REPORT: PPA Players to Earn Double the Prize Money at MLP and PPA Events in 2023
We had been wondering what we might have to talk about with less tournaments towards the end of the year and a gap period before the MLP draft that is slated for some time in mid-December. Fear not fanatics as the pickleball news cycle continues to churn even on Thanksgiving weekend. While things have been quiet since the MLP-Vibe merger was announced a couple of weeks ago, a shoe had to drop at some point.
Of course, Black Friday morning is when a joint MLP and PPA email was sent out to pro players informing them of next steps. The email begins with an encouraging statement that the total combined payouts between PPA and MLP for 2023 will range from $8 million to more than $10 million, and concludes with the bombshell “creation of the ‘PPA-MLP Player Tour Card’”.
You might be asking, what is the PPA-MLP Player Tour Card?
Well, according to the email sent out to players, there are two categories, a Gold Tour Card and a Silver Tour Card, and each player is offered the opportunity to join their “Tour & League” under one of the two categories. The following is the criteria used for how they determined which card a player is eligible for:
“The PPA-MLP Tour Card Committee analyzed your past tournament performance and history (quantity of events), current PPA Ranking, DUPR, and overall player marketability.”
One of the most notable aspects to this email is that a Silver or Gold Tour Card is required to participate in MLP. There are different requirements and benefits for each Tour Card. Silver players are required to commit for the next two years to participate in all 6 MLP events and play at least 5 PPA events in a year, but there is no tour exclusivity.
We may have buried the lead here, but the Gold Tour Card is the potential game-changer. In addition to the 2-year and 6 MLP event commitment, there is also a requirement that a gold player attends a minimum of 20 PPA events, including all 4 majors. The primary benefit of the Gold Tour Card is that a player will earn double the prize money compared to all other players at BOTH MLP and PPA events.
You read that correctly. Double the prize money. 2X. 2 times. 100% more. You get the gist.
This is a huge development. Prior to this change, the gap between PPA contracted players and others was less quantifiable. The difference was largely a subjective opinion based on whatever factors any given person views as relevant. Doubling the prize money creates a tangible demarcation between PPA and non-PPA players that puts a pause on the universal applause the announcement of unification received from pro players.
Other news of note in the email is an outline of the MLP format for 2023, which Lea Jansen had discussed during her appearance on the ‘It Feels Right Podcast’ earlier this week. Ultimately, MLP will be sticking with the team format, foregoing the individual tournament structure that had been emailed out to players not too long ago. The league itself will have two separate leagues consisting of 12 teams each – the Premier League and the Challenger League. The first 48 players drafted will play in the Premier League. There will be $3 million to $5 million in total prize money, but no details were provided in the email as to how that money will be distributed between the two leagues. This was not directly in the email, but it looks like the 2023 calendar year will be split into two separate, three event seasons, with a new draft for each season.
Getting back to the real story, the Tour Cards. We have not been made aware of who has received offers for the Gold versus the Silver card. From some limited intel we have gathered, it would appear the gold cards are not being offered as exclusively as we would have anticipated when we first got wind of the news. In other words, the Gold Tour Cards have not just been offered to the top non-PPA players.
That leads to some big questions about the Tour Cards. We understand, but have not confirmed, that all the PPA players are getting Gold Tour Cards, but how many non-PPA players are getting those gold offers? The criteria set out in the email leaves a lot of room for interpretation for the PPA and MLP.
How many new players will accept the Gold Tour Card offer?It could be a difficult decision for non-PPA players as to whether to accept a Gold Tour Card offer. Prior to this news, we heard that the APP had locked in a lot of top non-PPA players to attend their events for 2023. It is unclear what they may be paying those players, but does this Tour Card development change anything for players who had expected to primarily compete as APP players in 2023? Interestingly, MLP and the PPA announced this double prize money situation without specifying anything more than the total range of the payouts available.
