LeBron James, Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes bet big on pickleball … will it pay off?

Kyle Yates kept a secret from his closest friends for years.

He didn’t want them to know that he was a rising star in a sport best known as the last athletic refuge for graying retirees.

Yates’ pickleball addiction took hold at age 15 when his uncle coaxed him into playing a match together. Yates realized that he was not the right size or power to continue his tennis career after high school. Pickleball was Yates’ best showcase for his trademark patience, and guile.

Yates wasn’t the only one who picked up a pickleball paddle when he was a teenager. Florida teenager Yates practiced regularly with men who were old enough to be his father or grandfather.

Yates began to venture further away from his home after he won his first meaningful wins and was ranked in the national rankings. As a student at the University of Florida, he would often slip away from campus to The Villages, a sprawling Florida retirement community that at the time was home to a handful of the world’s best pickleball players.

“I’d play with those guys on weekends as much as possible, but I wouldn’t tell any of my friends because I thought it was too silly and too dorky,” Yates said. “At the time, pickleball was considered a sport for seniors. It wasn’t really a cool thing to do.”

Pickleball is not the same sport as a T-shirt with a collar or socks and sandals a decade later. Out of nowhere, it’s America’s fastest-growing sport, with a vibrant youth movement, communities racing to satisfy the demand to build new courts and deep-pocketed investors seeking new ways to monetize the sport’s surging popularity.

As pickleball has leaped out of obscurity and into the mainstream, the sport’s nascent pro circuit has also taken flight. It’s not much like what Yates experienced six-plus decades ago when he gave up his college pursuits to make a living playing pickleball.

No longer do tournaments offer hardly enough prize money to cover players’ travel expenses. To secure the top pros, there are now bidding wars among rival leagues.

No longer are the sport’s premier events held in RV parks and retirement communities. There are new pickleball courts and luxurious tennis clubs and venues that have opened their doors for the sport.

No longer can Yates topple the world’s No. Yates was ranked No. 1 in front of several dozen observers, seated in beach chairs. Professional pickleball is a big business. There are competing pro tours, feuding millionaires, and an escalating amount of prize money. Tom Brady, LeBron James Mark Cuban, celebrity investor and former Wimbledon semifinalist, among the newest players.

“I think we all feel like we’re on a rocket ship,” said longtime tennis executive Anne Worcester, now a Major League Pickleball board member and strategic adviser. “I’ve never ever had so many inbound phone calls, texts and emails and social media messages. Everybody wants pickleball sponsorships, pickleball jobs, or to sell pickleball products. Honestly, not a day goes by where I don’t get like a dozen people reaching out to me.”

Pro pickleball fans are betting on the sport’s potential to grow its fan base and attract top players. Pickleball tournaments have so far attracted a small audience and received low TV ratings.

This raises an interesting question, which is hard to answer given the sport’s rapid evolution. Is pickleball only a growing participation sport? Or will others watch it?

Pickleball was born

Joel Pritchard, an ex-Congressman from Washington, died in 1997. obituaries highlighted his “centrist politics” and knack for “working with colleagues from both sides of the aisle.” Only after a few hundred words did authors bother to mention what now may be Pritchard’s most enduring legacy: He invented pickleball.

Pickleball was invented by Pritchard while on vacation in Bainbridge Island (Washington) and he needed to entertain his kids. Pritchard, two other fathers created a backyard game with a wiffleball and wooden paddles. The net was gerryrigged so that it hangs low.

One thing that is lost in time is the way the inventors named the game. Some say the inspiration was the Pritchard family’s dog, Pickles, who kept chasing after the ball. Others insist Pickles wasn’t alive yet and was later named after the game.

Over the next few decades, what was originally intended to be a kid’s game gradually gained traction with an older crowd. Pickleball quickly became a favorite among retired people who live in gated communities or RV parks that are sun-splashed.

Dave Weinbach, a twelve-time national champion, discovered pickleball sixteen years ago when his parents moved to Surprise, Arizona. Weinbach was playing tennis against his father at the time when he was interrupted by the distinct high-pitched sound of a pickleball being struck.

“What in the world is that?” Weinbach asked.

“That’s pickleball.” his father replied.

