The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Interview With Colleen Shearer & Lauren Carbo; Co-Founders CVille Smash, Indoor Pickleball

Episode Date: June 19, 2025

The I Love CVille Show headlines: Interview With Colleen Shearer & Lauren Carbo Co-Founders CVille Smash, Indoor Pickleball CVille Smash Is Opening September, 2025 Located In Old Marshalls In Seminole Square 9 Indoor Pickleball Courts, Ping-Pong, Memberships How Did Idea To Launch CVille Smash Materialize? CVille Smash Business Model, Vision and Growth What’s It Like Launching A Business In CVille City? Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air Colleen Shearer & Lauren Carbo, Co-Owners of CVille Smash, joined Jerry Miller live on The I Love CVille Show! The I Love CVille Show airs live Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The I Love CVille Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible, Rumble and iLoveCVille.com.

Good Thursday afternoon, guys. I'm Jerry Miller, and thank you kindly for joining us on the I Love Seaville show. An absolute pleasure to connect with you guys through the I Love Seaville network, our studio and our building in downtown Charlottesville, where we are in the heartbeat of Charlottesville, Elmira County, and central Virginia. Just want to be the water cooler of conversation, whether it's real estate, whether it's entrepreneurship, politics, small business, entertainment, stuff to do

for kids and families. Just the water cooler of conversation. And I think today's show embodies that statement. Very excited in a couple of minutes to welcome co-founders of Seaville Smash, business women that are pickleball enthusiasts that are evangelists of Charlottesville, Almaro, and Central Virginia. Colleen Shears in the house, friend of mine. She is a competitor of extraordinary proportions, whether it's pickleball, lacrosse,

good night, rock, paper, scissors. There's no one that I know that wants to win more than Colleen, and it's one of my favorite qualities of her. You know when you're playing on the same side of the net as Colleen that she's going to give it her absolute all. And I think it certainly embodies Lauren Carbo as well. They are co-founders of Seaville Smash, the old Marshall's location. I think I've been talking about this since August of last year, and that's because I am passionate of racket sports, passionate of sports. A father of two young boys and nothing my wife and I try to do more than keep our children off of screens and whether that's swimming or playing tennis or soccer or squash, golf, pickleball, it's get them off the screens. So I think what Colleen and Lauren are going to do is going to be a tremendous asset for families and everyone in Central Virginia.

Judah Wickhauer is behind the camera. I'd love to give some love to some of our partners. First, Charlottesville Sanitary Supply, one of our long‑standing partners. We love this family‑owned business. Four generations of proudly serving Alamaro County and central Virginia, Charlottesville Sanitary Supply, the Vermillion family, John Vermillion, now his son, Andrew Vermillion on East High Street and online at Charlottesville sanitary supply dot com. And the folks at Charlottesville Business Brokers, goodness gracious, is it busy at Charlottesville Business Brokers? With this new age of

entrepreneurship in Charlottesville and Almarra County, a lot of the old guard of business owners are selling and the new guard is moving in online at CharlottesvilleBusinessBrokers.com. Judah, the show, I'm so excited for this. Been looking forward to the studio camera. Ladies, you are now live for quite a few people including print, radio and television watching the show. Colleen and Lauren, friends of mine, thank you kindly for joining us. Thank you.

Thank you for having us, Jerry. It's absolutely our pleasure. Colleen, we will start with you. Introduce yourself to the viewers and listeners. Well, my name is Colleen Shearer, probably best known in Charlottesville for La Crosse. But I'm excited to be here today to talk about a new adventure that we're getting into.

For 28 years, it's just been all La Crosse. 20 years of it has been at UVA. So the community here just couldn't be more excited to be involved in another project. La Crosse was awesome, but we're ready for a new challenge. Put in perspective what La Crosse has meant for you in your project. La Crosse was awesome, but we're ready for a new challenge. Put it put in perspective what La Crosse has meant for you in your life. I mean you've, it's been everything. Well I came here when I was 26 years old. It was my first real job. So it's meant the world to me. It's where I met all my

best friends, thousands and thousands of girls, just trying to, you know, I've met so many great families. I basically grew up in Charlottesville and La Crosse gave me that opportunity to meet so many, so many great people. Lauren's already getting some props on the show right here. Nancy, is it Gartenberg? Yes, hi Nancy. Thanks for watching. Love it. Excited for Lauren's Pickleball Place. We're coming from New Jersey watching this interview. Love that two strong athletes, a respected coach, and a female

leaders have partnered together to do this. Viewers and listeners, oh my goodness, the feedback is coming in so quickly right now. Nancy and her daughter Emma killed me on the pickleball court, I'll just say. OK, OK. You're getting some props right now. And viewers and listeners, you can offer the ladies props by. I'll just say. Okay. You're getting some props right now.

