[ad_1]
Hitting a turning point
Beyond pickleball’s ease of entry for casual players, the emergence of professional pickleball leagues and tournaments with considerable cash prizes over the past several years also highlights the sport’s power to thrill throngs of enthusiastic fans. USA Pickleball began hosting national championship tournaments in 2009, but participation in these events only began to take off in 2016, when the organization had to cap player registration for the first time in response to overwhelming interest. The USA Pickleball National Championships, which were held in California’s famed Indian Wells Tennis Garden, were broadcast to a nationwide audience on CBS Sports and on ESPN in 2018.
“When we talk about building legitimacy and credibility for the sport within mainstream society, that was a huge stepping stone. It really opened a lot of eyes,” Menke said. “It’s steps like this—when we talk about corporate partnerships and brands looking to invest in the sport—it’s having major events held in those types of venues that additionally creates [public] interest.”
Curtis Smith, CEO of pickleball paddle manufacturer Paddletek, has directly witnessed the surge of brand interest in the sport. When his brother first established the company in 2010, Smith thought Paddletek would struggle to attract consumers or reach a mass market; but even before pickleball’s pandemic-driven eruption, the business steadily grew year-over-year throughout the 2010s. However, the costs of brand sponsorships and endorsements have skyrocketed alongside the growing interest in pickleball, he said.
“We used to sponsor the national championships for $150, and we got a table to put up in their little vendor booth,” Smith said. “We’re not in Kansas anymore—it’s tens and tens of thousands of dollars to sponsor that tournament now.”
Maintaining player endorsements has become more challenging, too, with new paddle brands and non-endemic sponsors beginning to compete for the top players, he said. In an effort to stand out from its competitors, Paddletek works with just under 200 pickleball aficionados across the U.S. to act as ambassadors for the brand and promote its paddles to their social media followings—an effort that has been “very influential” for Paddletek’s younger consumers, said Morgan Handy, the company’s sales and marketing manager.
Inspired by the success of the USA Pickleball national championships, several other pickleball tournaments and professional leagues have sprung up in the last four years. The Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) Tour launched in 2018 and held its first tournament the following year, quickly becoming one of the premier pickleball events in the U.S. and drawing in dozens of top players—along with brands. This year’s PPA Tour sponsors range from endemic companies like paddle manufacturers and court surfacers to brands such as Hyundai, Chase Bank, DraftKings and Carvana.
A similar—but USA Pickleball-sanctioned—tournament, the Association of Pickleball Professionals (APP) Tour, kicked off earlier this year, spanning from California to New York and even making an international stop in England. Additionally, the sport now involves two rival professional pickleball leagues: Major League Pickleball, founded in 2021, and the Vibe Pickleball League, formally launched on Nov. 3, which focuses on team play and partners with the PPA.
All Vibe teams will be “independently owned and managed by notable names and prominent figures,” according to a press release that also announced billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban as the first of these team owners. Meanwhile, Major League Pickleball team owners include NBA stars like James and Kevin Durant, NFL giants including Brady and Drew Brees; and investors and entrepreneurs such as agency executive Gary Vaynerchuk.
“Look, I’ve been trying to find a way to extend my professional sports career … and I think I got the answer,” Brady said in an Instagram video announcement last month. “Seems like everyone else has the answer too: pickleball.”
[ad_2]
Source link