Ugly Sweaters & Ugly Contract Disputes: This Week in Pickleball News

Need some pickleball reading to hold you over until the PPA Tour returns with its Masters tournament in Palm Springs? Fear not, theTUNDRA has you covered. Here are the biggest stories, tournaments and announcements in pickleball from this week.

Adults Needed in The Room: Major League Pickleball Players Hire Legal Support, Form Collective

Don’t call it a union. But let’s face-it – Major League Pickleball pros have exercised an abundance of patience. It’s about time the players who, since August, have been negotiating with MLP-PPA in a manner that’s the contract equivalent of a Ouija Board. It all came out when CNBC broke the biggest pickleball news of the week: amid the league’s merger with the PPA Tour, MLP players formed a group to share their discontent with the league’s "he who giveth taketh away” approach. Enough already! The turmoil comes after MLP dramatically increased player salaries in August, then, less than three months later, rescinded those agreements in light of MLP’s proposed merger with PPA, asking players to take a 40% pay cut in exchange for reducing their responsibilities by 40%. Essentially, the league offered players huge contracts to lure them away from the PPA, back when two leagues were competing. The only problem was MLP couldn’t afford these contracts in the long run. Now that the two leagues are merging, there’s nothing for MLP to gain by paying players more than they can afford, so they tried instituting a round of pay cuts. Rumor has it BRAVO is considering a “Real Pros of Pickleball” series – stay-tuned….

The New, Biggest Kid on The Block: Rhythm & Rally, World’s Biggest Indoor Pickleball Facility, Hosts First Tourney

Macon, GA’s Rhythm and Rally Sports and Event Center – the brand-new, world’s largest indoor pickleball facility – held its first tournament last weekend. Hosted by the Southern Pickleball Association, the Candy Cane Classic featured over 650 players from at least 12 states.  The 150,000 square foot facility holds 32 climate-controlled courts and one heck of a great time for 100s of pickleball enthusiasts, all under one very, very large roof.

Pickleball Does 2024 Super Bowl in Las Vegas

The NFL better watch out. Pickleball is heading to this year’s Super Bowl week in Las Vegas. Paradise PB Events and equipment company G.O.A.T. Paddle announced that they’re teaming-up to host the G.O.A.T. Bowl pickleball tournament at Life Time Green Valley fitness center the Friday before the Super Bowl. The event will feature 80 pickleball players, with registration costing a cool $199. The organizers managed to pull in NFL Hall-of-Famer Rod Woodson to serve as the events commissioner. Woodson was a Super Bowl champion and six-time All-Pro across his 17 seasons in the league, primarily with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

APP and USA Pickleball Announce “Golden Ticket” Events

The APP Tour announced that a pair of its events – the Miami Open and the Sacramento Open, both schedule for March – will give gold medal winners direct qualification to the USA Pickleball National Championships. They’re calling them “Golden Ticket” events but somehow haven’t gotten the new Wonka movie on as a sponsor yet. “So much time and so little to do…”

Chicken N Pickle Embraces the Holiday Spirit with Ugly Sweater Tournament

Chicken N Pickle, the fast-growing chain of pickleball complexes with built-in restaurants and bars (or are the restaurants and bars with built-in pickleball courts?) hosted ugly sweater tournaments at each of its nine locations on Sunday, December 17. Participants donned their ugliest Christmas sweaters and took to the court. Tournament winners took home $100 Chicken N Pickle gift cards, but the real winners were the “best-dressed” honorees, who got $50 gift cards and a lifetime of bragging rights, entitling winners to actually count their chickens before they are hatched…