What is Major League Pickleball?

‍A lot has changed over the years as it relates to professional pickleball. What was once a backyard sport played recreationally amongst all age groups now has an official, unified professional league - Major League Pickleball.

A lot has changed over the years as it relates to professional pickleball. What was once a backyard sport played recreationally amongst all age groups now has an official, unified professional league - Major League Pickleball.

As someone who follows the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB, I found it confusing when trying to get a grasp on professional pickleball.

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Are are there multiple leagues? There was a competing league that lasted one week? What's the difference between a league, such as MLP and tours like the PPA & APP? PPA vs. APP? There’s a draft every year?! How do the matches work? If it’s co-ed, how does that work?

In this article we'll talk about Major League Pickleball, how it came to be, and how it works. I hope this serves as a great introduction to professional pickleball for those who are familiar with other professional sports in America.

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Let’s first answer the question what Major League Pickleball (MLP) is and then we’ll take a step back to talk about the landscape and how we got here, because that’s important.

Major League Pickleball (MLP) is considered the highest-level professional pickleball league (not to be confused with a tour). It was originally founded in 2021 by the Steve Kuhn, a business man and avid pickleballer who believes the sport has the ability to change the world.

Think of this league like you would the NFL, MLB, NBA, etc. that has a season, or in the MLP’s case, multiple seasons in a year, with events in the season. These events are scheduled throughout several weekends in 2023 (6 of them) and each team in the league participates in each event.

But the MLP hasn’t always been the only professional pickleball league out there. Before we talk about what used to be a competing league, we’ll back up one step further to talk about the organization that would create that competing league, the PPA.

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What is the Professional Pickleball Association (PPA)

The Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) has been around sine 2018 and hosts and continues to host the PPA’s Pro Tour of Pickleball. This is a tour and not a league. What makes it different than a league like the MLP is that players are competing for themselves, or in doubles, and not for a team.

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Ok, so the PPA hosts this tour, but how does that related to MLP? Well, if you recall the MLP was founded in 2021 as a team-based league. So the PPA is competing for several years, tour style. Then in 2021, the MLP is founded. PPA saw this as a threat and worked with MLP in early 2022 to unify. Unfortunately, negotiations hit a standstill. Because of this, several players on the PPA tour were contractually restricted from playing on MLP league teams.

Because negotiations hit a standstill, the PPA created a league to compete with the MLP. This was known as the VIBE Pickleball League.

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What is the Professional Pickleball Association (PPA’s) VIBE?

Backed by the PPA, Mark Cuban, and some other prominent investors, VIBE Pickleball League was announced on November 3rd, 2022. It featured 6 teams, with 24 pro players (co-ed). The plan was to draft players in December 2022.

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Well… the PPA’s VIBE didn’t last very long...

On November 9th, 2022, a merger was announced between the MLP and PPA’s week old VIBE league.

‘Coming together as one team league allows us to build much bigger events, offer more prize money, enhance player development, pursue larger media and sponsorship deals and, most importantly, grow the game we all love,’ said a statement from MLP founder Steve Kuhn and PPA co-founder Tom Dundon.

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‘Today marks a real milestone in the evolution of pickleball. In a world desperate for more social connection and reasons to celebrate, we are so excited for this merger and what it means for our community and our beautiful sport.’

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Landscape of Professional Pickleball

So that was a lot, but lets recap.

2018, PPA founds a individual-based tournament tour
2021, MLP is founded as a teams-based league
November 3rd 2022, PPA announces new VIBE teams-based league to compete with the MLP
November 9th 2022, VIBE & MLP announce merger (financials not disclosed)

I’ve purposely left out a few things to not add confusion, such as the APP Tour, but let’s discuss the entire landscape of professional pickleball and bring it all together. Essentially, in professional pickleball, there are leagues and tours. Of which, there is now one official league and several tours.

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Leagues:

Major League Pickleball (MLP)

Tours:

PPA’s Professional Tour of Pickleball (also referred to as Carvana PPA Tour)
Association of Pickleball Professionals (also referred to as the APP Tour)

Of the tours, generally speaking, the PPA is considered to be the better of the two as they have been contracting the top players to play their events exclusively with a few exceptions. This has made the APP appear like the more “up and coming” league. Both offer pro and amateur events at a variety of stops around the US.

This article is supposed to be about Major League Pickleball (MLP) so let’s get back to that. I hope that was a valuable detour.

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How does Major League Pickleball (MLP) Work?

Major League Pickleball has 2 tiers, 24 teams, 2 seasons in 2023, is co-ed, has drafts for each season, and has events throughout the year. This is new to most of us so let’s break down all of it.

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Major League Pickleball Teams

There are 24 teams in the MLP, evenly split across two tiers:

MLP Premier Level
MLP Challenger Level

In the first year (2023), the first 48 players will be drafted snake-style to the Premier Level, with the next 48 players to the Challenger level. Each team is comprised of 4 players - 2 men & 2 women (more on that in The Draft below).

