 |
Ronald Martinez | Getty |
One of the newest owners of a pro pickleball team is LeBron James, the king of basketball courts.
The NBA champions Draymond Green, Kevin Love, and others will join James and his business partner Maverick Carter as owners of Major League Pickleball, according to a statement released on Wednesday. The popularity of the sport in recent months has attracted numerous celebrity investors and made it a significant company.
According to MLP, the desire for the sport among the all-star ownership group stems from their recent cooperative play.
Carter said in an interview with CNBC that when she first started playing pickleball, she "immediately bonded with the sport's community and its propensity to be both enjoyable and competitive." It's encouraging to see how the sport is spreading throughout society, and we look forward to combining our skills to attempt to create a championship squad.
The squad will be owned by James and Carter through their family business, LRMR Ventures. Other investors include the investment company SC Holdings, Paul Rivera, the SpringHill Co.'s chief marketing officer, and Daniel Sillman, co-founder, and CEO of Relevant Sports Group.
The deal's financial details weren't made public.
Negotiations with the new ownership group started in July, according to Anne Worcester, MLP's strategic advisor, and concluded in an August meeting at the U.S. Open tennis event.
We connected right away because of their enthusiasm for playing pickleball and spreading pro pickleball at the grassroots level. They provide such a wealth of media, branding, and sports marketing knowledge, she remarked.
More than 60 different groups have expressed interest in starting a pickleball team, according to Worcester. She said that club valuations, which are in the seven figures, had increased tremendously since the league's inception in 2021.
It is unknown what James and Carter's squad will be called or where they will play. Currently, MLP clubs are not geographically based, but Worcester said the league is working with owners to see whether that may change by 2023.
In his native Akron, Ohio, James has already contributed to economic growth. The 2018 MLP season finale will take place in Columbus, Ohio, from October 14–16, and will be attended by students from the I Promise School, a public school he created. The $319,000 prize pool for the last event of the season is the most in the history of the activity.
Pickleball, which is compared to tennis, ping-pong, and badminton, has gained popularity among leisure players and garnered major investments from businesspeople hoping to capitalize on the game.
The Super Bowl winner Drew Brees, businessman Gary Vaynerchuk, Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry, former World No. 4 tennis player James Blake, and Ryan Serhant of Bravo's "Million Dollar Listing" announced another round of investments in MLP in July.
In 2023, MLP will have 16 teams thanks to the increased financing, and players will compete in six tournaments across six U.S. locations for more than $2 million in prizes.
The league isn't the only source of income for the sport. Entrepreneurs Brian and Valerie McCarthy have committed $180 million to the construction of at least 15 indoor private pickleball facilities in Sarasota, Florida.
Others are making investments in the chain model, which combines pickleball, entertainment, and food. By 2026, ten locations nationwide of "Camp Pickle," which will have a restaurant, bar, and both indoor and outdoor pickleball courts, are scheduled to open. Electric Pickle, Smash Park, and Chicken N Pickle are examples of related ideas.
According to the 2022 Sports & Fitness Industry Association Single Sports Report on Pickleball, the sport will have 4.8 million participants in the U.S. by 2021, with admirers of the game including Bill Gates, Kevin Durant, and the Kardashians.
According to Steve Kuhn, the creator of MLP, "Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in the nation, forming communities in cities and villages all over the world."
By providing the sport with more exposure, he claimed, the league's most recent investors will help it attain its target of 40 million pickleball participants by 2030.
According to the MLP, there is no regulation that would restrict James from participating in the league. The league notes that Travis Rettenmaier, a retired professional tennis player, is one of the owners of the Florida Smash pickleball team and was drafted by his own team.
Yes, we would welcome LeBron, Draymond, or Kevin Love to consider joining the team, Worcester chuckled.
Click here for more trending news
You can also follow us on our Twitter page
You can also follow us on our Tumblr page
You can also follow us on our Pinterest page