We have no information on these specific players, but if you’re a non-PPA player like Dekel Bar, Andrea Koop or Vivienne David, who will certainly be drafted in the top 48, it cannot feel good to be offering similar or greater value than other PPA players yet receive half the compensation for attending MLP. These are players who stayed loyal to MLP despite almost certainly receiving enticing offers from the PPA and their loyalty is not being reciprocated. Unfortunately, that is offen how the world works, but we don’t think that will make it sting any less.
It is a reminder that business often trumps loyalty in the pro sports world. We have written that MLP should take more of a PPA style approach to the tour wars, but the new alliance leading MLP down the road of prioritizing PPA players in this way was not something we anticipated. While the PPA has continually treated non-PPA players as second-class citizens, MLP has appeared to align on this approach by drawing a clear line in the sand with the prize money distinction.
The thing about the Tour Card situation is that it forces all the top talent, including those on the fringe of being draftable to the Challenger League, into accepting the Silver Tour Card at a minimum. This is crucial for the PPA as it ensures that most, if not all, the new talent will not be confined to APP events. The PPA has heard the cries about the stale bread nature of their events, and this move appears to be an attempt to hand a crushing blow to what the APP offers the pro pickleball world.
Keep in mind that it was reported on Instagram by the Pickleball Clinic earlier in the week that the APP is on the verge of securing a major broadcast deal. We have heard similar rumors to what was reported.
There is not much time to make a decision for players as the email stipulates that the deadline to apply to the MLP draft is December 5, 2022. With it already being the end of November, a lot of these players likely have a good chunk of their 2023 schedule planned out and could be scrambling to figure how they can make this Silver Tour Card situation work – although some may have at least 5 PPA tournaments planned already.
The APP will have to hope that players trust the foundation they have built and view the monopoly the MLP and PPA are trying to create as harmful to their leverage in the long-term. There is no question that competition between the tours has been beneficial for players overall and, if everyone goes the PPA route, it could kill the players’ ability in the long run to maximize their earning potential.
For those who become Gold Tour Card players, the commitment equals a minimum of 26 events for 2023 and 2024. That means a player will be playing an event for at least half of the weekends for the year. There are already quite a few non-APP players who will have played in excess of 26 events this year, but make no mistake that the burnout factor is real for players on both tours. While the prospect of doubling the prize money of your colleagues must be appealing, another 2 years of being away on at least half of the weekends could be daunting as well.
The fact is the tours probably don’t care that much about player burnout. As hard as it is for players, a lot of the current talent is likely going to be pushed out in relatively short order by newer players entering the sport who are hungrier and will happily welcome the grind of a full tour schedule. While the tours may not worry about the players, we wonder whether they should care about it from a fan saturation perspective with so many events to watch.
Another legitimate issue which could emerge is if some of those top non-PPA signed players decide to boycott MLP. The league could quickly fall back into the problem of being short on players and talent. There are plenty of APP events, prize money, and appearance fees out there. Players may soon question why they would add the wear and tear of 11 events where they are asked to play for half the money (really less than half the money with no appearance fees).
We have a hard time finding a sports comparison where a league actually offers different prize money based players status. It’s unlikely, but if those players that can’t commit to 26 events a year and those only offered a silver card boycotted, MLP and PPA would be in a real bind from a talent pool perspective. We doubt it would happen, but there is some real incentive for players to do it here, because if they don’t MLP and PPA will only gain strength and they will lose bargaining power going forward.
One other aspect that is unclear about the Tour Card situation is how MLP and the PPA will deal with emerging talent. If there were Tour Cards last year, they would not have been sent out to the likes of Anna Bright, Parris Todd, Etta Wright, James Ignatowich and Federico Staksrud. We’re sure they will figure it out somehow, but how that is dealt with could have ramifications beyond the impact to the new players entering the sport.
