David Zapatka
Last month we announced Major League Pickleball had arrived. High-profile individuals Drew Brees, James Blake, Lebron James, Draymond Green, Kevin Love, and a host of others invested in teams.
The new Vibe Pickleball League was recently announced. The first high-profile team owner is Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA basketball team. This new league, which is connected to the Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) Tour, will start play in 2023 with six teams, each with a roster of male and female athletes. New ownership groups for the remaining five teams will be announced leading up to the team draft this month. Fans are already anticipating an MLP vs VIBE ‘Super Bowl’ in the future.
CNBC recently aired a video explaining pickleball’s success to those unfamiliar with our sport. As you might expect, their main points were that the sport is accessible, affordable, and has a fairly low learning curve. Here are some statistics they shared with their viewers.
* 40,000,000 pickleball players are predicted by the year 2030.
* 11.5% average annual growth of players over the last five years (tennis grew by 4.2% and badminton decreased by 3.7%).
These statistics are really fascinating:
* 45.1% of pickleball players make over $100,000 in annual income.
* 37.9% of pickleball players make between $25,000 and $74,999 in annual income.
This is a very healthy, wealthy market for products and services!
Lastly:
* The pickleball paddle market was $152,800,000 through the end of 2021. The value of the pickleball paddle market is predicted to be $256,200,000 by 2028. That’s a huge market!
* There are now 70 countries where pickleball is being played. To qualify as an Olympic sport, it needs to be played in at least 75 countries. It’s predicted that pickleball will be a demonstration sport in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Are you watching pickleball on television? It’s all over the airwaves from major network television to ESPN, Fox Sports Networks, and the Tennis Channel. It’s entertaining. The commentary and the interviews are insightful.
Have a question about pickleball? Want to know more about the sport, the rules, equipment or have some pickilicious news you would like to share with our pickleball community? Email David Zapatka at [email protected].