And viewers and listeners, you can offer the ladies props by putting it in the chat box or the comment section anywhere you're watching. Lauren, the show is yours. Viewers and listeners from 13 states on the feed right now, introduce yourself to everybody that's watching. Great. So I'm so happy to be here. I came to Charlottesville 11 years ago because my husband had an opportunity to get a PhD

at UVA. We thought we were coming for three years. After three years, our kids were like, we're not leaving, mom. We're staying right here. So the kids got the opportunity to grow up here. I've been a small business consultant for about 20 years and an entrepreneur. So I was able to adjust my business model to be here in Charlottesville. I was on the road quite a bit.

But I love small business, I love helping small business owners achieve an ideal scene. And now it's like us doing this, like creating a business plan and doing something we love. I'm a complete fitness enthusiast, so I'm really excited to, you know, I kind of always thought I was going to own a gym, and this is close, but not quite. This is very close. Very close. Yeah.

I play pickleball socially. I'm not nearly as competitive as my business partner, but I love relationships. I love small business. I love meeting people and developing relationships and connecting with people. And so I feel like pickleballA-Ball is gonna bring all of that to Charlottesville. And again, I have just been welcomed by this community in the last 11 years and so happy to give something back

and do something here in Charlottesville. These are the co-founders of Seaville Smash, the old Marshall's location in Seminole Square, grand opening in September. And we're gonna show a rendering from your website on screen. Before we get to the business, you guys, if memory serves, you guys met while watching was it your kids play sports? Can you give us the flip book of that introduction?

So both our daughters play lacrosse and they play on the same club team in Richmond called Yellow Jackets South. They were probably in eighth grade. And that's where we actually met. I mean, I was full-time coaching at UVA at the time, so I wasn't around that much. So quite honestly, I was going to a lot of lacrosse tournaments with Colleen's husband, best lacrosse dad ever.

Yes, he is. Yeah. Fills the cooler with ice and everything. Nice. So every once in a while, I would pop in, and they would allow me to jump in on weekends when I could. So that's basically where our friendship started.

And from that point on, our friends, our daughters are still best of friends. And then we just kept hanging out and eventually became really, really good friends. And we've always played around with an idea, let's start a business, let's start a business. But she had her stuff going on and then I had my coaching stuff. And then finally we just kind of started getting serious. We had a great idea about,

we both really enjoyed playing pickleball. I probably play it more than her. But- You definitely play it more than her. I play it more sure, but we both loved it equally. I just played it more than her. You definitely play it more than her. I play it more, but we both loved it equally. I just played it more. And then we just, we had a great idea and then we pitched it to Chris Crater from ACAC and that's kind of how it originated.

Literally sitting around a bonfire one night, we were like, what are we going to do? We keep talking about opening a business. And Colleen at this point had gotten really into pickleball. I mean, to say she's gotten into pickleball is an understatement. You're obsessed. Yeah, she's obsessed. The pickleball bug has consumed you. Is that fair? Yes. Yeah. Yes. I mean if I could, I would play it every single day. For hours. And this is pretty normal. This happens a lot. This is how fun the... It happened to me.

The sport is so fun. It's easy to play, hard to master, pickleball. It has shot making, competitiveness, teamwork, it's social, it's a workout, it's a caloric burn, it's great for quality of life, it's a stress reliever. I can't emphasize how much fun this sport is, but what happened to Colleen, and let them know what happened, is pretty common when people get introduced with this sport.

It becomes an obsession. Yeah, I played every sport growing up. I played tennis. I never played it seriously, but I always loved tennis for some reason. So I basically taught myself how to play tennis and was fairly good at it for never really doing it in college or anything like that,

but I always loved racket sports. And then I was introduced to pickleball one day by Heidi and Megan who are two local unbelievable pickleball players in Charlottesville and just started playing it and I'm like, wow, I can do this. Like I can be competitive. And like you said, it's hard to master. Burn your calories. Yeah, burning calories, huge fitness burn.

