The Pickle Talk
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The MLP & PPA merger is back on AGAIN

The MLP & PPA merger is back on AGAIN

PLUS: The "new & improved" pickleball & a content creator spends $800 on pickleball shoes

Welcome back, Kitcheners.

Read time: 4 min

An indestructible pickleball ball? Is it possible?

According to the social peeps on the internet, Selkirk is in its test phases for a ball that, well, doesn’t warp or break.

Named the Selkirk Pro S1 ball, here’s the initial announcement on their main website.

This could be the end to park trashcans filled to the brim with broken pickleballs. But is it too good to be true?

I’ll guess we’ll just have to find out…

Now, on with the show 🫡

TODAY’S MENU

Daily Scoop: The merger is back on.
News Stash: Introducing: DotBall 360*. Trae Young co-owns new MLP team. Grant Park rolls out red carpet for pickleball fanatics.
Sizzling Skills: Stop the fancy slice and dice. It’s hurting your sweet spot.
Kitchen Talk: This content creator spent $800 on pickleball shoes. Here’s the verdict.

DAILY SCOOP

The merger is back on.

Big news: The merger between PPA and MLP is back on in a dramatic turn of events.

If you missed the newsletter two weeks ago, the daily scoop detailed the drama surrounding the two major pickleball leagues abruptly canceling a merger that was rumored to be in the works.

HOWEVER, out of nowhere, the verbal pact was broken, and the scramble to sign top players to binding contracts sent shockwaves throughout the pickleball world.

Well, a few weeks later…the pickleball world took a 180-degree turn again, and now the merger is back on, backed by a hefty $50 million investment led by a private equity firm.

So which format will the leagues adapt to?

Right now, the agreement is that each league will still play by its own unique tournament style.

The PPA will stick with the traditional, bracket-style format tour, WHILE the MLP sticks with the team-based, coed style format.

So…why now?

According to MLP founder Steve Kuhn, “This merger will expand and improve opportunities for current and future players, creating a united experience and a better future playing professional pickleball.”

And according to PPA Tour owner Tom Dundon, “The holding company unifying the PPA Tour and MLP will create a streamlined sport for fans and add more meaningful opportunities for player competition, broadcasting rights, and sponsorship throughout the professional pickleball calendar.”

In short: Unity is the way to go to further legitimize the sport.

In my mind, all it took was a nice meal at the downtown Ritz and a cold beer between the 2, and BAM. Deal, back on.

But who knows what really happened behind the scenes or what the real reason was for the sudden change of heart.

Let’s see if this sticks or, hey, maybe next week we’ll be in another pickle…

Stay tuned.

NEWS STASH

Introducing: DotBall 360*

Pickleball is all the rage right now, and not surprisingly, other paddle sports are piggybacking off its popularity and creating branch sports that resemble something like it.

via @DotBall360 Instagram

That’s right. A new sport called DotBall has surfaced on Twitter and could be the new “it” game if marketed correctly.

In short, the game is a combo of spikeball & pickleball and has the space advantage of not requiring a net.

Check out some plays & the rules of the game here.

Trae Young co-owns new MLP team

Happenings: Cha-ching! NBA star Trae Young puts his basketball moolah to good use and invests in a brand new MLP team called the Atlanta Bouncers, with Anheuser-Busch owning the team.

So what’s up with the name? According to the MLP website, the name is meant to pay homage to the raving Atlanta bar scene.

And so far, the team has already signed 4 players.

Grant Park rolls out red carpet for pickleball fanatics

Happenings: Chicago's pickleball addicts just got a big juicy dill vote of confidence. Grant Park — aka front lawn of the Art Institute/frequent Obama hangout spot — cut the ribbon on 16 new pickleball courts yesterday thanks to a fat stack of cash from Lollapalooza.

Yep, you read that right: Half a milly from the mega music fest went toward exercising Windy Citizens. Turns out Lalapalooza felt a lil’ guilty about turning Grant Park's tennis courts into parking lots every August.

So the Grant Park Advisory Council paired Lolla's grant with $41k of its own and made Chicagoans pickleball dreams come true.

Hopefully, this'll relieve the bat-and-ball battle between tennis heads and pickle fiends who've beefed over limited court space.

SIZZLING SKILLS

In a pickle:

1/ If you have a high ball comin’ at you, keep your non-paddle hand up and clap your paddle towards it to keep the ball in a direction above the net.

2/ Are your opponents hitting the ball hard towards you? Rebalance the energy by keeping the grip on your paddle light so it can absorb some shock.

In a pickle:

Slicing the ball might look like a fancy move, but overdoing it can hurt your play.

Instead, drop the paddle tip down & push the ball over the net.

More control. Sweet spot, contacted.