Ozark pickleball business buys building, doubles courts

Ashton Owens: Dropshots has invested $2.3 million in building purchase.

Ozark-based pickleball center Dropshots LLC has purchased its building and is expanding.

Ashton Owens, who owns the establishment with his brothers, Aaron and Austin, said the ownership team had purchased the building where it formerly leased just half of the space. With the purchase, Dropshots will double its offerings to eight full indoor courts. The courts are expected to be open around Dec. 12, he said.

The building was previously owned by Marucci Hitter’s House – Midwest, which operated an indoor hitting facility and retail store for baseball and fast-pitch softball athletes, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting. The brothers paid $2.3 million for the property acquisition – including the building and the property around it – which was finalized in October, Owens said.

They have also invested $250,000 in upgrades, with plans for further investment.

Dropshots is a membership-based facility that is open 24 hours a day with courts that can be reserved online or by phone. The courts have competition-grade outdoor surfaces but are located indoors for year-round play, Owens said.

Membership is available at a special rate of $75 per month through the end of the year and $90 on or after Jan. 1, 2026. Members use a door code to enter a members-only door, Owens said.

Owens also announced the anticipated January opening of Dropshots Social, a coffee shop that will be housed in the area that was formerly dedicated to retail sales for baseball and softball equipment. The shop will be open to both members and the public, he said.

The coffee shop will be capacious, according to Owens, and will feature typical espresso drinks plus mocktails. There will eventually be some food items – handhelds and bakery items – but there will not be sandwiches or anything requiring extensive preparation.

“It has an oversized feel, and we can expand on that,” he said. “The rest of the room is going to be comfortable couches, tables and chairs, and larger tables for groups that come in. It’s going to be an environment where people can come hang out.”

He added that tables with bar stools will be positioned on a 10-foot strip between the two sets of courts.

“People will be able get drinks and sit and watch games with their friends and enjoy their drinks in that area,” he said.

Dropshots also maintains a retail space for pickleball gear and attire.

Member Leah Clark, a USA Pickleball Ambassador, a certified pickleball instructor and an avid player, said she enjoys playing at Dropshots.

“I’ve been hooked on this sport for years, having played from driveway setups to fancy tournaments across the country,” she said. “I’ve seen my fair share of courts as I’ve traveled and visited many different facilities, but there’s something special about having your own indoor facility in your backyard.”

She added that Dropshots is more than a set of courts.

“It’s not going to be just a place to swing a paddle; it’s going to be a real community hub built by locals who get what this game is all about: community,” she said.

More opportunities
Owens said business has been strong and growing, though he did not disclose how many members the business has.

“We’re really excited, because we’ve been able to grow with a special community,” he said.

He said the business got off to a slow start in May 2024, with a nice spring and a mild summer, meaning people felt no urgency about beating the heat. It grew in the fall, and then the growth became massive, he said.

“We weren’t expecting that all at once,” he said.

By the holidays, there were several hundred members, and the departure of winter weather did not bring a dip in numbers.

“The people who signed up were with us regardless,” he said.

He added that the facility is active at all hours, and it’s not unusual to see college students playing at 1 a.m. and people who work a night shift grabbing a game in early morning.

The business has other promotions as well, like a regular event it calls Date Night Dinks. Couples get dinner and play in pairs, he said.

“It’s great for couples – for the most part,” he said. “We sometimes joke about needing a counselor on hand.”

Tournaments are in the offing with the expansion to eight courts, he said, citing a commitment on the books for Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children in Southwest Missouri in the spring and another smaller tournament in February.

Dropshots will also be offering a Major League Pickleball format tourney in the coming year, said Aaron Owens. That is a standard format for two men and two women playing men’s, women’s and mixed doubles sets.

“That’s becoming a more popular format,” he said. “People travel for those kinds of tournaments.”

Aaron said the brothers are excited for the second phase of the operation – something that had always been planned, but it is happening much more quickly than anticipated.

“It’s been a growing process since we launched last summer,” he said. “We initially thought we would be leasing the space we were in for quite a while.”

He said the ownership team is grateful for the welcome the business has received from the pickleball community.

“We’re very appreciative of them taking a chance on us,” he said. “They’ve made this a cool place while growing the sport in Springfield.”

Regional draw
The business is a 15-20-minute drive from many places in Springfield, Ashton said, and it draws a lot of members from the Queen City.

“There are a lot of people that live in Ozark and Nixa that commute for work to Springfield,” he said. “They love the convenience of it being in Ozark.”

However, players also come from Branson, Lebanon, Mount Vernon and Joplin, Ashton said.

“We try to make our facility so nice that people don’t mind traveling,” he said.

Helping with the growth are the rules for booking courts, Ashton said. Players can have only one booking at a time, and they can’t book a new match until they’ve played the one on the books. Likewise, people can’t grab the same prime spot every week, giving everyone a chance at popular times and courts.

‘There’s always a good flow, and no one is hogging all the courts at the same time,” he said. “That helps with crowdedness.”

Ashton said that businesses are involved in Dropshots as advertisers and, newly, as court sponsors.

“They can play and bring their customers and clients,” he said.

One sponsor is the Geico local office in Springfield, he said, and accordingly, the court is referred to upon booking as the Geico court.

Ashton added that business partnerships also include a regular event called Dink Local, which provides companies free booth space as Dropshots provides food trucks and free pickleball.

He said the brothers have tried to be creative in their approach to the business, and that has paid off.

“It’s just trial and error – three brothers putting their heads together, and we all have different backgrounds,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of fun figuring it out.”