People may have questions as to how the PPA has gained sucha stranglehold of the MLP product but it cannot be forgotten in all of this that DUPR has become the official rating for the to be launched pickleball.com in 2023. We expect that the DUPR integration was part of the deal with the Vibe-MLP merger and it’s far more than a footnote in all of this. Even though the merger may feel like a lopsided win in favor of the PPA, it should not be underestimated how important it was for the Steve Kuhn founded DUPR to finally be integrated into every aspect of the pro and amateur tournament scene for pickleball.
In all likelihood, the Vibe-MLP merger secured DUPR’s place in the amateur pickleball world. We can talk about the future of pro pickleball as much as we want, but the safest bet when it comes to pickleball is the massive growth that is poised to continue on the amateur side. MLP could very well have been comfortable making more concessions on the pro side in order to secure the amateur piece of the transaction.
Assuming that the PPA and MLP move ahead with what was set out in their player email, the APP is in serious danger of being on the outs of the pro pickleball scene. There is a monumental advantage for the PPA on the pro side as the arms race is not stopping. However, it ain’t over ‘til it’s over, and we have to think this one is a long way from being over.
Agree or disagree? Let us know in the comments below or email us at nmlpickleball@gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook too!
This is nuts.
I don’t mind it though. I’m ready for there to be one premier tour, despite it lowering players bargaining power. If I was a pro pickleballer I’d do what ever it took to get on that gold card.
It should be good for the product to have it this way. But the players have little choice in the matter it would seem
Wowza! What a move by the PPA. Seems like 1 of 2 thing can happen now.
1- The top non-PPA players become gold card players and pull out of most, if not all APP events, resulting in the end of the pro division of the APP.
2- The top non-PPA players band together and form a union of sorts and boycott the MLP unless they are treated equally at MLP events. If they can’t get Anna Bright, Paris Todd, Koop, Viv David, Jorja Johnson, Kawamoto twins, etc then they don’t really have a good product. The top PPA ladies (ALW, CP, Jessie Irvine, etc) won’t want to play either because the female players that will be drafted as their partners in the 20-24 spots will not be anywhere near their level.
The merging of the leagues took away a lot of the player’s bargaining power. This move by the PPA threatens to take away all of it. This is the players’ last chance (for the next 2 years) to take a stand and get some of it back.
Either way I’m excited to see what happens! Exciting time to be a pro pickleball fan! P.S. I’m dying to know who your source is…so I can thank them for sharing 🤣
It could be a mish mash of players who stay and go to, which could leave a kind of weird void. The boycott seems so unlikely but it would be bold of those players to do. It may very well be their last chance to take a stand.
Hahaa this one there were a number of ppl who came to us with this info. People wanted this information out there so not a single source on this by any means is all we can say 😉
Does this mean they’re increasing payouts for the Gold athletes or just decreasing payouts for everyone else? There are multiple ways to achieve a 2x.
And which 12 owners are designated as premier owners? Tom Brady didn’t buy into the league to be part of the challenger division. Is this partly why they’re not announcing more new owners? Maybe they’re consolidating in some way.
They did not set out individual payouts so it’s impossible to know. There are player only Q&A sessions that will happen Monday and Tuesday.
That would seem to be a pretty good guess these new famous owners won’t be in the challenger division.
So now it sounds like their premier/challenger plan relative to the draft is to designate half the teams as “premier” for the first draft, then when they redraft in mid-year, the other half of the teams would get to be “premier”. So over the course of the year, all teams would have 3 competitions in the upper league and 3 competitions in the lower league. There would be a redraft in 2024 again, and presumably the teams that do best over the course of the 2023 competitions would get to be in the premier group, and they’d come up with some approach for allowing teams to move up and down in the future.
It won’t be until mid-2024 when there is any sort of stability regarding which players are on which team. Take a player like AJ Koller, for example…
MLP 2021 Austin: Chimeras
MLP 2022 Austin: Jackrabbits
MLP 2022 Newport: Jackrabbits
MLP 2022 Columbus: Mad Drops
MLP 2023 Season 1: Will be drafted to a new team, could be traded between competitions
MLP 2023 Season 2: Will be drafted to a new team, could be traded between competitions
MLP 2024: Will be drafted to a new team, could be traded between competitions
So over the course of about 2.5 years, he will have played on at least 6 different teams, possibly 7 or 8. This ignores how even if he stays on a team, his teammates might change like they did on the Jackrabbits in between competitions.