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Premier Level - ATX Pickleballers, California BLQK Bears, Florida Smash, Frisco Clean Cause, Los Angeles, Las Vegas Night Owls, Milwaukee Mashers, New Jersey 5s, New York Hustlers, Seattle Pioneers, SoCal Hard Eights, St. Louis Shock

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Major League Pickleball - Challenger Level

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Challenger Level - Atlantic Bouncers, AZ Drive, Bay Area Breakers, Brooklyn Aces, Chicago Slice, Columbus Pickleball Club, Dallas Pickleball Club, D.C. Pickleball Club, Miami Pickleball Club, Orlando Squeeze, Texas Ranchers, Utah Black Diamonds

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As you can see, some teams are creative with their names, while others are not.

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Major League Pickleball Draft

The MLP has a snake-draft prior to each season for each tier.

For season 1 in 2023, that starts with every team in the Premier Level.
The draft order for each 12 teams is randomized.
The first team then makes their pick of either gender, followed by the second team.
This continues through the entire 12 teams for round 1.
When that is finished, the order is reversed for round 2. That means if you picked last in round 1, you pick first in round 2. This continues for 4 rounds until each team has 2 men and 2 women.

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Major League Pickleball Match Format

Since each team consists of 4 players - 2 men and 2 women, each Major League Pickleball tournament match consists of four games (MLP refers to this format as MLPlay™):

Game 1 - Women’s Doubles
Game 2 - Men’s Doubles
Game 3 & Game 4- Mixed Doubles

The first to win 3 games wins the match. If one team wins the first 3 matches, the 4th is not played.

If the two teams are tied after 4 games, an innovative tiebreakers known as the DreamBreaker™ is played — a rotational system involving all four players playing singles.

Teams first play each other in a group or round-robin play, and then the top teams square off in a single-elimination format. Some of this is up in the air at this time, as the MLP has the right to, “adjust the format for scheduling purposes, broadcasting purposes, inclement weather, or other reasons , at the sole discretion of MLP”.

You can find a complete list of rules here.

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2023 Major League Pickleball Season(s)

The 2023 Major League Pickleball calendar is split into 2 seasons and features 6 competitions across Arizona, California, Florida, and Georgia. Each season will consist of 3 events and there will be a re-draft of all 24 teams after season 1.

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Major League Pickleball (MLP) 2023 Season Schedule

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Season 1 - 2023

Mesa, Arizona - January 26th - 29th

Daytona Beach, Florida - March 23rd - 26th

San Clemente, California - June 15th - 19th

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Season 2 - 2023

Peachtree Corners, Georgia - September 21st - 24th

La Quinta, California - November 2nd - 5th

San Clemente, California - December 7th - 11th

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2023 MLP Players - Season 1 (2023)

Premier Level

ATX Pickleballers - Jackie Kawamoto, Jade Kawamoto, JW Johnson, Gabriel Tardio

California BLQK Bears - Andrea Koop, Maggie Brascia, Dylan Frazier, Federico Staksrud

Florida Smash - Jessi Irvine, Jorja Johnson, Travis Rettenmaier, Collin Johns

Frisco Clean Cause - Yana Grechkina, Lina Padegimaite, Zane Navratil, Matt Wright

Los Angeles Mad Drops - Catherine Parenteau, Irina Tereschenko, Julian Arnold, Thomas Wilson

Las Vegas Night Owls - Vivienne David, Lauren Stratman, Dekel Bar, Kyle Yates

Milwaukee Mashers - Callie Jo Smith, Lucia Kovalova, Andrei Daescu, DJ Young

New Jersey 5s - Anna Leigh Waters, Lea Jansen, James Ignatowich, Hayden Patriquin

New York Hustlers - Anna Bright, Lacy Schneemann, Tyson McGuffin, Rafa Hewett

Seattle Pioneers - Etta Wright, Meghan Dizon, Ben Johns, Tyler Loong

SoCal Hard Eights - Mary Brascia, Lindsey Newman, Riley Newman, AJ Koller

St. Louis Shock - Simone Jardim, Allyce Jones, Jay Devilliers, Erik Bjorn Lange

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Challenger Level

Atlantic Bouncers - Hunter Johnson, Brooke Buckner, Ben Newell, Christine McGrath

AZ Drive - Wes Burrows, Sarah Ansboury, Andreas Siljestrom, and Sarah Burr

Bay Area Breakers - Pablo Tellez, Ewa Radzikowska, Christian Alshon, and Rachel Summers

Brooklyn Aces - Cierra Gaytan-Leach, Rob Nunnery, Corinne Carr, and Greg Dow

Chicago Slice - Susannah Barr, Emily Ackerman, Connor Garnett, Ryler DeHeart

Columbus Pickleball Club - Milan Rane, Becky Ryan, Yates Johnson, and CJ Klinger

Dallas Pickleball Club - Megan Fudge, Chuck Taylor, Brandon French, and Christa Gecheva

D.C. Pickleball Team - Sam Querrey, Stefan Auvergne, Shelby Bates, and Monica Paolicelli

