Chaifetz Group Adds To Its Pickleball Portfolio With Pickletile Investment

The Chaifetz Group, led by Managing Director Ross Chaifetz and better known to Major League Pickleball (MLP) fans as the owner & GM of the St. Louis Shock, are adding to their portfolio of pickleball interests this week by announcing a strategic investment and partnership with Austin-based Pickletile, a relatively new player in the pickleball court construction space, but one with an innovative approach that may just take the court construction industry by storm. Chaifetz will be joining Pickletile as the Vice Chairman of the Board, and will be taking an active role going forward.

Chaifetz, who is a mainstay on the sidelines of Shock MLP matches as their General Manager, is now one of the most committed investors in the pickleball industry. They were a major capital contributor to the United Pickleball Association when capital was raised last spring, they retain a piece of DUPR by virtue of their MLP team ownership, and last October the group also took a significant stake in the Picklr, the leading indoor club franchiser in the space.

“We just love Pickleball. I’m not sure which line of business that we’ve invested in will be the most successful, but we’re bullish on everything,” said Chaifetz.

In fact, its Ross’ enthusiasm for the sport that drew Pickletile’s CEO Scott Miller to the partnership. Says Miller, “What really drew me to this group is their passion and their commitment to the sport. They’re on the sidelines of their MLP team’s games. They’re real people, excited about the sport, and when we met they were excited about us. That was a huge vote of confidence for us, and a big reason for moving forward with the collaboration.”

So, what does Pickletile offer that’s so unique? Says Miller, “All our designs are glass walls and partitioning instead of traditional chain link fencing. We’re able to offer a better product, better warranty, better design, better functionality, and it elevates the entire court.” The group offers a standardized, modular construction process that brings pricing stability to any market nationwide, eliminating the cost proposal variances that plague certain construction markets. Lastly, their tech-first designs integrate seamlessly to provide lighting, heating, cooling, and plug-and-play integration with all the leading court management software packages.

They bring a completely new design process to the business of building pickleball courts, one that solves a significant issue that traditional design methods have yet to really solve: sound mitigation. When I wrote about the construction challenges and choices that indoor operators faced last year, a recurring theme was noise and sound mitigation. One observation from a franchisor that stuck with me was the notion that a taller ceiling did the best at diffusing sound because there was less opportunity for the pickleball noises to reverberate back down. Part of the reason there’s so much noise in typical pickleball courts is because the court barriers have traditionally been chain link fencing, which (even when equipped with semi-opaque sound proofing banners) do little to direct the noise anywhere but out.

Pickletile’s PickleGlass installations are, per Miller, “the leading soundproof innovation in the industry. Our only competitors are people who attach soundproof blankets to chain link fences. We’re 35% more effective in sound proofing, in addition to the aesthetics.” For a little more upfront cost, PickleGlass installations drive sound upward instead of outward, which is a great benefit to courts built near houses and within HOAs. This benefit to communities has led to partnerships with builders and community management organizations who, on the one hand, are getting demands from some residents to support more pickleball, but on the other hand are dealing with other residents who can’t stand the noise. Because of this advantage, Pickletile has now done projects for HOAs, apartment complexes, public and community courts, commercial gyms and clubs, and private homes. They’ve worked with leading builders such as Toll Brothers, and have done installations for Life Time as they push deeper into the pickleball space.

“We thought initially this was just a higher-end offering, but because of our sound proofing, we’re getting pulled into more and more public court projects,” says Miller. Pickletile has gone from high-dollar clientele looking to build sleek offerings at high-priced hotels or at multi-million dollar residences to partnering with Parks and Rec departments throughout the country.

This has led the company to face a nearly 10-fold increase in project demand for Pickletile year over year, a main driver for this partnership and this investment. But this partnership is about more than just capital investment. Says Chaifetz, “We’re big in real estate and have big relationships with builders, which is a big plus for Pickletile. They want optimization of current business lines and to be smarter about go-to-market strategies, but their biggest restriction is fulfilling demand. So they need help building out their team to meet that demand.”

So, does this partnership tie back to the St. Louis Shock? Says Chaifetz, “There are no direct synergies to the MLP team yet, but indirect synergies will be evident soon enough. The next wave growth opportunities that MLP owners are thinking about is definitely facility build, building home courts to host events. For us, Pickletile will now be a part of that. We can build great courts and have improved player experiences based on the technology.” We’ve already seen one major facility build announcement from an MLP owner, when Utah Black Diamond’s owner Connor Pardoe announced in April of 2024 a $25 million 36-court facility tied to the team. It is likely just a matter of time before the Shock announces a home facility in the greater St. Louis area.

Be sure to look for more of Pickletile’s glass courts being installed going forward, especially at Picklr facilities based on the existing partnership that the Chaifetz group has in place, and be sure to keep an eye on the St. Louis Shock heading into March’s 2025 player draft, as they have not been afraid to spend what it takes to win.