Weinbach, who was passionate about pickleball and returned home to Wisconsin in awe of it, had to take great care to get the game into the hands of his friends. Weinbach created a method to make pickleball courts at home.

“We would go to these local parks, lug these weights from the parking lot and weigh down tennis nets until they were the right height for pickleball,” Weinbach recalled with a laugh. “Then we’d tape the pickleball lines on the tennis court using painter’s tape.”

Until the recent explosion of pickleball courts and venues, Weinbach’s experience was the norm for top players all over the country. For years, anytime Yates wanted to practice without trekking for miles, he would carry a bungee cord, chalk and painter’s tape to a local public tennis court.

“I actually got in trouble a couple times because they said I was vandalizing the court,” Yates said. “I tried to tell them we were just playing pickleball, but they said that’s not a real thing.”

Pickleball players no longer face such obstacles given the sport’s unprecedented growth over the past decade. Americans of all ages and classes have fallen in love with the tennis-ping-pong hybrid because it’s easy to learn to play competently, it’s social and it’s a fun way to stay active without the injury risks of more physically demanding sports.

The pandemic served as an accelerant for pickleball’s ascent. Because it allowed for a way to connect with friends while being outdoors and socially distant, pickleball thrived. About 4.8 million Americans participated in pickleball in 2021, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, up 39.3 percent from 2019. The number of pickleball courts in America is now at least 38 140, which is more than twice the number five years ago.

Opportunists emerged as pickleball mania took over the country. Chief among them was the son of a Salt Lake City real-estate mogul who observed America’s growing obsession with Play He gambled and pickedleball so that he could convert that enthusiasm into enthusiasm You can watch it.

Pickleball becomes a pro

Lifelong tennis purist Connor Pardoe came to a stunning realization in May 2018 while watching some of pickleball’s top players compete at a tournament in Atlanta.

Pardoe turned to his father, a former BYU tennis player, and said, “This is more fun than going to the U.S. Open. I’m having more fun watching pickleball.”

It didn’t take Pardoe long to recognize that he had stumbled onto a business opportunity. Although there were several small-time tournaments offering prize money back, the sport was lacking a true professional tour that could attract big crowds, broadcast partners, corporate sponsors, and elite players.

Backed by his family’s real estate development firm, Pardoe in 2019 launched the Professional Pickleball Association to fill that void. Pardoe, an ambitious and high-energy man, envisioned that the PPA would grow into the ATP and WTA for tennis and the PGA or LPGA for golf.

Pardoe started the PPA in the same year that a long-time Illinois tennis coach and club owner created a pickleball tour. Ken Herrmann, the founder of Association of Pickleball Professionals discovered this fast-growing sport as he was preparing to open a new Illinois club tennis. He also received advice about installing pickleball courts. He quickly discovered the need for a professional tour and began playing pickleball.

It’s fitting that the PPA and APP have opposite acronyms because Pardoe and Herrmann built them very differently.

The PPA sought to live up to its slogan, “Play where the pros play.” At first, Pardoe offered the sport’s highest-ranked players modest appearance fees to play PPA events. He then signed many players to exclusive contracts that paid more in return for not playing with rival tours, which irked some inside the industry.

“That was the most important thing we’ve ever done,” Pardoe said. “TV partners, venues and sponsors wanted to know that the best players were going to be at our events every week. Once we could tell them, hey, we have 16 of the top 20 men under contract or we have 16 out of the top 20 women under contract, it became a lot easier to put those deals together.”

The APP wasn’t nearly as aggressive in its pursuit of high-ranking pros. Herrmann refused to pay appearance fees, and he openly expressed his disapproval of locking top athletes into multi-year exclusivity agreements in a new sport where the landscape was changing rapidly. Instead, Herrmann was focused on the growth of the game and creating the best experience possible for all players.

Seniors and non-pros paid to compete in APP events were more inclined to play on permanent court courts, to receive free snacks and water, and to have a certified referee officiate the match. Paying to enter PPA events was often a way for amateurs to be drawn. You will find Ben Johns and Anna Leigh Waters, as well as other bright stars in pickleball.

“The APP did a great job growing the game at the grassroots level,” said Morgan Evans, a longtime pickleball pro who now splits his time between coaching and broadcasting. “But when APP players came over and played PPA events, most of the time it was the big dogs from the PPA who were in control.”

