What It Takes to Run a Pickleball Tournament, According to a Pro

While many players have just started enjoying pickleball in the last few years, Mike Hoxie began playing the game in 2011. As he recalls on the Pickleball Fire podcast, many of the now notable pickleball names were regular players back then.

They were a tiny group more than ten years ago, but Hoxie had the honor to play alongside Hall of Famers Steve Paranto and Enrique Ruiz during that period. The sport has grown a lot over the past ten years. The formation of the Columbia River Pickleball Club was one of the events that contributed to its growth. Hoxie and some of his friends had the idea to form the club, which has now grown into a large-scale organization. Hoxie said that the club now has more than 600 members, but it started with a handful of people only, out of which he happened to be the youngest. As the youngest member of the club back then, Hoxie became responsible for the "tech" side of the business. He moved the logistics of running tournaments from pen and paper to software via PickleballTournaments.com.

Melissa McCurley from Pickleball Tournaments was the person who asked him to start his own company to run tournaments. The reason was excessive demand from the Northwest that her company couldn't cover. As Hoxie made his business his full-time job in 2018, Pickleball is Great conducted 46 tournaments in 2019 before COVID struck. Due to the limitations imposed by the pandemic in 2020, Mike and his team only had 20 tournaments. Early in the pandemic, they created new policies for each tournament based on the respective city and its requirements.

Most of Hoxie's focus is now on outdoor tournaments as they run smoother during the pandemic. They are also expanding from the West coast to the East as demand for competitive play grows daily. The tournaments have now become part work and part vacation for Hoxie as he expands to Alaska and Hawaii. They usually look for eight or more courts facilities – preferably 10 to 12. Mike's company is willing to partner with anyone in the respective areas to conduct the tournaments. They're looking for opportunities to expand internationally as well.