Entrepreneur and investor Gary Vaynerchuk hit back at people who doubt pickleball, saying they badly underrate the sport. He posted it on X (formerly Twitter) on September 8, 2026, arguing as a 50-year-old who has watched several sports move from niche to mainstream. He is a co-owner of the New Jersey 5s, who won their first MLP title in 2026, so this is not commentary from the sidelines but the word of someone with his own money in the game. For Japan, where participation is entering an expansion phase, the bullish case forces a question: is the current excitement the peak or the opening chapter?
What an investor told the skeptics
Vaynerchuk's argument is simple. The world badly undersells how much room more sports have to grow, and pickleball is one of them. He goes on to note that every sport that is huge today was once small and easy to dismiss. Against skeptics who see the boom as a fad, his framing is that writing off a sport's future because it is small has been proven wrong many times before.
The view carries weight because he is putting investor money into pickleball. Unlike a commentator's optimism, he speaks from inside the business, running a team and managing top players, which separates it from simple cheerleading.
The skeptics have grounds too. Facilities that expanded fast have tipped into oversupply, and sales are starting to appear in the US. A quick start does not guarantee that the sport takes root. Vaynerchuk's answer does not reject that caution outright; it narrows to one point, that dismissing the future on the basis of current size alone is premature. Overheating and taking root are different things, and it is worth judging coolly which phase the sport is in.
Nobody watched the first Super Bowl or the early NBA either
To back his case, Vaynerchuk lines up precedents of now-huge sports that were brushed aside early on. All of them share one trait: they passed through a small phase on the way to the mainstream.
| Sport or event | How it was dismissed early on |
|---|---|
| Super Bowl | The first one did not fill the stadium |
| NBA Finals | There was a period when broadcasters gave golf priority and basketball ran on tape delay |
| UFC | It was banned in many states in its early days |
The past looks unbelievable from here, but at the time, saying any of these would become mainstream got you laughed at. How you see pickleball now, he suggests, is a question of where among those precedents you place yourself.
He lined up even Wiffle ball in the post, not to sell one particular sport, but to argue that plenty of physical games have yet to go mainstream and the space for them is open. Applied to Japan, that points to room for court sports that work on small plots of land to line up with the use of idle urban space. As a way to fill a rooftop or an empty floor in a commercial building for a short run, pickleball is starting to connect with real estate interest too.
Betting on both the champion team and the world No. 1
Vaynerchuk's involvement is not just words. The New Jersey 5s, where he is a co-owner, won their first MLP title in 2026 after two straight runner-up finishes. The team is led by world No. 1 Anna Leigh Waters, and his affiliated company is said to handle her representation. Holding both the team at the top of the sport and its best player is the position that takes the richest share of any expansion.
Capital betting seriously on pickleball is not his story alone. A WNBA owner invested in a 20-court indoor facility, asthe case in Seattleshows, and executives who succeeded in existing sports are starting to move money into the next growth area.
Transposed to Japan's expansion phase, what stage are we at?
Applied to Japan, the bullish case suggests two things. First, that with taster sessions drawing crowds in the thousands and permanent courts opening around the country, there is room to read the present as an opening chapter rather than a peak. Second, that precisely because it is an opening chapter, how well you enter now decides your position in a few years. While participation is climbing, whoever plants a flag early is the one people ask for by name.
But the precedents also show that not every emerging sport went mainstream. Reading the data behind the growth coolly is essential. As the report on several Asian countries, Japan included, growing fast showed withthe map of Asia that DUPR reveals, checking your own country's position with real figures rather than impressions is needed for both investment and business decisions.
Facility investment and Asian leagues started moving at the same time
Vaynerchuk's remark lands because the moves around him point the same way. Equipment brands entering, real estate and financial money going into permanent venues, and pro leagues forming in Asia are all happening at once. Taiwan launched a pro league withthe founding of the AEPL, and the vessel for a commercial sport is taking shape across Asia. The order, vessel first and players and spectators after, matches how the sports he cited got started.
For people in Japan, that simultaneity is an opportunity and, at the same time, pressure to decide quickly. The faster things move, the smaller the share left for whoever enters late.
What people in Japan can do without swallowing the hype
Players, facility operators and equipment businesses each have different moves available. Players can get involved with tournaments and clubs while the structures are forming, building experience and contacts early. Facilities can prepare a membership design that carries people from a first session to regular play, so the wave of growth is not wasted. Equipment businesses that fix their range for intermediate and advanced players first can win the buyers who come asking for a specific product.
Vaynerchuk's words are not a prophecy but a statement of his own bet. Japan has also reached the stage of measuring its position with real figures and deciding how to place its own bet, rather than either believing the excitement wholesale or dismissing it.
Source:The Dink Pickleball「Gary Vee: People Dramatically Underestimate Pickleball」