I just, it was literally the first time I played it. I'm like, I really love this. And then just never stop playing it from that point on. Viewers and listeners, give props to the ladies or ask them questions. Robert, is it Marvinco in Clearwater, Florida watching the program? Congratulations. I love the sport. I just started playing.

I was a tennis player also. He's giving you some props. Hey, Rob. Thanks for listening. Your Facebook page. Television, radio and print that's watching the show. I very much encourage you to reach out to these ladies through the Seville Smash website and do an interview on your platforms of what's to come. So you guys are on a bonfire brainstorming a business. And then we get to this point here. And she's playing a lot of pickleball. Okay.

I mean, she can't stop talking about pickleball. Okay. But she loves it. And we knew we needed some help. We knew we needed, you know, some mentorship. We knew we needed someone who knew the business. So we went and pitched it to Chris Crater, and he's been amazing and supportive

and knows a little bit more about how to start a fitness business in Charlottesville than we could ever imagine. Let him know who Chris is. Yeah, Chris Crater is the CEO of ACAC. ACAC has grown dramatically and has several fitness facilities from outside of Philly all the way down to Greenville, past Richmond, DC,

and obviously here in Charlottesville. And so he's been a huge asset in guiding us in regards to the business model, and we don't quite know what to do with a construction plan we're learning, but it's been amazing to have Chris. But Chris was like, this is great for Charlottesville. Let's you know, let's start thinking about it I mean it took us it took us at least six months of

meeting with him Regularly for him to say we the day that he said we versus, you know Kind of mentoring us and he said we we were like we got him. Yeah, so it's persuasion at first Yes, okay. We have's persuasion at first. Yes. Okay. We have the floor plan, the rendering, can we put that on screen? Yeah, absolutely.

So, Judah, give me a thumbs up when that's on screen. This will be what is on CivoSmash.com, nine indoor pits on screen. Thank you very much, Judah. All right. Keep it on screen and almost as if you're calling a lacrosse game on the radio or a football or basketball game on TV, give us the play‑ play by play and what the viewers or listeners are seeing on screen with this rendering. So you can see there's nine courts. There's a ‑‑ we're going to have a cafe with food

and beverage and an eating area and we have two large event spaces. So there will be opportunity. We'll talk a little bit more about that. But for corporate events and parties, there is a fitness area that is dedicated to pick a ball, personal training, and fitness, and warm up. Colleen also is a certified personal trainer, and so we plan to leverage that and implement a fitness program

that'll be specialized to pick a ball play. We have a new, we added a VIP area in the back a fitness program that'll be specialized to pickleball play. We have a new, we added a VIP area in the back that is gonna kind of be a little bit more loungy and fun, but we'll have ping pong and darts and chess and lots of other ways. Pickleball and this environment, we just want it to be social.

So we want it to be competitive, but we want it to be social. So it'll have all of those things in the facility, shower rooms, restrooms, restrooms, all that. We also want to try and implement, along with the showers, so people have the ability to come in early and get a quick game in and be able to shower and get to work on time, that kind of stuff.

And also implements maybe some workspaces, so if someone needs to take a call in between matches, stuff like that, that they'll have a little bit of privacy to make a phone call or, you know, again, get on a Zoom, stuff like that, so they're able to do both. I love it. I love the business model. Break down the revenue streams and actually the business model. Bob Schada says, congratulations, Colleen.

Very nicely done. Thanks, Bob. We love Bob Schada. St. Anne's guy, Birdwood guy, Fivace guy, Bobby Schade, we love you Bob. Yes, I trained his daughter a whole bunch when she was younger. Did she play at Virginia Tech? Yes, and then transferred to Charlotte. That's right. And ended her career.

She did a really nice job this last year. And I think sons that played at Richmond? Yes. Bob Schade? Yes. Yeah?ott. Yes. We love you, Bob. Conan, Owen, we're going to get to your comments here in a matter of moments of Sir Speedy.

Break the business model down. Sure. So it was really important to Colleen when we built this out that everybody had the ability to play in the facility. So we want to have competitive pickleball, and so there'll be memberships for those people. But we also wanted to introduce new players to pickleball and we also wanted to have

a fun family night if it's raining and you want to get the kids off the screen. Jerry, we'll see you and Lauren there. Absolutely. Right. So there's a pay to play model also. There'll be leagues. So if you want to sign up every Thursday night and play and meet some people and there'll be leagues, so if you want to sign up every Thursday night and play and meet some people and there'll be leagues at all levels. So if you haven't played before, you should definitely come in and learn to play and experience.

