'BurghBytes: Pickupalooza!
An easy online way to find pick-up games in Pittsburgh
One of the joys of warmer weather when you’re a kid, or even in college, is the casual pick-up game at the local park. Friends getting together to play soccer, hoops, softball, whatever mood strikes. The easy part was always finding the people—they were in your neighborhood or on campus. When you join the work world, though, it’s not so easy to find the friends to play.
Enter Pickupalooza.com, a venture from Pittsburgh mobile software company deeplocal that uses the web to make finding (and planning) pick-up games easy and fun. Nathan Martin, CEO of deeplocal, says Pickupalooza was the brainchild of software engineer Dimitry Bentsionov, who left Yahoo! and moved from San Franciso to Pittsburgh. “Dimitry recognized, we all did, that people needed a way to play sports casually that didn’t require a commitment, which is sometimes impossible with erratic work and social schedules,” Martin says.
The news of Pickupalooza spread quickly in social media circles, particularly among the tech and start-up crowd, and deeplocal helped promote it by appearing at games (often participating), giving away T-shirts, stickers and business cards.
The free service works like this: Visitors to Pickupalooza.com can search for games by date, location (fields, gymnasiums, etc.), specific people or groups participating, or by sport. Users can add their name to say they’ll be playing, or (by popular demand) give a solid “maybe.” Players can even get e-mail alerts of games coming up in their area or game changes and cancellations. The site has already spawned a spin-off, Trainforarace.com, in which runners can find other runners to train for marathons and other races.
The sports selection on Pickupalooza runs the gamut from traditional favorites like soccer (which is most popular) and tennis to kid-era classics like kickball and dodgeball and specialized pastimes like tai chi and rock climbing. The most unusual choices come from Pitt student Adam Nelson, who has integrated “obscure games”—games in which rules are often made up on the spot. (Such as “office chair curling.”)
Martin says his company makes no money from Pickupalooza—for that they rely on products like TinyBlast.com (used for mobile marketing campaigns) and RouteShout (used by mass transit companies). Instead they continue to develop it for the community and themselves.
“Pickupalooza is a great way to meet people and be active and get some exercise. It’s fun, competitive without being too competitive, really more inviting than intimidating,” Martin says. “This is an example of how Web technology can enable a real-world experience.”
For more information about Pickupalooza, visit pickupalooza.com.
