The Pickleball Factory, St. Louis Shock pickleball team detail new partnership for events

The Pickleball Factory has announced its first partnership.

On Wednesday, Nov. 20, the Cape Girardeau sports facility and Major League Pickleball’s St. Louis Shock franchise hosted a joint media day at The Pickleball Factory’s 1507 Independence St. location to discuss their new cooperative plans.

“This is like a business in Cape Girardeau partnering with the Kansas City Chiefs or the St. Louis Cardinals,” said Jeff Brune, president of The Pickleball Factory. “This is the top tier of professional pickleball players in the world, and the St. Louis team is the premier team. They’re playing in the semi-finals this week for the national championship.”

The multi-year partnership makes The Pickleball Factory the Shock’s official Southeast Missouri pickleball venue partner. This will allow the facility to host watch parties, tournaments and co-branded St. Louis Shock Dynamic Universal Pickleball rating sessions.

Andrew Haines, chief operating officer for the Shock, said this was the team’s first such partnership. He said he hopes to host events monthly at The Pickleball Factory.

“One of the things we want to do is to build not just the tour and the players, but we want to build the community,” Haines said. “… It’s been so much fun to meet the pickleball community and see that grow, see the friendships.”

The St. Louis Shock’s founders are the Chaifetz family, with operations led by billionaire businessman Richard Chaifetz and his son Ross. Haines said they are dedicated to growing the sport of pickleball regionally and nationwide.

Founded in 2021, Major League Pickleball features 22 teams spread across the country, each with two male and two female players. The Shock’s players are Hayden Patriquin, Gabriel Tardio, Kate Fahey and Anna Bright. Bright is the second-ranked female player in the sport.

“These guys practice and train hours and hours and hours every day. They really are dedicated to this craft, and from a fan perspective, it’s so much fun,” Haines said.

Brune and Haines both play pickleball themselves, though not professionally. Brune is a member of Thorngate Holdings LLC, which owns the 60,000-square-foot Independence Street location, and he recommended converting 34,000 square feet of it into The Pickleball Factory. The rest will become Parc Motor Club for the storage of luxury cars.

The Pickleball Factory is set to open the second week of December. Brune described it as being the most state-of-the-art pickleball facility in the Midwest, with 14 seven-layer cushioned courts, play-side cameras for recording highlights, a full bar and restaurant and an equipment shop.

“… We wanted to really create a facility that people of all ages love to play in for their health, love to play in for their recreation, just make it the stand-out facility,” he said.

Brune also announced a name, image and likeness deal with Southeast Missouri State University sophomore Cam Pedro to be a brand ambassador for The Pickleball Factory. Pedro, a wide receiver for the SEMO football team, has the same last name as The Pickleball Factory’s mascot, Pedro the Parakeet.

The sophomore is a pickleball player himself, having been introduced to the sport by his friends when he first moved to Missouri.

Brune said additional partnerships would be announced in the future.

When The Pickleball Factory opens, it will offer various membership tiers. Players without memberships will be able to use the courts for a guest fee.