My name is Steve Raack and I have a bit of a "mutt" background. My carrer experience ranges from NASA to Beauty Brands to Pickleball...with a few other zigs and zags along the way. The one common denominator is - I love challenges and building brands.

During COVID, my wife introduced me to pickleball. I was terrible and could not serve at all. As a competive athlete, I prided myself on being "good" at sports. Well, I stunk at pickleball and did not want to continue playing. Then, like many others, I got addicted.

The club I belonged to enjoyed tremendous growth. My wife and I started playing tournaments and loved that we had healthy competition back in our lives. People downplay the mental benefits that pickleball brings to people. Yes, it's fun and social but for competitive people, we like to win. Without sport, we bring that "competition" to our jobs and families. This is not always positive or beneficial to those environments. However, with pickleball, I saw a transformation in myself. I was happier and so were the people around me. I had healthy competition back in my life, in the form of a sport with a funny name.

Fast forward about a year. After many late night discussuions with a few friends I met through our club, we launched PickleballSuperstore.com. I not only was addicted to the sport, I saw it as a way to take my direct to consumer, ecommerce experience and pivot my career.

In the back of my mind however, was a strong passion for bringing a premier pickleball club to LA. See, I grew up in LA and actually love everything about LA - even the traffic. LA did not have a dedicated pickleball club. My LA friends did not have the same experiences that I had with this amazing sport. So I called a Corporate Real Estate expert friend and asked him to keep his eyes open for a location in LA. Over a span of 2+ years we looked at a ton of warehouse space, but nothing really felt right. We went to LOI on a few properties which now I'm super glad we didn't get.

In December 2023, the PowerPlay land became available for lease. We acted fast, negotiated a great lease and the rest is history. Finding 4.3 acres in LA with an amazing landlord is a unicorn opportunity. We are thankful and grateful for this journey.

We have a great property, we have a great landlord, we have great investors, we have great team members, the City of Carson is amazing and now that we are open, we have great members. The future is bright and we are excited to bring PowerPlay to LA.

Join us in building the best pickleball community on the planet.