Miami Pickleball Club - Alix Truong, Regina Franco, Jeff Warnick, and Matt Manasse

Orlando Crush - Bobbi Oshiro, Callan Dawson, Rachel Rettger, and Todd Fought

Texas Ranchers - Lee Whitwell, Pat Smith, Genie Erokhina, and Steve Deakin

Utah Black Diamonds - Michelle Esquivel, Spencer Smith, Olivia McMillan, and Rob Cassidy

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Some frequently asked questions:

Pickleball Team Owners

Pickleball is finally making it main stream and plenty of investors and celebrities are not about to miss out. Below is a list of owners by team. You may recognize a few…

Premier Teams - Season 1 (2023)

ATX Pickleballers - Brene Brown, Charles Kiley

California BLQK Bears - Ritchie Tuazon, Justin Watson

Florida Smash - Travis Rettenmaier, Molly Joseph, Graham D’Amico

Frisco Clean Cause - Brad Beckworth, Nav Sooch, Tim Berry, Wes Hurt

Los Angeles Mad Drops - Good Alpha Industries, Zubin Mehta, Drew Brees, Jim Buss, Andrew Dodge, Ryan Serhant

Las Vegas Night Owls - Tom Brady, Kim Clijsters, Tom Wagner, Matt Alvarez, Callie Simpkins, Kaitlyn Kerr

Milwaukee Mashers - James Blake, Marc Lasry

New Jersey 5s - Gary Vaynerchuk, Ryan Harwood

New York Hustlers - Lebron James, Draymond Green, Kevin Love, Mav Carter

Seattle Pioneers - Tom Dundon

SoCal Hard Eights - Kevin Huang, Timothy Parks, Rick Chan

St. Louis Shock - Richard Chaifetz

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Challenger Teams - Season 1 (2023)

Atlantic Bouncers - Anheuser-Busch

AZ Drive - Larry Fitzgerald, Devin Booker, Dierks Bentley, Robert Gary, Doug Hirsch, Sheila Gulati, John Merwin, Sam Frakes, Mark Dalton, and Richard J. Schnall

Bay Area Breakers - Jeremy Lin, Mimi Mercado, David Mercado, Geoff Nguyen, Stacey Nishi, Jeff Nishi, Wayley Louie, and Kathleen Louie

Brooklyn Aces - Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman's 35V

Chicago Slice - Ron Saslow's 35 Capital, Heidi Klum, Tom Ricketts, David Justice, Doug Ellin, Chris Evert, Lindsay Davenport, Tracy Austin, Gigi Fernández, David Dobrik, Joe Bonamassa, Ted Foxman, and Steve Bellamy

Columbus Pickleball Club - David Kass, Doug Ulman

Dallas Pickleball Club - Mark Cuban, Dirk Nowitzki, John Isner, Robert Herjavec, Chandler Parsons, and Todd Wagner

D.C. Pickleball Team - Al Tylis, Sam Porter, Eva Longoria, Justin Verlander, Mesut Ӧzil, Kate Upton, Shawn Marion, and Rip Hamilton

Miami Pickleball Club - Naomi Osaka, Nick Kyrgios, Patrick Mahomes, Rich Paul, Darius Garland, Mardy Fish and Alex Davis at Disruptive Sports Group, Alex Cohen at Heights, Stuart Duguid, The Palm Tree Crew, Prakash Amritraj, Matthew Pritzker, Mark Ein, Romie Chaudhari, Swimmy Minami

Orlando Crush - TBA

Texas Ranchers - Tim Klitch, Dan Ferreri, Bryan Sheffield, Kit Sheffield, and Richard Veitenheimer

Utah Black Diamonds - The Pardoe Family

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Major League Pickleball vs Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) Tour

Major League Pickleball (MLP) and the Pickleball Pro Association (PPA) Tour are two prominent professional pickleball organizations in the United States. They both acted independently and were competitors until November of 2022.

The PPA Tour has been around since 2018 and has focused on individual player performance in a tournament-style format. The PPA offers both men's and women's divisions and hosts events throughout the year, culminating in a championship event.

The MLP, on the other hand, was established in 2021 and is a newer addition to the professional pickleball scene. The league has a team-based format, with eight teams competing in a regular season and playoffs. The MLP's goal is to provide a high level of entertainment for fans while showcasing the sport's top players.

To compete with the MLP the PPA announced a new team-based league called VIBE, which ultimately merged with MLP a week later to form the new Major League Pickleball (MLP).

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How much does it cost to buy a Major League Pickleball team?

The expansion fee for a new franchise is around $1 million. Believe it or not, you can actually submit a quick application to be considered for expansion in 2024.

https://www.majorleaguepickleball.net/team-ownership

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What are the different pickleball leagues other than MLP?

There aren’t any high-level leagues that compete with the MLP as the PPA’s VIBE league merge with the MLP in November 2022.

There are however two tours that compete in away with the MLP. Those are the PPA Tour and the APP tour.

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Where to go from here? You may be interested in:

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