And then there's the whole event side of it. So whether it's a birthday party for 25 people or it's a corporate event, and for our corporate events we're going to have instruction. So if you wanted to run a tournament, if you wanted to have your employees learn to play, it's the greatest thing about pickleball is anybody at any level can be on the same court having a good time together. So we'll do corporate events. We're actually booking now for the fall and holiday season if you want to do a little

something different as a team building exercise. We're booking now for after we open. And I think, is that gonna miss anything? No, I mean I would just add like for the- Lessons, clinics, everything. We're also wanna tap into the, for the really experienced higher level players, we also wanna give them an avenue.

Because we know we want beginners, we want all that. But we also want the people that are at the 3-9, the 4-0, can they get to 4-5? So we should tell them what that means for those that don't know. So it would probably be at a level where you're very, very competitive, you're really getting into it. How do I get better? How do I play better?

How do I get better coaching? How do I get better coaching? How do I get, just get another level? So the entry level player is probably somewhere between three, three, three, oh, three, five, depending on their racket sport background. Right. And then would you say that's fair? Yes, I would say that's fair. And then once you get like four or five and above, that means you're playing maybe three times a week, two times a week. You know, you can hit, I think how, you know, they define and you can hit, you know, know ten balls back and forth that kind of stuff. Like you're you're you can hit most ground strokes that kind of stuff. But then once you get to 4-0 then

you get into this this this area of where how do I actually get better? Like we want to create an environment where we get the best Charlottesville people, the best Richmond, the best Harrisonburg from all over, and even bringing people in that we can get, for the people that are good right now, but they wanna be better, and they wanna get to a five-oh level. I think that's gonna be really important too.

We don't wanna just do, we wanna hit all levels really. To speak to that, one of the things that's super exciting is that we are going to be the official indoor facility for the UVA club pickleball team. So they have a tournament team of 20. National champions. National champions, their tournament team. And then they have about 500 actual club members,

if you can believe that, at UVA. That's how popular pickleball is. And that tournament team is going to, as part of our agreement with them and giving them some indoor court time, because they don't have that at UVA, their players are going to come play and be their experienced tournament players that won the national championship are going to be playing in our building with our players. So that's what Colleen's, I think, speaking to, to creating that competitive environment and upping the game along with what's important to me is the social environment and the less experienced players.

We have a lot of Charlottesville players that are really good that have to travel to Richmond or DC or Maryland to get real high level competition. Traveling often to Pouncy Park or to Northern Virginia, although there is a good core that you see play at Darden Tau all the time. I'll throw this to you here. Comments are coming in faster than I can keep up here. Let me get to a few of the people in the comments. Logan Walsh Claylow, Spencer Pushard, watching the program right now. Conan Owens got a question which we will get to in a matter of moments. This is a very interesting question from Conan. He says, have you connected with

the Play Henry startup to recent Darden grads out there? Yeah. Yeah. You want to go? Yeah, we have. We're actually just placed an order for all of our in-house pickleball paddles to be made by the Play Henry group. We're so excited. We want them in our building. We're talking about some other ways to partner with them also. But our house paddles will be from Play Henry. And Play Henry. From Grace and Ellie. If memory serves, merchandising in the manufacturing side of things. Is that right? Yes. Custom paddles. Custom paddles. Custom paddles. John Blair and Stanton, congratulations to these two entrepreneurs. All you have to do is look at the weather for this upcoming weekend to understand just

what a good idea this is. Nobody wants to play tennis or pick a ball outdoors when it's 100 degrees. Good luck to both of them. This question comes in on Twitter. Why the Marshall spot? It's a great spot and I'm sure the landlords rolled out the red carpet for you because that was vacant for a while, but ask them why they picked the Marshall spot. That's a great question.

