The road to Texas' newest major league team runs through Dallas, and it's a pretty big “dill.”

Major League Pickleball, an elite consortium of 32 of the world’s best pickleball players, will stage its inaugural draft in Dallas on Friday, October 1. Eight MLP team owner groups — including some big names in Texas business — will select four players to compete in a four-day competition in November.

The players will compete for the Pritchard Cup (named after the founder of pickleball, Joel Pritchard) in a livestreamed and nationally broadcast coed team competition at Dreamland entertainment venue in Dripping Springs, November 5-8.

If you’re a true sports fan, you’ll likely relish in the competition. And you won’t be the only one, with the sport gaining popularity in Dallas-Fort Worth and worldwide in recent years. (There are two locations of pickleball-themed restaurant Chicken 'n Pickle under way in DFW.)

A USA Pickleball Association claim that the sport has grown by 650 percent in the past six years. And the newly launched Major League Pickleball highlights reporting from The Economist, which called pickleball the fastest-growing sport in America, with more than 4 million people playing the sport in 2021, also noting a 21 percent increase in pickleball participants from 2019 to 2020.

Pickleball — a racket sport that combines attributes of tennis, ping pong, and badminton — may become even more popular with the rollout of the MLP.

MLP season one, the entirety of which will take place at Dripping Springs' Dreamland, will feature a team-competition format that’s new to professional pickleball, with the eight teams competing in women’s and men’s singles and doubles, as well as mixed doubles, the outcome of which will lead to the crowning of the inaugural season championship team.

Every game throughout the four-day event will be livestreamed, with details to be announced prior to the tournament.

Players from each team will receive equal prize money (depending on where their team finishes), with a total prize fund of more than $150,000 — one of the largest prize pools for any professional pickleball competition to date, according to MLP. And season one players can earn equity in MLP, giving them an ownership stake and an investment in the future value of MLP as it grows in 2022 and beyond.

“Major League Pickleball is going to be excellent for our sport,” says professional pickleball player Irina Tereschenko. “MLP is bringing a new format, a team event that will bring people together, and a draft that I expect to be epic. … Overall, I think this is going to be huge. I know I can’t wait for season one to start, and that’s how a lot of my fellow pros are feeling.”

MLP is the creation of investor and entrepreneur Steve Kuhn, and the MLP operating team will be led by renowned Texas educator, entrepreneur, and investor Mellie Price, founder of Front Gate Tickets and co-founder of Austin’s Capital Factory.

The list of the eight 2021 MLP team owner groups features an impressive lineup of Texas and U.S. business, sports, entertainment, and industry pros, including:

• Internationally recognized researcher, storyteller, author, podcaster, and all-around awesome encourager Brené Brown.
• Navdeep Sooch, chairman of Silicon Labs.
• C3 Presents co-founders Charles Attal and Charlie Walker, creators of Austin City Limits Music Festival and the organizers of Lollapalooza.
• Bryan Sheffield, owner of Austin FC.
• Tim Klitch, founder and chief fun officer of Austin Pickle Ranch.
• Charles Kiley, CFO at the Brené Brown Education and Research Group.
• Dr. Steve Alley, a pediatrics specialist based in Houston.
• James Blake, former world-ranked professional tennis player and current TV commentator.
• Marc Lasry, co-owner of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks.
• Hollywood talent agent Jim Toth.
• John Raymond, CEO and co-founder of The Energy & Minerals Group.
• Fuel oil trader Eric Kuo.
• Mike Meldman, CEO of Discovery Land Company and co-founder of Casamigos Tequila.
• Wes Hurt, founder and CEO of Clean Cause.
• Tim Berry, founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software.
• Ritchie Tuazon of Capital Group.

The inaugural MLP draft will take place as a livestreamed event in Dallas on October 1 from 7-9 pm. The eight MLP team owner groups will each select four players — two women, two men – to compete as a team at the MLP tournament at Dreamland in November. This will mark the first time in pickleball history that a draft event of this type will take place.

“I’m so proud of our team and everyone who has helped make the dream of Major League Pickleball become a reality today,” says Price, MLP president. “Our founding team, athletes, investors, and owners are united by our love of pickleball and passion for entrepreneurship. We have a truly unique, highly qualified, and dedicated founding group invested in the success of Major League Pickleball. Our goal is simply to inspire more people to take up pickleball and to give professional players the platform they deserve when showcasing their talents to the world.”

For more info about Major League Pickleball, visit MajorLeaguePickleball.net and follow MLP on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.