Ten months after the blockbuster “$75 Million” merger between Major League Pickleball (Lebron James, Tom Brady, Anheuser-Busch) and Tom Dundon’s (Carvana, Top Golf) backed PPA Tour, the new entity (the UPA) needs an emergency bridge loan of $10mm by January 15 to meet its financial obligations.
At the same time the bridge loan request was sent to MLP team owners, and not without irony, the UPA announced via press release “PRO PICKLEBALL CONTINUES TO EXPLODE: PPA TOUR AND MAJOR LEAGUE PICKLEBALL HAVE BEST YEAR EVER IN 2024” citing that female pickleball players make more than WNBA players and pickleball on Fox outperformed an MLS Cup broadcast.
Can I ask kind of an awkward question? What exactly is going on here?
Maybe we should rewind to last December when the two-year long war between MLP & PPA ended with an uneasy merger between the frenemies. Inherited in the merger was $30mm in annual player salary debt—driven up in a war over players between MLP & PPA pre-merger.
On the road to the merger, MLP asked its players to take 40% salary reductions, whereas Dundon’s players (PPA) took little to no reductions; a player’s coalition was formed and attorneys were hired; famous and unfamous team owners alike opposed the merger, then got behind it after Dundon promised to backstop team valuations up to $4mm/team (two teams immediately took him up on this, one owned by billionaire Marc Lasry and the other Brené Brown, who exited quickly and quietly).
Finally, the merger closed in February of 2024—with each MLP team owner reportedly signing a hold-harmless releasing Dundon from any future liability or litigation. Perhaps Dundon learned something from the $184mm lawsuit brought against him after the stunning failure and bankruptcy of the Alliance of American Football League.
So the new entities merged and all was well in 2024 with little to no drama in pickleball. Psych!
So the reported $75mm raised in the MLP/PPA merger? Sources report the amount was closer to $35mm, with 2024 year-end cash totaling only $2-4mm.
So, will the UPA survive 2025? Or will it be Pickleball’s Fyre Fest: a gorgeous, celebrity-laden, deliciously decadent, soon-to-be relic unless a change of leadership and/or continued funding/bail-out occurs? And if UPA does survive, will they find themselves fighting yet again over players with new, competing tours in 1.5 years once UPA’s exclusive player contracts come up?
Afterall, 2024 saw the birth of the well-heeled global “PWR Pickleball Tour”, backed by the Saudi Arabian Prince and India’s “Times Now” media conglomerate. The Tour is already gobbling up free-agent players, signing them to their own exclusive agreements. On Thanksgiving day, UPA presented PWR with a “partnership” opportunity. PWR declined.
Meanwhile, quietly chugging along is the ever-underrated Intersport-owned APP professional pickleball tour which, by the way, is profitable (weirdos!) and currently “hosting more pros than any other tour in the world”. Will the APP Tour be the cockroach that survives the nuclear pickleball fall-out?
Also notable in 2024, the UPA created their own governing body and paddle certification program that competes with pickleball’s not-for-profit governing body—USAP. Last week, paddle manufacturers banned together, calling the UPA’s demands a “mafia fee” in potential excess of $100k/year between Certification costs and a “marketing and licensing fee”.
Meanwhile, USAP is being sued for $50mm+ by Joola, a paddle manufacturer who saw their “extra hot” paddle de-listed by USAP.
The only thing for certain in 2025?
You guessed it.
More drama.
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