Sure. And we'll talk a little bit about that whole area. So to start with, nine courts is a lot of square footage. And so as we looked around, you know, we could have built our own building. That's pretty costly. As we looked around at some of the other spaces in Charlottesville, we have 33,000 square feet there

in the old Marshall space. A lot of the other spaces in Charlottesville. We have 33,000 square feet there in the old Marshall space. A lot of the other spaces that were available were either 1 and 1 half times that, which would have been too much for us, or not enough space. And so that old Marshall space just really worked out. There's lots of parking there. And I know that there's lots of drawings out there, but they are regentrifying that entire shopping plaza.

There's apartments going in down at the end of that where the old giant was. And the whole facade of the building is being redone. Seaville Smash is the pillar for that to start to begin. So this fall, that whole shopping plaza will have a whole new look, along with a pedestrian walkway that's going over 29 over to Stonefield. So it was the right location with the right parking and the right amount of square footage. And also for me, the height of the ceiling. So it was a drop ceiling, but once we knock that down, it's 25 feet high.

So it's actually the perfect height for pickleball. Comments continue to come in. I will highlight before I get to comments from the viewers and listeners, this is the fastest growing sport in America, ladies and gentlemen. And they are on to an idea that I think is going to have a lot of success. Put in perspective some of your experience playing at the other locations because you've played everywhere and how you've been able to tie a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and to make it into

an even better scenario with Seaville Smash. Well, I've played it a lot of different places on purpose, but the closest to us would probably be Performance Pickle in Richmond, and the owner, John, has been so gracious and so helpful to us in this whole process. That place, we took a lot of ideas from that place. And then there's Bangers and Dinks also in Richmond that we visited.

We visited a pickleball place in Charlotte. And they all went out to Ohio. We were up in Baltimore. We had so many gracious owners that helped us along the way and shared models and all different. But where are you playing? Talk about where you're playing now outside. Oh, yeah.

Well, I play at Greencroft and I play at Boar's Head and I play at Darden and I play at PVCC. So I play a lot of different services, a lot of different inside and outside. So we take every place we play, every place we go to, we take an idea from them, whether it's the lighting, the flooring, the food, the bathrooms, just everything. We are sponges. Colleen's question that she asked every place we went is, what is the biggest mistake you made? Because we also were learning from some of those too. And what were some of those mistakes? Yeah I mean a lot of it, a lot of it was

over promising and not being able to deliver. There was layout and we learned a lot about court surfaces and how to clean court surfaces without ruining those kinds of things. Too much food, not enough food. So those were the general things that we learned that people, the answers that we got to that question. Put in perspective the food and beverage here. What can we expect?

Well, I mean, we always say we don't really want to go into the restaurant business, but we know that we want to have enough food that people don't feel like they always have to leave. So, in the mornings and the afternoons, we definitely plan on having grab-and-go stuff, some smoothies, coffee, bars, yogurt, more grab-and-go, easy stuff. At night, we are hoping and we are going to have a little bit more extensive menu. Yeah, so we'll do some simple stuff to start,

but we'll have wings and flatbread pizzas and tots and chicken fingers, those kinds of things to start with and we'll see how it goes. If it goes well and the public wants us to add other things, we will have all canned beverages to start with, but we will have a liquor license, but we don't want to do the full bar thing. So we'll have beer, wine, and seltzer. That's perfect. That's absolutely perfect. What keeps you up at night? Does this keep

you up at night? Does this cause stress? Because you guys are all in. We're all in. For me, I am not up at night yet. I'm sure that we will have some stressful nights. Two things. I feel like being in coaching for almost 30 years has prepared me well for a lot of different scenarios. And I spent a lot of sleepless nights

worrying about my career. And so I feel like I'm prepared. I'm prepared for a lot of obstacles. And also what makes me feel good is that I'm in partnership with two people that I trust, that they're very intelligent, they're very, they know what they're doing. So that makes me feel, I'm on a team that I feel really confident about. And that's why I don't lose a lot of sleep. not yet. Same question for you.

I worry a little bit about being open seven days a week for 16 hours a day, six of those. On Sundays we're gonna try to close a little early. So one of my first jobs at a grad school was at a facility that had 24 hour staffing, and I remember some of those being on call and having problems. And so I worry about the long hours

that our business will be open. And again, continuing to grow our team so that we have folks on board that we can trust so that we don't have to be there in the building all the time. I don't know if it's a good time to talk about our first hire. Absolutely. So Bryce Baxter is our first new hire. He's going to be our director of Pickleball.