As if the existence of two competing tours wasn’t already confusing enough for consumers, along came another billionaire entrant into the professional pickleball battle royale. In 2021, hedge fund manager turned philanthropist Steve Kuhn opened Dreamland, an 86-acre Texas oasis of pickleball and other first-date-appropriate activities. Later that year, Kuhn launched Major League Pickleball, bringing 32 of the world’s top players from both the APP and PPA to Dreamland for a four-day team event.

Eight ownership groups formed teams consisting of two men, two women. The teams then faced off in men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles with more than $150,000 in prize money at stake.

The format was an instant hit among pickleball’s elite players, many of whom had never played a team sport before.

“I was like, ‘My goodness, I love this,’ ” Vivienne David said. “There is nothing else like playing for your teammates and your team owner. It’s your desire to win for your team. Everything was incredible. The energy, adrenaline, excitement, it was all amazing.

The mainstream media buzz and universally positive reviews generated by MLP’s inaugural event did not go unnoticed at the PPA. Pardoe saw immediate value in bringing the team-building excitement and camaraderie to pickleball and in rally scoring to speed up matches and increase the intensity of each point.

“Our staff was like, ‘This is a good idea,’ ” Pardoe said. “To us, the question was, are we going to work with MLP to build this? Or are we going to do this ourselves?”

Competing leagues do battle

As 2021 turned into 2022, the PPA was welcomed by a new owner who had big dreams and deep pockets. Texas billionaire Tom Dundon, who made his fortune in subprime auto loans, invested heavily in pickleball, buying a majority stake of the PPA from the Pardoe family soon after acquiring the sport’s leading retail store and main tournament-organizing website.

The relationship between PPA and MLP was more cordial than competitive up to that point. The PPA permitted its stable of talent to play in the MLP’s inaugural event. The MLP also promoted the PPA’s sponsorship.

Under Dundon’s leadership, the PPA quickly signaled it was done playing nice. Johns, Leigh Waters and the other top pros were invited to join. 3-year They were also prohibited from participating in APP tournaments or MLP events by exclusivity agreements.

Kuhn approached Dundon to try and negotiate a compromise. However, the billionaires at first disagreed and could not find common ground. As Pardoe put it, “I tried to put both of them in a room. It just didn’t really work out.”

MLP executives realized that elite players would require them to compete for their partnership, even as discussions about a possible partnership with the PPA went on behind closed doors. In response, the MLP increased its prize money to the largest sum in pickleball’s brief history, a total of $1 million across its three 2022 events with $100,000 alone going to each winning team.

MLP quickly strengthened its position once more when one its team owners made the strategic decision to sell a minor stake in Mad Drops Pickleball Club. Zubin Mehta, a New York venture capitalist, recognized the importance of partnering with celebrities and athletes who are passionate about pickleball to grow the sport and increase awareness.

Mehta was introduced to Drew Brees by a mutual friend. Drew Brees is an avid pickleball player and had only a few months before joked that he might stop his retirement in order to continue playing the sport professionally. Mehta pitched Brees on an easier way into the sport — joining the Mad Drops ownership group.

“We had a series of calls,” Mehta said. “We talked about his interest in pickleball. We discussed our goals for the growth of the game at both the amateur and professional levels. We discussed the investment opportunity as soon as we saw it. Through a series of conversations, he became really interested.”

The torrent of mainstream publicity generated by Brees investing in a pickleball team validated Mehta’s approach. MLP had announced its intention to grow from 12 to 16 teams in October and that its new team owners were some the most famous figures in sports.

“Our first two expansion team meetings were with the LeBron group and the Kevin Durant group,” Worcester said. “They’re passionate about pickleball, passionate Pickleball. The first 15 minutes of every meeting was everyone talking smack to each other about their last pickleball game.”

Dundon made a series of flurry-of-attacks, just as it appeared that the PPA would not be able to keep up with MLP’s pace. In October, the PPA declared that it was creating the VIBE pickleball league. This league is a direct competitor of MLP, and offers a similar team structure. Days later, two of MLP’s top players revealed they were defecting to VIBE. Then VIBE confirmed that Mark Cuban, one of Dundon’s good friends, was its first team owner.

