Thoughts From the MLP St. Louis Tournament


As you know, here at Pickleball Living, we frequently encourage you to attend a pro pickleball event.

As you also know, my wife and I have attended both PPA and MLP events, and we also highly recommend that you attend.

This past weekend, we attended the MLP St. Louis tournament along with several other pickleball friends.

Because of other commitments, we only attended on Friday. 

We did watch the Pickleball TV replays of matches from the other days.

So, here are my thoughts from the tournament:

 1.  The pros are really good!  That should go without saying, and I say it often, but at every live event I attend, I am always amazed at how good they are. Their shots, their positioning, their pursuit of shots that would seem unreachable, their speed, their reaction times, etc.  Amazing!  And definitely more amazing in person than on TV.

 2.  The youth movement is alive and well.  Many of the teams have very young players. A few examples include 13 year old Elsie Hendershot, 15 year old Tama Shimabukuro, 15 year old Cam Chaffin, 18 year old John Lucian Goins, also Jonathan Truong, Ella Yeh, Len Yang, etc. And some well-known established players are still young - Hayden Patriquin, Gabe Tardio, for example.  And of course, young players not at the MLP St. Louis tournament would include Anna Leigh Waters, Jorja Johnson, C.J. Klinger, etc. The point is, with all these highly talented, but really young players, the pro game is in good hands for many years to come.

 3.  Attending the tournament with friends is quite fun.  Several of our pickleball friends also went to the tournament. It was fun just hanging out, watching amazing pickleball, and enjoying good company. 

 4.  MLP has an attendance problem.  This is just my opinion, but I have noticed a difference between PPA tournament attendance and MLP tournament attendance. Both PPA and MLP struggle to fill the stands on Thursdays and Fridays.  That's understandable with fan's work schedules.  However, most PPA events are overcrowded on Saturdays and Sundays.  When my wife and I attended the PPA's Newport Beach Open back in April, it was Semifinal Saturday, and it was beyond overcrowded. In fact, uncomfortably overcrowded. Not true with MLP.  If you noticed last weekend, Saturday and Sunday attendance in St. Louis was lackluster.  Even with the St. Louis Shock in the finals against the L.A. Mad Drops on Sunday, the arena was not full.  It was not even close to sold out.  What's the issue?  Here are my thoughts:

  a.  Expense - We bought tickets back in January when they were running some early-bird ticket specials.  Our seats were only $40 per seat.  Closer to the time of the event, the same seats were $80 per seat.  Was that too much in the current economy?  And with higher gas prices? I don't know. Also, there were even higher priced seats in the first four rows, but they also didn't sell out. In fact several were empty, even on Championship Sunday, and even with the home team in the finals.  And on Friday, an event organizer came through and asked all of us to move down and take the empty, higher tier priced seats.  He said it would look better on TV to have those seats filled.  So, for $40 we ended up with row 4 seats, and if we had been a little quicker, we could have had 1st row seats. 

  b.  Marketing - After the weekend tournament, we talked to others in our local pickleball club who were not even aware that MLP was in St. Louis last weekend.  Our local club is about 125 miles from St. Louis.  An easy drive.  Even easy to go and come in the same day. Why didn't the St. Louis Shock or MLP corporate not send notifications to all the area pickleball clubs encouraging club members to attend?  Surely, that would have helped attendance.  Maybe they did, and our club just dropped the ball.  I don't know.  Also, what about a quick Instagram or Facebook Reel from players encouraging attendance. I saw one, a relatively poorly done one, featuring Hayden Patriquin. What about Anna Bright?  Or Gabe Tardio?  Or Kate Fahey? What about players from other teams playing in the tournament?  For example, a reel of Ben Johns telling people he would be playing in St. Louis and asking them to attend. Would that entice more fans?  Potentially.  Or Christian Alshon?  Or Catherine Parenteau?  Or Rachel Rohrabacher? Or the Kawamoto twins who ultimately faced each other playing on different teams?  Or Jack Sock?  Or Tama?  Or Connor Garnett?  I could go on and on.  Surely, it would have helped.  Did they get the word out loudly enough?

