Dallas opens May 22, and the 20-team unification makes it a season where “everyone is a star”
The 2026 season of Major League Pickleball (MLP) opens on May 22 in Dallas, Texas. It's a condensed schedule running 9 regular-season events, 1 mid-season tournament, and a three-week playoff from May to August.
MLP, which achieved a 52% increase in attendance and more than doubled sponsor revenue in the 2025 season, scrapped the two-tier Premier / Challenger system in 2026 and shifted to a structure where all 20 teams compete in a single league. Team rosters are 6 players in all, 3 men and 3 women. With the DreamBreaker system and a revamp of point allocation added, it becomes the season with the biggest structural change in pro pickleball history.
Full 2026 season schedule
| Tournaments | Schedule | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regular-season event 1 | May 22-25 | Dallas (TX) | Opening event |
| Event 2 | May 28-31 | Columbus (OH) | |
| Event 3 | June 4-7 | St. Louis (MO) | |
| Event 4 | June 11-14 | Austin (TX) | |
| Event 5 | June 17-21 | St. Petersburg (FL) | |
| Event 6 | June 25-28 | New York (Randall's Island) | |
| Mid-season + Event 7 | July 8-12 | Grand Rapids (MI) | Held together with the Beer City Open |
| Event 8 | July 16-19 | San Diego (CA) | |
| Event 9 | July 23-26 | Chicago (IL) | |
| Final regular-season event | July 30 – August 2 | Orlando (FL) | First held at Disney ESPN Wide World of Sports |
| Playoffs Week 1 | August 7-9 | Dallas (TX) | 12 teams advance |
| Playoffs Week 2 | August 14-16 | Newport Beach (CA) | |
| Championship Weekend | August 28-30 | New York | Season's final showdown |
Each team plays 5 of the 9 events and contests 23 group-play matches. Each event is made up of 11 teams (only the Orlando final has 12), and after Thursday-to-Saturday round robins, the top 4 teams advance to Sunday.
Major rule changes for 2026
The full six-player roster system
All teams register 6 players on the roster, 3 men and 3 women. Until 2025, Challenger teams had a 4-player setup, but it was unified along with the league's consolidation. Four or more players can be used per match, and in the DreamBreaker tiebreak, any 4 from the roster (2 each of men and women) can be selected.
Revamped point allocation
- Regulation win: 3 points
- DreamBreaker win: 2 points
- DreamBreaker loss: 1 point
- Regulation loss: 0 points
Event standing points are designed to weight heavily toward the top: 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-1-1. It's a system where the result of a single event greatly sways the standings.
Cash trades unlocked
For the first time in MLP history, cash trades—buying and selling players for money—became possible. Previously only one-for-one trades were allowed, but the minimum draft bid is set at $10,000 for the first four slots and $1,000 for the fifth and sixth. A waiver period is also set for July 1.
Reactions from players and media
Strength analysis of teams to watch
Jim Kloss, an analyst at the pickleball specialist media Pickleball.com, rated St. Louis Shock's Patriquin / Tardio men's pairing as “the league's strongest men's pair,” placing them as the leading title favorite.
The New Jersey 5s have Anna Leigh Waters, Will Howells, and Noe Khlif, and the dominant view is that they have “ideal chemistry.” The LA Mad Drops have Ben Johns on the roster and field a powerful lineup with Hunter Johnson and Catherine Parenteau.
Changes on the sponsor and business side
The expansion of business scale can be seen from DoorDash serving as title sponsor and Skechers becoming the presenting partner of the draft. The momentum from 2025 sponsor revenue more than doubling year over year continues.
Moves in team reorganization
The NY Hustlers merged with the Brooklyn Pickleball Team. The Nashville Chefs and DC Pickleball Team are in sale negotiations and will not participate in the 2026 season. This can be called evidence that franchise value is rising along with the shift to the 20-team structure.
Impact on Japanese players
For players following MLP from Japan, the 2026 season has many changes worth watching.
- Viewing: All matches are streamed on MLP's official stream. The final event at Disney ESPN Wide World of Sports is also expected to air on ESPN networks
- Tactical reference: With the six-player roster system, matchup strategy within teams becomes more complex. Usage patterns in doubles and mixed can also be applied to team competitions in Japan (Pickleball Japansuch as organizer-hosted tournaments)
- The DreamBreaker format: The 4-player-selection tiebreak system also serves as a reference for Japan's grassroots tournaments as a model for running events with small teams
Pro-scene trends after the PPA Finals
2026 is also a year when the relationship between the PPA (Professional Pickleball Association) and MLP evolves further.PPA FinalsThrough it, the two axes of the pro tour and league play have taken root, and players now pursue both individual ranking and team results.
The Apollo × DoorDash 225-million-dollar investmentAs symbolized by it, the inflow of funds into the pickleball industry as a whole is accelerating. MLP's expansion to a three-week playoff aims to maximize broadcast-rights and ticket revenue, and can be read as a shift to a playoff-commerce model like the NBA's and MLB's.
Jr. MLP amateur tournaments and Minor League Pickleball (MiLP) events are held alongside as well, and the ecosystem is expanding on both the development and fan-acquisition fronts.
Practical information
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Official website | majorleaguepickleball.co |
| Ticket purchase | Tixr (the St. Louis and Disney final are Ticketmaster only) |
| Broadcast | MLP official stream / ESPN networks (partial) |
| Number of teams | 20 teams (single-league system) |
| Roster | 6 players in all, 3 each of men and women |
| Number of appearances | 5 of the 9 events per team |
| Playoffs | 12 teams, three weeks (Dallas → Newport Beach → NY) |
| Title sponsor | DoorDash |
Summary: the largest-scale season ever begins
The MLP 2026 season is an ambitious one that executes four structural transformations at once: 20-team unification, six-player rosters, unlocking cash trades, and a three-week playoff. From the May 22 Dallas opener to the August 30 NY championship, the schedule condensed into about three months offers a dense experience for players and spectators alike.
The title race is seen as centering on St. Louis Shock and the New Jersey 5s, but there's a high chance the balance of power shifts mid-season due to roster expansion and cash trades. The final regular-season event at Disney ESPN Wide World of Sports will be a symbolic moment of pickleball setting foot in the hall of major sports.