And I'll let Colleen talk a little bit about his experience. How'd you find him, his experience? This guy's legit. Yeah, so probably about a little over a year ago, I was at Dardentown and just jumped in a random game, a pickleball, and I was playing against him and his friend. And I vividly remember they both had the same shirt on.

They both had a pickleball shirt on, almost like a uniform. And at that time, I'm like, I don't even know. Why are they both wearing a uniform? I didn't really know. They were kind of on a team together. They played in tournaments. But I didn't really know the pickleball world quite yet.

But I remember playing against them, and they beat us. But it wasn't by a ton, but it was competitive, and I remember he was gracious. He was competitive, he was good, but he was nice about it. He wasn't a jerk. He wasn't a jerk. Which you see in sports, but yeah. And I like that part, but he didn't take it easy on me. He wanted to a jerk. Which you see in sports. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I like that part. But he didn't take it easy on me.

He wanted to win. But he was a nice guy. And then I asked him afterwards, I introduced myself and I said, hey, told him who I was and that we were, at that point, it was still a little bit more than an idea to open up an indoor pickleball place. It was more than an idea, but we didn't have quite the funding yet. He was the GM of bangers and dinks in Richmond. So I said, would you mind if my partner and I called you and asked you a bunch of questions about basically how to run a

pickle ball facility. We were talking to everybody. We were calling everybody that had anything to do with pickle ball all around the country, anybody we could talk to. And he was like, sure. And so he probably spent at least 45 minutes on the phone and answered all of our questions from little to big. And that was it. And then we followed up a couple times. We interviewed about a dozen people seriously for this position. And we got applications from outside of the area, too, some really good people. Bryce had the right experience and the right

background for this position. He was out of everybody that we interviewed. And thank you to everyone. Some of you may be watching that interviewed with us and are going to continue to be part of our facility. We appreciate all the support and the interest, but Bryce was the right candidate and the right experience for us.

Well, you touched on this briefly. I would love, I like to talk with business owners about this, of the extent of being all in. I mean, this is like, not everyone can be like a founder or a number one because it's not just leave it at work, clock out, go home, you're done. You're constantly thinking about this. Very curious to your answer Lauren about this. The all-in nature of it and how it can be on your mind all the time, consuming.

You know exactly what I'm talking about. Yeah so I would say to start with Colleen and I are in a great spot in life. Our kids are out of college. They're going to be on their own, off the payroll as my husband would say. And our husbands are super supportive. So they're really excited about this for us. They get along. They know how to fix things. That's going to be helpful because they may have to come spend some time with us

up there taking care of some things. But that is the foundation for making an all-in type of situation work. So we're going to live, we live close to where the facility is going to be, so we'll have easy access. And Colleen and I, if anything, we over-communicate and we know that we can communicate through whatever kind of things come up. But it is all in. There's a lot on the line. This is not an inexpensive business to start. But having the support around you is what is going to make that go right. I also look at the fact that it's not an inexpensive business to start, and in some ways

it's a strength, because you almost have this like the moat that is around the castle. People have to figure out startup costs of any kind to launch a business. The startup cost for something like this is significant. So once you're in the game you almost have this moat around your business protecting it from competition. Who would you say is the biggest competition here for a C-Ville Smash? So in Charlottesville, there is not going to be another facility like that. And actually, there were other people right behind us looking at that Marshall's space. For the same concept. For the same concept, yes, because it's the right thing for Charlottesville.

And there's a big pickleball community here. You know, there's lots of places that have a couple of indoor courts. None of them are dedicated indoor courts. But you know, Richmond is the closest-like facility. And there's enough business and pickleball lovers to go around for John to continue to do well. And hats off to Performance. They just opened their second location in Roanoke.

But we're working with a group of people that really want to expand Pickleball. And so there's plenty of space for us all to do that. But there isn't really anything like it right here in Charlottesville. Honestly, I look at it more like the weather. You know, we need, you know. That's how I see it. Yeah, like the weather, if it's really nice out,

if it's nice out all the time, and that could pose a little bit of a problem. But that's where our business model, we have, we want birthday parties, we want graduation parties, we want all kinds of events that you can't have outside, regardless of the weather. So even if it is really nice, and the average pickleball player just wants

to go out and play, but we can host corporate events, team bonding, sororities, fraternities. So we're hoping to build a building. The league play and the clinic so we can grow the sport. It's hard to do all that outside. I love it. What is the idea to scale in other cities? Is that putting the cart before the horse? Is it a similar model to what ACAC did? We have lots of conversations all the time.

