MLP Gets Electrified with Toyota

The Quick Points

🚗 Let’s Go Places. The Major League Pickleball announced a new slate of partnerships today, increasing its brand and reach across a number of consumer channels. Toyota and its 2023 Prius have become the first exclusive and official auto partner of the MLP. They will become the official sponsor of the Dreambreaker (MLP’s tiebreaker format) and will also earn them courtside logo branding and on-site promotions with booths, games, and giveaways. This is a big step for professional pickleball to gain the mindshare and marketing dollars of the #2 largest auto company in the world, joining the ranks of the NFL (Hyundai), NHL (Honda), MLB (GM), PGA Tour (Cadillac), NBA (Kia), and US Open Tennis (Cadillac).

👕 The best of the rest. MLP also revealed multiple consumer retail partnerships covering you from head to toe…literally. Starting off, OS1st became the official sock and compression sleeve of MLP and work with teams to create official team-branded apparel. These will naturally be marketed and sold through retail channels, as well. For tops, Sunday Swagger became the official polo shirt provider to the MLP and the associated teams. They’re really leaning into bringing some flare to the sport (Travis Rettenmaier is the face of the partnership), as opposed to the country club look of many tennis polo shirt companies.

🌎 International play. Last week we mentioned the launch of the professional tour within Australia. This week it’s the Uganda Pickleball Tour preparing to host the Kampala Pickleball Open later this month on June 17th. A net, chalk, 4 paddles, and a few motivated individuals are all that is needed to kickstart play within a new geographic region. Here’s a fun look at the first primary school tournament that happened last week. Good singles action!

Breaking Ground

The Reset is beginning to track publicly available court construction data to keep track of locations, costs, and development projects across the nation. Our tracker can be found here.

The Hub cut the ribbon on its 26-court San Diego facility (just a little jealous), with a second facility planning to open in San Jose later this month. The kickoff event featured star players like Riley Newman, Lauren Stratman, Allyce Jones, and Jay Devilliers. The facility is definitely more pickle-centric, with the layout, core offering, and accessibility being designed with pro teams, tournaments, and broadcasting in mind. It remains to be seen which venues & tournaments will become the major dollar and viewership drivers for the professional side of the sport, as there aren’t locations with the cache of Flushing Meadows or Indian Wells just yet. However, the development of the blue-chip facilities creates more opportunities to add additional stops on the pro circuit, particularly in high-density, hot markets for the sport, like San Diego. The Hub San Diego is launching with a base membership package at $99/mo and court reservations for $10/hr…#value.

Maine gets a main complex. The city of Brunswick approved a $500k sports center, which will boast 8 pickleball courts, 2 tennis courts, a skatepark, and 2 basketball courts. Difficult to disaggregate the pure cost of the court construction, however, it will likely be a bit higher than the typical tennis —> pickleball conversion costs we’ve seen as they’re building the sports complex on a vacant 10-acre plot of land.

Surfs up, serves up. Myrtle Beach, SC is seeing a new restaurant concept opening in July with Prime Bar and Grill, which will offer patrons a brewery, drive through, a sushi bar, pizza, and most importantly…three pickleball courts. While the breadth of the menu seemed a little odd at first, our take is that they see pickleball as the focal point to bring a diverse consumer base with a range of preferences, and as such, they seek to have something for everyone in the group. Will be on our spots to try next time we’re in South Carolina.

We’ll keep an eye on this one, but Plano City Council signed off on a new lease agreement to play pickleball at the Plano Sports Authority in Carpenter Park, with plans to build more courts to meet demand. Details of cost and how many courts are not yet available, however, the courts will be in addition to the existing 12 indoor courts at Plano recreation centers and 32 outdoor courts across the city.

The Vanderburgh Country Council in Evansville, Indiana approved $500k to help the city build 16 pickleball courts at Wesselman Park, a $2.6M project in its entirety. Pretty cool to see a local public park offering private facility like scale to its community members.

Smash Point Pickleball is coming to Mechanicsburg, PA (🛠️) this July, and will offer members an indoor facility with 8 full-size courts, 2 skinny singles courts (rare!), a lounge, pro shop, and seating area for hosting larger tournaments. The idea was driven by the growing demand in the city, as well as months of inclement weather making outdoor play unfeasible. The facility will offer two membership options, as well as the ability to rent the courts as a guest. Pricing isn’t released yet, so we’ll keep an eye on this when they post it.

Pickleball’s addiction gets FEMA attention…sorta, but not really. But a local pickleball group in Oktibbeha County (Mississippi) proposed their city government convert the town’s Safe Room (literally a concrete & brick dome to protect 1,500 people during natural disasters) into temporary pickleball courts so they can play when it rains. We now love this town, because while the county board rejected the city’s proposal to work together, the county decided they would rather work directly with the pickleball players to figure out how to create an agreement around using the FEMA shelter for pickleball when it rains…tbd what comes of this, but if you have a flat, well lit, open plot of concrete…pickleball players will find it and request to play on it…see below…