AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 12, 2022 — An possession group headlined by 5-time NFL Tremendous Bowl MVP quarterback and entrepreneur Tom Brady and Former World No.1 tennis participant Kim Clijsters has bought an enlargement crew for the 2023 Main League Pickleball (MLP) season. The group, led by Knighthead Capital Administration, LLC, consists of co-founder of Knighthead Tom Wagner, acclaimed producer Matt Alvarez, Wall Avenue bond saleswoman Callie Simpkins, and monetary advisor Kaitlyn Kerr, who will function Normal Supervisor.
“Tom Brady, Kim Clijsters, and Knighthead Capital Administration are champions of their fields and can now be champions for Main League Pickleball,” mentioned MLP Founder Steve Kuhn. “What actually shines by in working with these superb people is their ardour for the game. We’re thrilled to welcome them to our unmatched roster of strategic companions, who’re individually and collectively instrumental in serving to us elevate skilled pickleball, showcase the enjoyment it brings to hundreds of thousands of individuals across the globe, and additional our ‘40 by 30’ marketing campaign – our mission to achieve 40 million pickleball gamers by 2030.”
The enlargement crew is part of a three-pronged development plan for 2023, which can see 12 groups develop to 16, three occasions double to 6, and participant prize cash and payouts surpass $2M. MLP is the standard-bearer for pickleball in the USA, delivering the highest-quality and most fun expertise within the sport in addition to the biggest prize cash payouts per occasion to its gamers.
“In fact, I’m excited on the funding alternative,” mentioned Clijsters, the six-time tennis Grand Slam Champion who commonly performs pickleball with Simpkins and Kerr. “However what excites me essentially the most about changing into an MLP proprietor is that I get to assist form the way forward for pickleball, a sport I’ve come to like, with nice individuals – who additionally occur to be a few of my greatest associates. I’m thrilled to assist showcase skilled pickleball and make an impression on the game by my expertise gained within the high ranges {of professional} tennis.”
With the funding from Clijsters, Simpkins, and Kerr, the brand new crew may also be 50% female-owned, a testomony to the league’s foundational mission of gender equality. MLP is certainly one of, if not the one skilled sports activities league the place women and men compete on equal footing. Co-ed groups play two rounds of blended doubles, along with males’s and ladies’s doubles, and will even have women and men face off towards one another in singles in a Dreambreaker™, a novel tiebreaker solely present in MLP.
The possession group provides much more credibility to MLP’s already stacked roster of high-profile house owners and strategic companions, who supply unparalleled experience throughout advertising and marketing, media, leisure, branding, and extra.
Different crew house owners and companions embrace NBA icons LeBron James, Draymond Inexperienced, and Kevin Love, Tremendous Bowl Champion Drew Brees, entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk (Gary Vee), famed lecturer and analysis professor Brené Brown, co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks Marc Lasry, former World No.4 tennis participant James Blake, healthcare government Molly Joseph, and from Bravo’s Million Greenback Itemizing New York and Founder and CEO of Serhant, Ryan Serhant.
The 2022 MLP season finale will see 48 gamers descend on Columbus, Ohio from October 14-16 to compete for the biggest single-event prize purse ($319,000) within the historical past of pickleball, with the profitable crew taking dwelling $100,000. Followers can attend the occasion dwell at Pickle & Chill in Columbus or catch all of the motion on YouTube globally, MSG Networks in NY, NJ, CT, and PA (group play, quarterfinals and semifinals – Friday-Sunday) and CBS Sports activities Community (finals – Sunday at 7:30pm ET).