We dream big, obviously. So we'll start with this one. It would be fantastic. I don't think franchise is the right word, but it would be great if we get it right here in Charlottesville to take it to a couple of other communities. So you almost see it owned by the same team. That's a great idea. Is there an opportunity for other locations in this market or is this market of the size

that it could sustain one location? We haven't talked about doing a second one in this market. But again, we're so far from that. We just want to open in end of August, beginning of September. We want to open, we're going to get this rolling and then have this on again in a year and then we'll have that conversation. I will. I will. So what can we expect with grant opening?

And then the follow-up question for both you guys is, you are actively recruiting or forming partnerships with other businesses locally that could have their branding or their call to action messaging inside your facility. That's correct. So we believe in Charlottesville as an amazing local community. There's a lot of other local great small business owners and we want to partner with them. So we are looking for you know who wants to have their

name on our wall, who wants to brand their one of our courts with their logo, who wants to be on our TVs, be on our digital content? Who wants to host a tournament in our building? Who wants to have a corporate event? We're looking for partners and other people, other businesses to be in our building. And so yes, we're talking, we are talking now with folks. We actually got our first sponsorship. You want to give a shout out to Amanda from Active and Connected?

Yes, yes, we're super excited to have Amanda on board. And we have two other sponsors that we're very, very close to I guess sealing the deal for that also. So we'll have a big announcement probably in the next two weeks on that. We have a contact form on the website, so anybody who's potentially interested in being a partner, having their name in our building,

being in any of our digital content, send me a note through the contact form, or if you're interested in booking a corporate event for the fall or the winter, same thing. Memberships are gonna be released pretty soon. In July, we'll be launching our membership portal, which is so exciting. And then again, our construction team is telling us that we should be open end August beginning to

September. That's amazing Bob Shotta says he would like to sponsor. So that could be a follow-up for you. Yeah I will definitely follow up. The business owner watching the show. Reach out to the ladies. So grand opening are we gonna do ribbon cutting? Is that the plan? Yes we will have a big party. Yes. And I think we also need a soft opening. So I think the first week that we're open, we'll open it up to friends and family and partners and colleagues just to have people in the building

to make sure all of our stuff works correctly, booking reservations, all those things. So we'll do a little bit of soft opening and definitely a ribbon cutting. Again, any of our sponsors and partners will be part of that ribbon cutting and get a lot of exposure from that event also. And I can't say enough what's happening

in that shopping plaza, it's gonna explode. Well, we should highlight that. Betsy Nugent, I gotta highlight you. I love Betsy when she's watching the program. Coach, I love Betsy. She's watching the show and giving us some props right now. Put it in perspective what's happening in Seminole. I mean, we interviewed, is it Dr. Halliburt?

Yeah, right. Yep. Coco's Great Adventure Park going in right next door to us. He's a great guy. Great guy. He's going to target age 4 to 14. I think he's going to have climbing walls, go-karts. I don't think ball pit. I forget what else they told me, but that's going to be super fun.

Trampolines. Trampolines, right? So that's going in right next door to us. So Seminole Square, when you are open, when Coco's is open, and when these apartments come up, I mean, it's going to be completely different from what Seminole Square. You guys picked a great spot. It was so centrally located. That's picked a great spot. I, I. That's what I'm saying.

It's so centrally located to everything. These guys, these ladies are gonna absolutely crush this. I am so very excited. Questions continue to come in. We'll take a few more here. Time flies when you're having fun and pickleball is a lot of fun. This question has come in.

Can they give us an idea for membership rates? Sure. So our founding membership is going to be launched and only available for about 30 days. It will be the premiere of memberships in the $130 a month range. We're still totally nailing down those prices. And what does that get you? You'll have unlimited open play. You'll have the ability to bring in gas.

You'll have access to the ball machine. You'll have advanced reservation capacity. That is reasonable. Yeah. Unlimited play. That's only going to be available. And then that membership, that founding membership, will go away.

Then we'll have an additional Premier membership that we launch. That will be a limited number of founding memberships that are offered. Okay. First come, first serve. First come, first serve. Wow. So follow us on Facebook at Seaville Smash. $130 will get you unlimited court, ball machine, access, and bringing guests as well.

