Better Together – Today’s MLP and PPA Merger; One Worth Waiting For
by Forma Capital General Partner Mary Owen
Feb 29, 2024
“This merger signals the next phase of growth for professional pickleball, and the combined resources and networks of the PPA Tour and MLP will support the sport at all levels,” said MLP CEO Bruce Popko. “Commercially, this unification positions us to be even better partners, as sponsors, broadcast partners, venue operators, equipment manufacturers, and others will benefit from the combined, expanded 2024 schedule of PPA and MLP events. While unified through a parent company, the PPA Tour and MLP will maintain their distinct brands, allowing sponsors and partners to invest in the brands that best align with their business goals, all the while showcasing a consistent, premier product for fans across both playing formats.”
This is a day millions of pickleball fans and players have been impatiently waiting for, myself included. As an investor in the MLP Los Angeles Mad drops, along with my partners at Forma Capital, we are thrilled to learn that these two professional entities have joined in order to move the fastest growing sport in America forward.
In this critical moment, I can’t help but think of the similarities with another historical merger between two great professional sports leagues. My late uncle, Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. became the founding owner of the American Football League’s (AFL) Buffalo Bills on October 28, 1959 for a franchise price of $25,000. He was one of eight new owners in a fledgling league, and their position was not dissimilar to that of the Major League Pickleball owners upon the league’s founding in 2021.
The AFL’s goal: to expand the game of professional football to new markets and create a competitor to the then dominant National Football League (NFL). The group of eight new owners, led by the late great Lamar Hunt, was notably called “The Foolish Club” due to the fact that no one believed this league would survive against the well established and mature NFL.
During my years working for Ralph both at the Buffalo Bills and at Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Enterprises, I had the privilege of listening to many stories (he was a great story teller) of the early years of the AFL and the tumult and uncertainty that was its reality.
“My friends thought I was a chump.” Wilson said. “To some of them it was like trying to challenge General Motors or Ford. Guys wouldn’t drink with me at the bar. They would go stand in the corner and not speak to me.” (1)
During this time, most owners in The Foolish Club were losing money, including Ralph. There were eight teams in the league and eight teams were needed for it to survive. At that time, the Raiders were on the brink of calling it quits. Wayne Valley was the then owner of the Oakland Raiders and Al Davis was their coach and the Commissioner of the AFL. Ralph took a chance and loaned the team $400,000 to keep them afloat––and thereby, kept the AFL afloat.
“People looked on us as not having much of a chance anyway, and they would really jump on the bandwagon if one of the teams folded,” said Ralph when explaining his rationale. (1)
Today, Major League Pickleball (MLP) and the Carvana PPA Tour (PPA) announced the finalization of a merger (again) and this go-round, it’s ready for prime time.
Pictured: Ralph C. Wilson Jr. (Top, 3rd from left) and Lamar Hunt (Top, 4th from left)
While this moment was not the silver bullet that would solidify the AFL as an established league, it certainly showed sacrifice for the greater good and a passion to ensure it moved forward. Two years later, with Ralph on the television committee, the AFL negotiated a $900,000 per year broadcast agreement with NBC, which rivaled the NFL’s $1,000,000 per year deal with CBS. At this point, as the story goes, the NFL started to get serious about the AFL and eventually, in 1970, the two entities became one: The National Football League.
As can be surmised, this was not an easy road––for anyone. The owners from both the AFL and NFL each had their own agenda based on their own team, market, and stakeholders. They worked hard, made many sacrifices along the way, and ultimately knew they were better together.
This shared value of collaboration and compromise is apparent in the NFL today as it continues to operate under a gold standard revenue sharing business model. At the end of the day, the thirty-two owners are also the board of directors and partners in all of the business that is the NFL. They compete on the field, but are partners off the field. The model is one of shared sacrifice to create greater economic success for all and parity in a product that is worth the price of admission. Every market, no matter the size, is able to compete. Most importantly, the players have 32 teams to choose from that each have a legitimate possibility of reaching a Super Bowl.
In relating this to the MLP and today’s announcement, I see a similar path was followed to get to where we are today. The Principals of both MLP and PPA have known for some time that working together was ultimately better for the growth of the sport, as opposed to competing in the crowded space of sports and entertainment. They needed to find a business arrangement that allowed them to play off of each other’s strengths and let both playing formats have the chance to connect with fans, new and old.
Ralph was a visionary and a risk taker, much like the owners and leaders of today’s MLP and PPA. One of his favorite euphemisms was, “You cannot predict the future.”
He most certainly would not have predicted a Major League Pickleball league, but here we are. Today, we have a definitive and combined professional pickleball organization, one that combines the top professional pickleball league, the Major League Pickleball League, with the leading pickleball tour, the Carvana PPA tour. A merger worth waiting for, indeed.
(1) A football lover and fighter, Ralph Wilson’s road to Canton was paved with respect for the game and advocacy for the fans during his stewardship of the Buffalo Bills. Mark Gaughn. Buffalo News. August 8, 2009.