Anna Leigh Waters to Nike; MLP Rule Changes; APP Tour Under Water? – Quick Hits on the Biggest Stories of the Week
The Masters is going on right now but there have been a lot of non-tournament stories that have happened over the past week. We wanted to give some quick hit thoughts on the biggest ones that came out.
Anna Leigh Waters Meets Nike
This is obviously a big deal for pickleball, but it feels to us like an inevitability. It’s great that a giant non-pickleball brand is partnering with the best female player in the world. However, it is not a surprise to us that Nike would want a piece of the ever-growing pie that is the sport of pickleball.
Our view is that the amateur growth of the game is what is really driving Nike to invest. There are a lot of people playing and they want them wearing their gear. With ALW being one of the only players that truly moves the needle from a branding standpoint, the partnership looks to be an ideal fit.
The beauty of the partnership for Nike is that it is a safe bet given ALW’s standing in the game as a top player is secure for the foreseeable future. Although many, likely including Nike, have reservations about the long-term success of the professional game, Nike gets a 2 for 1 deal. They get to plaster Waters as the face of their pickleball branding and, ancillary to that, they dip their toes in the professional waters without any further significant investment for the time being.
MLP rule changes
On Wednesday, MLP dropped a host of rule changes for the upcoming 2026 season. Erik Tice has the full breakdown, if you missed it. We are encouraged by the changes, but aren’t quite as excited by others about them.
New Point System: The transition to increase the stakes for individual events is definitely an intriguing one. We like the idea overall and understand that it would be difficult to ensure fairness using a more traditional point scoring system. It may not matter at all, and we haven’t taken the time to go through mathematical scenarios to test this hypothesis, but our concern is that a point allocation system like this will make the gap between the have and have-not teams even bigger.
The other concern we have about the point system is that it is not easy to keep track of. Clearly fans in North America have gotten used to the F1 system and it hasn’t affected its growth in any significant way. Even so, we can’t say we are looking forward to figuring out a unique to the sport point system at each event.
We are still excited for this and will be curious to see how it plays out.
Playoff Teams: There will now be 12 teams that make the playoffs with 18 Premier teams. Erik Tice pointed out that it is 67% of teams that make the playoffs. Math! Basketball, football and hockey are all right around 50%, give or take, of teams making the playoffs.
It is fantastic that MLP has decided to dedicate a separate weekend event to the quarter-finals, but the inclusion of 12 teams for the playoffs is too much. What does it even mean to make the playoffs as a 12 seed in an 18 team league? In addition, the #12 seed still gets to play a best 2 out of 3 so there is no longer a distinction of a play-in versus non-play-in team. This is a clear miss.
Roster Management: After a lot of clamoring from fans last year to be able to use bench players, MLP has made that a reality. It allows for more strategic decision-making for each team and it gives fans more to talk about. That’s a win.
Where we see it as a miss is that anyone can be inserted into the Dreambreaker. This means that teams are going to be drafting singles specialists for their bench spots and using those players in Dreambreakers. The use of the singles specialist will undoubtedly provide an interesting wrinkle to matchups and bring pressure to those players somewhat similar to that of a kicker in football.
On the other hand, a real factor in the charm of Dreambreakers is seeing non-singles players have to get on the singles court for 4 rallies at a time. It also makes roster construction very straightforward for teams who no longer have to worry about whether their team can play singles.
The easy fix to this would be to only allow a player to participate in a Dreambreaker if they were included in the doubles lineup. This could add some strategic wrinkles where a team throws their singles specialist into the doubles line-up because they want to have them available for a Dreambreaker.
One other idea Chris’s wife brought up was to have the bench players treated like baseball or soccer, where they can be inserted anytime of the match, except a Dreambreaker. This one might be too wild but we thought it was interesting to mention.
Auction Draft Bench Spots: MLP may just be deciding that parity is not an issue they care about this early on in the lifespan of the league. The decision to allow teams to fill out their bench spots in the draft before other teams have drafted their starters is not helpful to the non-spending teams (remember, money spent in the auction draft goes back to the league). Teams like the Shock and the 5’s are going to spend bigger on their bench spots, leaving less talent in an already limited talent pool relative to the number of Premier teams.
In addition, the lack of salary cap floor or ceiling for the auction draft remains in place, and we see that as a big L for the league as well. MLP has other priorities and parity is not one of them apparently.
APP Tour Not in Good Shape?
Jimmy Miller posted on Twitter earlier this week that he has heard “some rumors” that the APP “lost about $8-9 million dollars last year”. In doing a little digging ourselves, the total amount lost may be slightly lower but the general information is on point.
We wrote in our 2025 Winners and Losers article that we were unclear on what the direction of the APP was, and it sounds like they might have no idea what they are doing. For a tour that was supposed to be taking the path of slow, sustainable growth, it is a bad sign that they were millions of dollars in the hole last year. It is also not surprising to hear any of this when you look at the paths they have chosen and the decisions that have been made over the past 2 to 3 years. Backdoor contracts for a small handful of pros (which isn’t all that new), a constant push to be featured on linear TV and what sounds like a misallocation of resources don’t make a ton of business sense for a now developmental tour that, at one point in time, took pride in being transparent and treating all their players well.
Regardless, it’s another sign that points in favor of UPA domination of the sport.
Agree or disagree? Let us know in the comments or email us at nmlpickleball@gmail.com! You can also follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @nmlpickleball
