Brothers join forces over pickleball

While many may think watching paint dry is the epitome of boredom, three brothers last week took turns stealing glances at the newly painted floor of their Ozark startup.

The brothers, Austin, Aaron and Ashton Owens, have joined their forces and funds to found Dropshots LLC, a set of four championship indoor pickleball courts located at the Ozark Mountain Sports Complex, visible on the east side of U.S. Highway 65 just north of the Missouri Highway J exit.

The brothers are halfway there in their plans to lease the entire building that until now has housed Marucci Hitter’s House - Midwest, an indoor hitting facility and retail store for baseball and fast-pitch athletes.

The hitting facility is relocating, and half of its space has been resurfaced into pickleball courts, divided by nets from the hitting area. Eventually, the siblings plan to convert the remainder of the space to four more pickleball courts.

As the brothers wait, the only thing keeping balls from volleying is a small leak in the roof that sent a deluge of rain to pool on the drying surface. The rain is delaying the drying process, putting the planned June 7 opening in question. Nevertheless, courts are reserved, and the partners are hopeful that the first thwack and double-tink will sound in the space just after 8 a.m.

Almost ready
The four courts occupy half of the 20,000-square-foot space, and Austin Owens describes taking over the 10,000-square-foot back half of the building as phase one.

Asked what the timeline is for the eventual occupancy of the entire building, Austin said that depends on when the baseball operation’s building is complete.

“We are hoping by the end of the year, beginning of next year to be in there, but for now we’re really excited to get this set up and taken care of,” he said.

Ashton said a lot of people have booked their spots ahead of the opening and are excited about it. Even though the late-spring weather is nice, there is an advantage to indoor courts.

“It’s a plastic ball, so any time there’s a hard wind or it’s raining or anything like that, you can’t play outside – so game over,” he said. “Also, when it’s like 100 degrees, who wants to play outside?”

The brothers say they have invested $75,000 in startup costs, including nets, surfacing, merchandising and more. They declined to disclose the cost of their lease agreement, but noted leasing from the baseball park has been a major savings.

“Construction costs are just astronomical,” Aaron said. “Partnering with the baseball park worked out really, really well as far as getting things done quickly. I know there’s some other projects that have been in the works for years, and you’re dealing with construction and city zoning and codes and all that stuff.

“We’ve kind of been able to cut through all of that because the facility was here.”

Entrepreneurial spirit
All three of the Owens brothers are entrepreneurs, and that’s something they say they get from their father, Lonnie Owens, who bought Empire Printing in 1986, and their mother, Vicky, who took over that business upon Lonnie’s death in 2007.

Austin has owned Empire Printing along with his sister and brother-in-law since 2010. The company does screen and paper printing, embroidery and engraving, he said.

Ashton operates a marketing firm, Triple Threat, and works mostly with professional athletes on anything from video production to graphic and web design. His main client is Golden State Warriors point guard and 10-time All-Star Stephen Curry.

“I’m a big basketball fan,” he said. “My wife and I moved away for about 10 years to Oklahoma City, and during that time with the Thunder being there, I got involved with NBA athletes and eventually found myself in a conversation where I was able to work with Under Armour and Stephen Curry.”

Aaron is a full-time real estate agent and co-owner of Alpha Realty MO LLC, a brokerage that includes 130 agents working with residential and commercial properties.

Ashton said his father started multiple businesses – in printing, but also a travel agency and even a car dealership.

“We just grew up around business ownership, and that was kind of in our DNA,” he said. “All of us had different directions we’ve gone over the years but have always come back to owning our own business.”

Austin noted he and his five siblings – there are three boys and three girls – were raised to be very independent.

“We were just raised to be free, and if you can own your own business, then you gain a lot of freedom,” he said.

The partners would like to eventually franchise the operation, but they note that’s an idea for some time down the road.

A taste for pickleball
Aaron said Austin’s wife, Kelly, turned the whole family on to pickleball.

“When she started getting into it, we all started,” he said.

Austin said anyone can enjoy the sport.

“I’m not super-athletic, but I can have a lot of fun with it,” he said. “It’s an option that both younger and older people can play.”

Aaron said the sport started in Seattle in the 1970s, but it really took off during the pandemic.

“When the pandemic happened, this sport kind of emerged as this community-building opportunity,” he said.

Ashton noted community automatically rises up around the sport.

“If you go to an outdoor court here in Springfield on a Tuesday night in the summer at 10 p.m., you’ll think there’s some event going on, and it’s really just pickleball,” he said. “Sometimes they’re not going there to play; they’re going to meet their friends and hang out.”

Cultivating that spirit is the mission of Dropshots, he said.

“We want to create that environment here,” Ashton said. “We want to provide a place that when the weather’s not great, you can still continue to meet your friends and have a great relationship with the sport and being able to play together.”

Pickleball rising
According to USA Pickleball, in 2023, there were nearly 12,000 places to play the sport, with 50,000 known courts, and 1,000 new locations were added to the organization’s database that year.

The organization estimates there are 13.6 million players in the United States, and the sport continues to be the fastest-growing in the U.S., having increased by 51.8% year-over-year in 2023 and 223.5% in the four years since 2020.

Matt Battaglia is co-founder and president of the Ozarks Pickleball Club. He said pickleball participation shows little signs of slowing. Registrations in local tournaments continue to rise, as do the number of requests his club receives to assist with or run them.

The demand for player clinics and requests for lessons continues to be strong, usually maxing out of registrations, he said.

The interest also shows in the number of new players on public courts, he said.

“It wasn’t too long ago where I would recognize 80%-90% of all the players at Meador Park on a nice evening,” he said via Facebook Messenger. “Now that number is more likely to be around 10%-20%.”

Meador Park is the Springfield-Greene County Park District’s main pickleball facility, with a dozen dedicated courts where six tennis courts used to be.

Jenny Fillmer Edwards, parks media director, noted the conversion speaks to the popularity of the sport.

Last summer, the parks’ Cooper Tennis Complex hosted a regional qualifier for a national event that brought in more than 400 players, and USA Pickleball was involved, she said.

“People traveled,” she said. “Pickleball is strong in Springfield, but it’s strong everywhere.”

Booking a court
Dropshots plans to be open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Online booking can be completed at its website, joindropshots.com. The cost of a one-hour session is $30, which can be shared among players. Two-hour sessions are $55; three-hour, $80; and four-hour, $100.

The brothers say they plan to offer open play for $15 per person, which will cover three hours. They also plan to offer beginner lessons, with prices to be determined, and ultimately tournaments and events.