Major League Pickleball 2022 Season Kicks Off This Weekend
Major League Pickleball (MLP), the elite pickleball league showcasing the world’s best professional pickleball players in a unique mixed-gender team format, today announced its full line-up of teams, owners, events, and sponsors, as it prepares to kickstart its second season at MLP 2022 Austin from June 3rd-5th.
In addition to Austin, additional MLP 2022 signature events will take place in Newport Beach, CA, from August 5th-7th, and Columbus, OH, from October 14th-16th. The winning team at each event will receive the highest prize money in professional pickleball: $100,000 ($25,000 per winning player). CBS Sports will exclusively televise the Austin final on June 5th, helping MLP serve as a platform to attract new pickleball fans and players to America’s fastest growing sport.
Each MLP 2022 signature event will take place over three days with all 12 MLP teams competing to win The Pritchard Cup, first awarded to Team BLQK at MLP’s inaugural event at Dreamland in November 2021.
Last Saturday’s draft at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center at Flushing Meadows, NY populated the 12 teams with 48 of the world’s best professional players on four-person teams. This unique draft format enabled Team Owners to pick gender equitable teams of two men and two women players. There are three pools of four teams. After pool play, the top six teams will move on to a single elimination bracket. The quarterfinals and the semifinals will be livestreamed on MLP digital channels, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
The 12 teams will compete this year under an exciting roster of new owners including David Kass & Doug Ulman (The Bus), Molly Joseph & Travis Rettenmaier (Florida Smash), and Zubin Mehta (Mad Drops Pickleball Club) who join Gary Vaynerchuk’s team (The 5s). David Kass will also host MLP 2022 Columbus in a new indoor pickleball venue later this year.
“I could not be more excited to announce Newport Beach and Columbus as our next two signature events in addition to MLP 2022 Austin. And it’s my honor to welcome our new team owners to our iconic Major League Pickleball team owner group,” said Steve Kuhn, Creator and Founder of Major League Pickleball.
“Adding to Austin, Newport Beach and Columbus, we now also have Pickleball Night in America, our regular Tuesday night pro pickleball series, which is moving around the country, taking pro pickleball into great locations across the USA and giving pickleball fans over 60 events a year of pickleball action to tune into. That’s hundreds of hours of opportunities to showcase the sport we all love as well as the amazing pro players”, said Steve Kuhn, Creator and Founder of Major League Pickleball.
New Sponsors for MLP 2022 include: Franklin balls, Skechers footwear, Ora Organic nutrition products, Knockaround sunglasses, and ProXR paddles.
2022 MLP TEAMS AND PLAYERS:
ATX Pickeballers
- Jade Kawamoto
- Sara Ansboury
- Dylan Frazier
- Altaf Merchant
BLQK (Defending Champions)
- Irina Tereschenko
- Parris Todd
- Zane Navratil
- Rafa Hewett
Chimeras
- Andrea Koop
- Megan Fudge
- Rob Cassidy
- Daniel DeLaRosa
CLEAN
- Michelle Esquivel
- Regina Franco
- Dekel Bar
- Joey Farias
Florida Smash
- Maggie Remynse
- Lee Whitwell
- JW Johnson
- Travis Rettenmaier
Hard Eights
- Jorja Johnson
- Susannah Barr
- Andrei Daescu
- John Cincola
Jackrabbits
- Jackie Kawamoto
- Mary Brascia
- AJ Koller
- Wes Gabrielsen
Lions
- Bobbi Oshiro
- Corrine Carr
- Thomas Wilson
- Chuck Taylor
Mad Drops Pickleball Club
- Vivienne David
- Olivia McMillan
- Adam Stone
- Julian Arnold
Ranchers
- Anna Bright
- Maggie Brascia
- DJ Young
- Austin Gridley
The 5s
- Simone Jardim
- Lina Padegimaite
- Rob Nunnery
- Erik Lange
The Bus
- Lauren Stratman
- Milan Rane
- Kyle Yates
- Eden Lica
