Dallas

I had a couple days near Dallas and decided to check out the pickup basketball scene there. I stumbled upon two different pickup basketball programs and actually had time to try out both. Both pickup basketball programs had two completely different business models and I think it’s worth mentioning both because the use cases fit the need of two separate groups of players.

Hoopclub.org – They rent out gyms around the Dallas area and charge $10 per person (capped at 15) per 2 hour session.

PickUp USA Fitness – They own a gym and charge a monthly membership fee of $60 for unlimited basketball in their gym specifically used for pickup basketball.

HoopClub.org

I’ll start with the one I tried out first. They have a website https://www.hoopclub.org where they offer basketball to players that “don’t want a long-term commitment”. I think this is a great for those who don’t regularly play basketball but only want to play 1-3 times a month. They charge $10 per person per session you play. All sessions are 2 hours long, which is enough to tire yourself out, especially since they cap it at 15 people max so you will never have to wait more than 1 game.

From my research through Facebook and other sites, they only started HoopClub basketball in November 2017, and they rent gyms all over the Dallas area on different days. Because they are relatively new, I don’t believe they have a regular schedule yet because I see new places and times popping up every week. You can look at this as a good thing or bad thing because some people may want that regular cadence of games on a specific day and place, but others may just be looking for basketball on any day to play.

I arrived in Dallas on a Sunday night, and I noticed in the past weeks there were games every Wednesday. They also just started with a Tuesday game the week before so I expected both of these days to be available. But by Sunday night, neither days were up and available. It wasn’t until Monday afternoon when the Tuesday session was finally posted and I signed up immediately. Unsure why they posted it so late but maybe they had trouble confirming the gym? (a problem this business model might come across a lot)

The site is fairly straight forward. You see the day, location and time. You see how many available players there are and if you want to play that day, you just click ‘Book’. After clicking book, you provide your personal information and credit card info for the $10 payment (Update March 18, 2018: They removed the ‘Available” column…uh oh…I don’t think that is a good sign because people may be discouraged to sign up if there isn’t anybody playing so they removed it).

But, it was not all smooth sailing from here. Two hours before the actual start time, there were still 9 spots available. I questioned whether or not we would actually play and messaged the organizers. They replied quickly and said that they would have to cancel if there were not enough players. With only six people signing up in 24 hours, there was no way we would get 9 more in the next two, so the manager ended up canceling it (and of course refunding the $$).

Sucks.

Unfortunately, the Wednesday session from the past months was not posted this week, so I could not experience playing with this group.

I wish I could have played but at least they were responsive enough to let us all know 2 hours beforehand about the cancellation. It would have been worse if they didn’t tell us until we got to the gym so I do appreciate that.

However I am kind of skeptical if they ever get 15 players for a session because I feel like it was not just my session that was cancelled. There seems to be many other sessions where the available players were still in double digits the day of the run, so I don’t think those ran either.

I will say that through their Facebook posts, they do have sessions that get enough to play. They post videos and pictures so you can see the competition level and gyms.

It was probably just bad luck and timing for me.

With no sessions posted left for the rest of the week, it was time to move on to the 2nd pickup basketball program here in Dallas.

PickUp USA Fitness

So these guys aren’t technically new because they have gyms in 5 locations throughout the USA, but this one in Coppell, TX just opened up 12 days before I tried them out. So very new, even newer than HoopClub.

This gym was specifically built for basketball – group training, private training, court rentals and most importantly “10 Minute Pickup Games WITH REFEREES running daily”.

WITH REFEREES!

That part stood out the most for me. Never had I played pickup basketball with referees, so this definitely intrigued me. They offered a free day pass so I decided to take advantage of that on that Wednesday. I called for my pass, and also seeked out clarification on how the pickup basketball worked.

From what they told me, it was exactly as they advertised. Pickup games would last 10 minutes, and there would be referees. You do not have to call ‘next’ as the order you play is the order you sign up on a list that the referees manage. It would be difficult to get 5 friends to play on the same team without waiting out an extra game (if the teams don’t align perfectly for your 5 friends to get on at the same time). This solves a lot of issues of calling ‘next’ and throws it all out the door.

I took my free pass and showed up Wednesday night during prime time of 7pm-10pm. There were 2.5 courts and a fitness center as well for those looking to workout. I had high expectations of this place because I think it is perfect for pickup basketball BUT, when I got there, there was less than 10 people there. I figured I was just early and hoped that more people would come later, but unfortunately, at no time did we have enough to play 5’s. So I ended up shooting by myself (my editor called me ‘sad’).

So I decided to make the most out of this opportunity since I was already here. Because there was no one really here, I got to utilize one of two shooting machines. I had never used a machine in my life but this was definitely worth the experience coming all the way out here.

These machines pass to you every 3 seconds or so to spots that you pick. I picked the 5 standard spots around the 3 point line (think 3-point contest). You get tired so fast because it’s the same repetitive motion over and over and over. Though, you get so many more shots than shooting around by yourself or with friends. And the precision of passes makes you concentrate 100% on your jump shot. I am by no means a great 3-point shooter and probably only shoot around 25% in the league I play in back home, but with this machine I shot 70/126 or 55%.

My editors didn’t believe me

Before I left, I spoke with people there and they told me that most people play on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Plus, because they just opened, people are still figuring out when to come. That’s fine, and because there are 5 other locations around the USA, I assume their time will come when people start coming regularly.

I wish I had a redo for my free pass so the next time I would get the experience to play pickup with referees and without having to call ‘next’. I also wish I could have seen the quality of referees but with no games going on, the referees just sat around doing nothing. If it means anything, they looked like high school or college kids with a whistle around their necks. (Also for what it’s worth, the PickUp USA did offer me another free pass for a later time)

Conclusion

I thought about this for the past couple of days and I’ve realized that there is a need for both the one-time games in HoopClub and the membership type for pickups in PickUp USA Fitness but I am curious on how both business models will sustain over time. I really do want both of these programs to succeed and it’s great what they do for ballers around the world, but I don’t see how either can survive off of just pickup basketball. My biggest concern for both programs are those individuals who meet up at either program, and then realize that it’s significantly cheaper to start their own pickup basketball at gyms around their area on a weekly basis, bypassing both programs.

I think as of right now, PickUp USA Fitness has the upper edge because they can make money through other channels such as group or individual trainings. I’ll be following both organizations throughout the year and hope that both have evolved over time and hopefully continue to provide pickup basketball to ballers in the Dallas area.