com backslash franchise territory, Atlanta.
Laura Hardeman 0:33:22
If you just go to the site, you can navigate to it very easily. DillDinkers.com.
Daniel Hardeman 0:33:27
Yeah, the franchise has something slightly different. Yeah.
Rico Figliolini 0:33:30
Well, appreciate you joining me. There’s been a great conversation. Certainly love talking about pickleball. And I especially love because of my background a little bit talking about business about the entrepreneurial part of this and about the community building, because it’s all about that, right. Where there’s a journey that we’re on, but we don’t want to just be all about business. Right. I mean, that’s not fulfilling.
Laura Hardeman 0:33:52
Absolutely.
Rico Figliolini 0:33:53
So I’m glad that. To see that here. So we’ve been talking to Laura and Daniel Hardeman, regional developers for Dill Dinkers, and just can’t wait to see where inside the perimeter that’s going to be opening their first location.
Daniel Hardeman 0:34:09
Yeah. I will add, if you follow the Dill Dinkers social media right now on, you know, Instagram, Facebook, and all those locations. Yeah. You can find them just @dildinkers there will be. Once we have that announcement for this location, it’ll start going up there as well.
Rico Figliolini 0:34:26
And how long does the place and how long does it take to actually open once you signed? And what’s the. So that’s.
Daniel Hardeman 0:34:33
That’s the best part about it. If you get a place where the landlords will friendly or if it’s a place that’s already basically white box where it’s ready for you to come in and put in the courts. We’ve had one location opened within 51 days of signing the lease.
Rico Figliolini 0:34:47
Wow.
Daniel Hardeman 0:34:47
That’s the fastest. Now we look at probably 60 to 90 for most. As long as if you’re at the point of not having to do significant build out.
Rico Figliolini 0:34:58
Right.
Daniel Hardeman 0:34:58
And that’s why, you know, we’re very purposeful in trying to find, you know, those. Those friendly locations that will work with us to get to the point where then we can just as soon as we sign that lease and get. Get going, we can turn it around.
Rico Figliolini 0:35:10
Yeah, that’s. That’s good turnover and that’s great. Great way to start building that cash flow through there.
Daniel Hardeman 0:35:17
Exactly.
Laura Hardeman 0:35:20
That’s exactly right.
Rico Figliolini 0:35:21
Thank you, guys. Hang in there with me for a minute. But thank you, everyone, for listening to our first episode of Pickleball Grit. We’ll be doing more of these and appreciate you hanging in there with us. Share this with everyone and stay well. Enjoy the courts.