Yeah. There's some limits to some of that, but it's a whole package. You're not going to be able to beat it. That is a hell of a deal. Yeah. So we'll launch that on Instagram at Seaville Smash. It'll be on Facebook sometime in July. And that will only be available for the first few people that sign up.

And then that membership will change. And then there's in between memberships. And then we'll go down to like a student membership. We'll be at least five different membership levels. And we'll have a student membership that's a nine month contract for folks that are gonna be at UVA that wanna play, that'll have less advanced reservation time

and those kinds of things. So it'll be the gamut in between there. Here's a great question. For the non-pickleball experts, but still pickleball enthusiasts, if we wanted to come in on a Thursday night or Friday night, how does that look with rate wise and hour wise? Sure. So again, all of our pricing will be launched, but the average for a pickleball cord is anywhere from like $40 to $60 for an hour based on whether it's peak or non-peak times.

And that's split four ways, guys. That's split four ways. You're going to have four players on the court. And ours are on the reasonable end of that, depending on whether it's peak or non-peak. And again, you can split that six ways because you can have up to six people on a court and rotate a couple people in. Someone's eating and grabbing a beer while the other four people are playing and you're you know rotating it. So that's a really inexpensive evening

out. You don't need bowling shoes. We will have rackets available those kinds of things. And you don't have to have a membership to come in on a random. Now that doesn't mean there's always going to be courts available. Sure. But you don't have to be a member. You can walk in and reserve a court. This is, I think you guys are going to crush it. I mean, this is the like 2025 version of what bowling and putt-putt golf used to be, but way better, because you're getting way more caloric burn. It's more affordable. And I think you guys are going to absolutely crush it. I think you're absolutely going to crush it. We are.

We are. I literally have no doubt that you're going to crush it here. Final thoughts. Anything we've missed, anything we should highlight for the viewers and listeners? No, I mean, I think you kind of said it all. I just think pickleball, it's pickleball that's going to make this work. It's the game itself, how it brings people together, how it is a fitness journey. Sure. I mean it's just there's so many great things about the actual game of pickleball. That's what's gonna make us successful.

Yeah, it's a community for those that are new to it or getting into it. Like the community is takes care of itself, spreads the word, it's inviting. Right. I just it's a special community especially locally. How about you, Lauren, some closing thoughts from you? Yeah. I want to take that to the next level. If you have never played pickleball, because I had never played pickleball until Colleen dragged me out on a court one night, if you've never played pickleball, I want you to really be open-minded about coming in and trying it out, doing a beginner open play or a beginner clinic. It's so social and so fun. Again, we're kind of at opposite

extremes of our pickleball interest and ability and it can be super, super competitive and it can be so fun and social. And one of the greatest things that we do with our families over the holidays is we have four families that we get together and put them all out on, and they're, let me tell you, some of our kids are great and some of them are not so great. And so, same with the adults. We have such a good time playing together

and it's so social and everybody is laughing and giggling and having fun the whole time. And yes, you're exercising along the way. So for those of you who haven't played, I wanna see you. And I would say also if you're interested in seeing the facility, if you're interested in becoming a partner, having your event there and you're not sure, reach out to us because we'd be happy to arrange a Hard Hat Tour and have you in to see our growth over the next couple months before we open. Great answer. Love the interview. Seaville Smash, the old Marshall's location in Seminole Square.

Soon to open, we're talking end of August, early September. Make sure you are following them on Instagram and Facebook. The founding membership program will be released next couple weeks? I would say in July. In July. In July. Just to be safe. So that's very soon and and and folks this is a deal you're not gonna want to miss. I think that's something that you

really want to jump on if you want to be a part of this. You guys crushed this. Thanks. Thank you so much for inviting us. Thank you so much for having us, for helping us get the word out. We're super excited. Our pleasure. Absolutely our pleasure. Thank you to Judah. Yeah, thanks. All this possible. Seaville Smash Guys is going to be a smash success in this community. I'm very confident about that. We are back in the saddle tomorrow at 10 15 a.m. with a real talk with Keith Smith where we talk everything residential and commercial real estate and we'll close the week with the I Love Seaville show at 12 30. We thank you kindly for joining us on what we like to call the water cooler of conversation for central Virginia. So long everybody.

Take care. Thank you. And he's going to tell us with the mics if the cameras are off..