Major League Pickleball finals at Pickle & Chill on October 16, 2022 in Columbus, Ohio.
Emilee Chinn | Getty Images
Dozens of skilled pickleball players have formed a collective to voice their concerns about recent pay cuts and the longer term of the game.
In a letter obtained by CNBC, the collective shared their dissatisfaction with how they’ve been treated by Major League Pickleball and the Pro Pickleball Association Tour.
It comes after MLP on Nov. 28 asked players to take a 40% percent pay cut in return for a discount of labor obligations to assist the league turn out to be financially viable over the long run. The MLP and the PPA Tour are currently negotiating a proposed merger.
“We understand the economic reality of pay-cuts, nevertheless, lies, threats, deceitfulness, false deadlines, and the refusal to honor written addendums and agreements haven’t any place within the league that we all know and love. If we’re going to collaborate on contract modifications, we deserve honest answers to honest questions, and we now have not received them,” the letter says.
CNBC spoke with multiple players who say they feel like they have been unfairly treated or received threats for not agreeing to the proposed pay cuts. Many weren’t a lot against the proposed cuts but the dearth of transparency and the best way the leagues have handled it. All of them spoke on the condition on anonymity out of fear of retribution.
Fueled by a boom in the game’s popularity, Major League Pickleball has attracted A-list ownership groups featuring superstars akin to LeBron James, Tom Brady, Kevin Durant and Patrick Mahomes, to call just a number of. Julio DePietro, who bought a stake within the Florida Smash MLP team in 2022, and most recently served as MLP CEO, told CNBC in July that MLP team valuations had soared to $10 million after being acquired for as little as $100,000 for the reason that league began play in 2021.
But recently the league undergone major leadership changes. MLP founder Steve Kuhn and Commissioner Brooks Wiley have departed in recent months. DePietro, who was hired as CEO in July, quietly left that role, too.
Steve Kuhn, MLP Founder, Major League Pickleball at NYSE, May 25, 2022.
Source: NYSE
Despite the proposed merger still being within the works, the players say PPA Tour CEO Connor Pardoe did a variety of the negotiating with MLP players over their contracts, which they found unusual. Many say they’d chosen MLP over the PPA Tour to get away from Pardoe, and now they’re being forced to barter with him.
One player said they were threatened that in the event that they don’t take the pay cut by the next day, the cuts would increase to 60% from 40%. The player requested additional information and for a written proposal which the league failed to offer him.
MLP pay ranges from $30,000 to $2 million a yr, in accordance with an owner who spoke to CNBC on the condition of anonymity.
Other players said they were threatened by MLP and PPA Tour leadership that in the event that they didn’t take the cuts they could be scheduled to work of their developmental program coaching clinics or camps – even on their kids’ birthdays.
“We decided to form the collective in response to the immoral, unethical and arguably illegal negotiation tactics which are getting used,” one other player said.
The collective represents the interests of the overwhelming majority of MLP’s roughly 100 players, in accordance with former MLP Challenger champion and MVP Jillian Braverman, one in every of the group’s leaders. The group began as a WhatsApp chat and has evolved right into a forum where players can collectively share their experiences. Braverman said they’ve received funding from an angel investor and have hired each an employment attorney and an antitrust attorney.
In a joint statement, MLP and the PPA Tour told CNBC: “The players have shown overwhelming collaboration during this process and have largely understood that we’re all collectively making adjustments to construct an operation that may make sure the long-term health and success of skilled pickleball for all key stakeholders.”
One owner told CNBC he hopes the collective is a wakeup call to the opposite owners in regards to the proposed merger and the way dire things have turn out to be.
“It is not all rainbows and butterflies, players aren’t completely satisfied. It isn’t going well and so they feel rightfully aggrieved,” said the owner, who declined to be named, as he was discussing confidential matters.
Ritchie Tuazon, who owns MLP’s California BLQK Bears, said he sees the worth of the collective, especially as some players don’t even have agent representation.
“Moving within the direction of a unified player voice is simply a positive thing for pickleball,” he said.
The collective’s letter to MLP stakeholders, which incorporates all owners, also included survey results reflecting the opinions of roughly 65 players.
When asked whether or not they feel they’ve been treated fairly in the course of the pay cut negotiation process, 89% of the respondents said no. The overwhelming majority (92%) said that MLP leadership has didn’t successfully answer nearly all of their questions.
The poll results regarding the PPA Tour were much more damaging, with 57% saying they’ve felt victimized, harassed or bullied by the rival league. Greater than 75% said Connor Pardoe and the PPA Tour leadership team aren’t of high moral character and integrity.
“We consider that MLP has departed from the ethos that we all know and love and is as an alternative embodying the precise ethos that we fled from once we signed multi-year deals with Major League Pickleball in August,” the letter says.
Braverman said Major League Pickleball has yet to answer Sunday’s letter. The group sent a follow-up note Thursday, telling MLP leaders that the collective has retained counsel.
MLP did send a letter to players Thursday, but without explicitly addressing the players collective. Titled “Where We Stand,” the league letter said “over 85% of all 2023 Premiere Level Players” have accepted reductions in addition to recent agreements with the “NewCo,” which could be the merged MLP and PPA Tour.
The MLP also said they’re “at capability,” and never doing any more reductions. It added that if players who’ve accepted a discount want to vary back to their original deals “we could be open to that.”
Pickleball Union, a pickleball news website, and the collective challenged these claims. After reaching out to players and agents, they determined the number of individuals to have accepted the cuts to be closer to 25% to 30% at best.
In MLP’s Thursday letter, the league also touts that MLP owners have pledged a further $10 million annually to fund operations and can be receiving one other $50 million on Jan. 1. Overall, after amended player agreements, there can be a 300% increase in total player salaries in 2024 vs. 2023, it adds.
The league ended the letter with a warning, though.
“If the merger shouldn’t be accomplished by Jan. 31, 2024, these recent agreements can be null and void, and deals will revert to the contracts you signed with MLP or PPA, which is able to leave the longer term viability and sustainability of MLP uncertain,” the letter says.