  c.  Venue accompaniments - When you attend any NFL, NBA, MLB, or college football events, they have all sorts of extra enticements to capture the attention of attendees who may not be die-hard fans.  For example, the wife who reluctantly agreed to attend with her sports-fanatic husband. Or the kids who were brought with their sports-fanatic parents. These enticements include music, food, merchandise, etc. I understand, pro pickleball is not as widely popular yet, like those other major sports. And popularity translates to revenue.  And it requires revenue to fund those enticements.  I get it.  But, if the St. Louis Shock can spend $1.23 million for the first MLP draft pick to be able to retain Anna Bright after releasing her, they should be able to have better food at the venue and not run out of hot dogs and M&M's on the second day of a four-day tournament. They did not allow people to bring food or drink into the venue.  However, they did allow attendees to leave and reenter.  That means they knew some would leave to eat elsewhere and return later, so why not have arrangements with some popular food truck owners to be available outside the venue?  And inside the venue, maybe even have some popular local or regional musicians who could perform for 15-20 minutes in between matches. Some would attend because of the music, but they might also become pickleball enthusiasts. And maybe provide more MLP merchandise to choose from.  Maybe some frequent merchandise giveaways only available at the venue. Such as Selkirk providing fans tickets for a drawing and giving away three Boomsticks each day to a randomly drawn fan's ticket number.  Or Franklin giving away Anna Leigh or Hayden paddles.  Or Skechers having a shoe giveaway.  Or Nike shoes and/or apparel.  Surely, while the sport of pickleball continues to grow, there would be better attendance if it were a bigger event with more enticements than just pickleball.

  d.  Kid's activities - We also attended the MLP St. Louis event last year.  One of the big differences this year was that there were not nearly as many kids in attendance.  Last year, there were lots of what appeared to be 5 - 10 year olds.  Not the case this year.  So, why not have more hands-on kid's activities in the concourses?  For example, mini pickleball courts kids could play a few points on.  Or paddles to try out? Last year they had more autograph and photo opportunities with the pro players compared to this year. There was a little of that, but not as frequent nor as big of a deal as last year.  Surely, having activities appealing to kids helps the parents, but also helps grow the sport.   

  e.  The specific pros playing - There were certain extremely popular pros who were not at the St. Louis tournament since their teams were not playing.  That included Anna Leigh Waters and Jorja Johnson of the New Jersey 5's.  Also J.W. Johnson and Tyra Black from the Dallas Flash.  And others, like Dylan Frazier who grew up in Missouri and went to Mizzou. Did their absence affect attendance?  I don't know. But people are certainly loyal to their favorite players. So those fans who follow everything Anna Leigh does and everywhere she goes may just not have been interested in the St. Louis tournament since she wasn't playing.  On the other hand, such high performing athletes also have their haters. And maybe Anna Leigh's haters, who can't wait for her to lose, also just weren't interested in attending since she wasn't playing. 

  5.  Pro pickleball is a great value. Despite the thoughts I shared above of things I think could have made the tournament better, it is well worth your time and money to attend a live event.  Compared to other pro sports, the cost of watching pro pickleball is small.  And what you get to see for your money is a great value. We watched 9 hours of high level pickleball for $40 per seat.  And maybe $15 more for popcorn, a hot dog, and a soda. At the NFL, it may be 3-4 hours but for 5 x the price. Same with the NBA or MLB.  College football might be 3-4 hours, but if it's a top 10 team, it could be 10-20 x the cost or more.  I know pickleball will continue to grow.  And with Nike's involvement, and increasing major TV network coverage, and more marketing, these prices won't stay this low for too long.  That's why I recommend you make time to attend a pro pickleball event while it is still such a great value.

The Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis is a great venue.  There are few, if any, bad seats.

And the St. Louis fans are very loud and very supportive of the Shock.

It's fun to participate.

So, find an MLP or PPA event near you.

Put it on your schedule.

And go!

You'll be glad you did!!



Ben Holt
​CEO, Pickleball Living