If I am an AJ Koller fan, then this means I need to root for a new team every few months. If I am a Chimeras fan, this means that I have to root for an entirely new set of players every few months. This is such an odd way to run a league.
They are making it up as they go with the merger and the expansion, and now are adapting on the fly. It is not ideal for continuity. We’ll hold off any snap judgements until we see a draft format and some details on how transactions will occur, new players entering the sport. But it will be a lot to keep track of for an entire year undoubtedtly
Just FUBAR. Sign a two-year contract “again”? People don’t learn. PPA has no interest in the players, they just put out a little bit better bait. It will be interesting to see how things work out next year though. Most likely, not very good for the players. If a player signs a contract and then starts bitching as Tyson McGuffin did, I have zero sympathy for them. But, they also put themselves in this position too. I would have thought creating a players union would have been of utmost importance, especially how PPA treats players. But I imagine, it will take several years of getting screwed before a union is created. Thank you very much for your time and posting. Great work as always.
So a silver card holder gets everything they have now in 2022 MLP but has to commit to 5 PPA events? That is a big win for PPA for sure. Committing to 5 PPA is a lot for some players like Zane or Dekel who I think only did 1 or 2 PPA events this year. Other names like Bright or Todd, it’s not a change because they did close to that this year. But as the article says, they may not feel good about the payout differential.
How would the draft work? You would have to have a silver or gold card. So are the cards sent out to those who applied to the draft after the draft entry deadline? Or if you get a card offer, would you then apply to the draft if you haven’t done so already?
I will say this move makes Partnergate seem trivial. Those who have committed to APP are in a quandary. Steve Deakin, a host of APP events, switched over from APP to PPA due to the better offer from PPA at beginning of 2022. Many PPA players abandoned their partners at APP’s Boca Raton last January. Ken Herrmann of APP had to send out an appeal for pros to fill in the gaps with suddenly partnerless pros. This could be repeated in January! Parenteau made the “business decision” to switch partners at Nationals due to an unexpected change in circumstances.
With this card system, you may have players all of a sudden who have to drop their commitment to APP or some APP events depending on calendar. What a tough call to make. You have to put food on the table for your family. You want to make a go of this pickleball career. You may have given up a regular job to do so. Do you stay with what may soon be an irrelevant APP tour? And emotionally, how does all this feel to you when you favor APP over PPA’s ethics. Or like the article said, you were loyal to MLP and now get lesser favor from them or are coerced into playing in a tour you truly don’t like.
As far as “marketability” criteria. It sounds like PPA thinks all their 2022 signed players have this already. But how is such a subjective determined? Would an Austin Gridley or Bobby Oshiro be considered marketable? Is Jeffrey Warnick marketable because of his in your face attitude on court? Do you already have to have a big social presence? Seems like it’ll be as “subjective” as the seedings in the PPA.
I enjoyed APP this year mainly due to the new talent and especially the singles field talent. With the influx of new players, that won’t go away so APP isn’t dead yet. But if that new talent isn’t playing against the known names like JW or Staksrud, it may be hard to judge how good they are. As PPA streaming has shown us, their top players always look great playing a #32 seed.
As far as the pending APP broadcast contract, that’s never been a criteria for fans who only care it is streamed free on youtube. But players have said that it is for them. Pros want their name to be recognized so they can get sponsorships. I’m sure PPA has their press release ready to go to compete against any press release put out by APP on this issue. PPA/MLP will not let APP take any limelight for more than a few days.
I look forward to hearing more leaks on how it’ll work after the Q&A this week.
A lot to digest here to say the least. You have covered a lot of factors to be considered. The broadcast one for sure seems like it will be matched.