“At that point, I didn’t think a deal with MLP was going to happen,” Pardoe admitted. “We had announced our own team league. I was about to hire people, and to announce the team owners, schedules, and how it would work. I thought it was past the point of no return.”

What happened instead, Worcester says, is MLP executives “had an epiphany.” They realized they were better off partnering with Dundon and the PPA than slugging it out to determine who would emerge as professional pickleball’s dominant entity.

Mehta, Dundon met for a summit to discuss the details of a deal. On November 9, the MLP and PPA shocked everyone within the sport by announcing a strategic partnership and a unified team league featuring virtually all of pickleball’s top pros.

Professional pickleball finally had what it needed: Consolidation, direction and clarity.

Pickleball on TV

Before the MLP and PPA deals, Connor Pardoe received similar responses when he approached potential broadcast and sponsor partners. The PPA CEO and founder would reply, “We love pickleball.” We want to be involved, but you guys need to figure your s— out.”

The sport appeared less complicated because of the partnership between two of the largest pickleball organizations. Although the MLP and PPA were separate entities, they collaborated to draft player contracts and snatch all the top pros. The PPA tour is the main goal of elite players. They also want to win enough points to be drafted on an MLP team. While the APP is still active, they have been relegated temporarily to a developmental tour.

Investors and brands felt more confident backing the PPA/MLP when they learned that only the best players were under contract for one tour. Carvana has been named the title sponsor of the PPA. Margaritaville also signed on as a title sponsor for MLP. MLP announced in December a new wave to expand its team owners. This included celebrities like Eva Longoria, Heidi Klum, and Larry Fitzgerald.

This year, at least 250 hours worth of PPA matches will be broadcast on television, including Tennis Channel and ABC, CBS, Fox, Fox, Fox, and FS1. MLP has yet not announced a broadcast partner to its six 2023 events. Worcester, however, says there is “great demand” for the league’s matches and the league “is in conversations with all major linear and streaming broadcasters.”

ABC aired the semifinals & finals of a PPA tournament that featured four American professional tennis players who were playing pickleball. Tim Bunnell, senior vice president of programming for ESPN, stated that he is optimistic about pickleball’s potential as a TV show because of its high participation, festival-like atmosphere, and celebrity involvement.

Bunnell stated, “The numbers support that this sport has a bright future.” “It can be difficult to make pickleball a success media property from the beginning, but there are many things to love about pickleball.”

MLP’s plan to grow its audience starts with the premise that its stable of celebrity team owners can boost interest and awareness of the league. MLP needs to continue increasing its prize pool to attract top-level talent from other sports. MLP must market its most successful players in order to attract new stars.

Just as critical to MLP’s strategy is growing the game at the grassroots level in hopes of having 40 million Americans playing pickleball by 2030. Worcester discusses the importance and significance of that ambitious goal by citing an International Tennis Federation study which showed that 94 percent professional tennis ticket purchasers also played pickleball.

“That shows you we need to build the entire ecosystem of pickleball,” she said. “The more pickleball players there are at the grassroots level, the more ticket buyers there’ll be, the more television viewers there’ll be, the more consumers of sponsored goods there’ll be.”

Professional pickleball has moved beyond the RV parks into mainstream play, and the quality of play has also changed. One reason is today’s younger, more athletic player pool. Another reason is the innovation of paddle makers to allow players more power and spin. The most important factor is the amount of time pros dedicate to their craft and physical fitness.

It is gone a time when players could have a full-time job and practice or train on weekends. They can expect to be competitive. Players are now encouraged to do everything because of the sponsorship income and prize money.

“Nobody has a side job anymore,” Vivienne David said. “Now you have to dedicate all your time to pickleball because everybody’s getting better.”

If more American tennis players make the jump, professional pickleball will only grow in popularity. Two-time Wimbledon semifinalist Sam Querrey (35), has already made the transition to pickleball. Noah Rubin, 26, is a former Wimbledon junior champion.

Pickleball pros are still learning, and it can be difficult for newcomers to pickleball to grasp how much has happened in such a short period of time. Yates didn’t play pickleball even a decade back. He was drafted into a professional team owned by Tom Brady.

“If he wants a lesson, I’m pretty close to Tampa,” Yates joked. “I’m happy to go meet him.”