The draft is undetermined right now how format will work exactly but it’s not supposed to matter what card is held.
Partnership switched could be major here as APP players are currently figuring out what they should do
Man the PPA is trying to take over MLP!! I don’t think players should be forced to play any events outside of the MLP or get paid more or less because of a certain package they are forced to sign up for in order to play. So one team filled with two PPA players and two APP players are going to have different payouts?? That’s stupid.
I hope the players create some sort of a union for themselves or at least band together to boycott these changes. I hope PPA ends up in the same boat they were with not having enough players to field a full event. The amount of teams that MLP is planning for they really need all of the APP players to be on board.
That is exactly what is going to happen though unless everyone commits to the PPA gold that gets offered. We’ll see what they do
From a fan perspective, this all seems fantastic. The gold/silver split is a very smart way of not having the teams be watered down. I can’t wait to see how it all plays out!
It only works if everyone is on board. If players are not content to the point of avoiding MLP, it’s not good for fans. Also, the gold/silver distinction is not necessary for MLP at all. Premier and challenger leagues would keep the best in one division
“what we might have to talk” — lots with 2 breaking news items today (UTR, Leigh).
Lots to talk about 😂
Pingback: Todo lo que necesitas saber sobre Pickleball – Muscle & Strength
Pingback: Everything You Need To Know About Pickleball - THE CARE NEWS
Pingback: Learn the Ins and Outs of Pickleball from a Pair of the Sport’s Best Players – Brain Athlete Sportz
Pingback: Everything You Need To Know About Pickleball - ABUNDANTLY HEALTHY YOU
Pingback: Every part You Want To Know About Pickleball - Maga Shopy
Pingback: The whole lot You Want To Know About Pickleball - Totalfitness
Pingback: Learn the Ins and Outs of Pickleball from a Pair of the Sport’s Best Players – Number 1 For Home Fitness
Pingback: Everything You Need To Know About Pickleball - Health Reporter
Pingback: Everything You Need To Know About Pickleball - Buz today
Pingback: Everything You Need To Know About Pickleball - Amazon Best Deals
Pingback: Everything You Need To Know About Pickleball - Zemiq
Pingback: Every thing You Want To Know About Pickleball - Amazon Best Deals
Pingback: Learn the Ins and Outs of Pickleball from a Pair of the Sport’s Best Players – My WordPress
Pingback: All the things You Want To Know About Pickleball - Cibiotix - Health Information Always
Pingback: Every thing You Want To Know About Pickleball - allthingsrelief.com
Pingback: Every little thing You Want To Know About Pickleball - fitnessforlife
Pingback: Discover the Ins and Outs of Pickleball from a Set of the Sport's Finest Gamers - HealthyHouse
Pingback: The whole lot You Want To Know About Pickleball - Best Dealss Buzz
Pingback: Learn the Ins and Outs of Pickleball from 2 of Its Best Players – The Fitness Freak
Pingback: Everything You Need To Know About Pickleball – Paltni
Pingback: Everything You Need To Know About Pickleball – Vaata Station News
Pingback: Everything You Need To Know About Pickleball – Cool Amazon Deal
Pingback: Everything You Need To Know About Pickleball – Dillgates
Pingback: Everything You Need To Know About Pickleball - News Nixon
Pingback: Learn the Ins and Outs of Pickleball from a Pair of the Sport’s Best Players - Leggings Are Pants
Pingback: Everything you need to know about pickleball – Tricks and Tips
Pingback: Everything You Need To Know About Pickleball | The Man Cave
Pingback: Learn the Ins and Outs of Pickleball from a Pair of the Sport’s Best Players
Pingback: Everything You Need To Know About Pickleball - A Weight Loss Journey.
Pingback: What is Major League Pickleball? – MLP in 2023 – Pickle Ball
Pingback: What is Major League Pickleball? – MLP in 2023 – site pickle ball
Can you tell me about PPA in more detail???