{"id":3454,"date":"2026-04-12T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/news\/mlp-2026-groups\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T04:00:00","slug":"mlp-2026-groups","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/news\/mlp-2026-groups\/","title":{"rendered":"MLP 2026 opening four-tournament groups announced! Venue change from San Diego to Newport Beach, and all Dallas\u2013Austin matchups"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Major League Pickleball (MLP) officially announced the group divisions and venue changes for the four opening tournaments of the 2026 season. The San Diego and Newport Beach schedules were swapped, and each tournament\u2019s group configuration was also revealed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What:<\/strong> The group divisions and venue changes for the four opening tournaments of the MLP 2026 season<br><strong>Who:<\/strong> All teams, including Colorado, Dallas, and New Jersey<br><strong>When:<\/strong> The four opening tournaments of the 2026 season (Dallas \u2192 Columbus \u2192 St. Louis \u2192 Austin)<br><strong>Where:<\/strong> The venue in each city, with a venue change in San Diego and Newport Beach<br><strong>Why:<\/strong> Group divisions considering competitive balance and operational efficiency<br><strong>How:<\/strong> At each tournament, 5 to 11 teams are split into two groups to compete<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The notable venue change: San Diego \u2194 Newport Beach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What draws attention in this announcement is the swap of venues. San Diego (Barnes Tennis Center), initially scheduled, was changed to the regular-season match of Season Match 7 (July 16\u201319). On the other hand, the Newport Beach Tennis &amp; Pickleball Club becomes the stage for Playoff Round 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The group divisions for the four opening tournaments<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Match 1: MLP Dallas<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><thead><tr><th>Group A<\/th><th>Group B<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>Colorado, Dallas, New Jersey, Orlando, Phoenix<\/td><td>Bay Area, Carolina, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Texas, Utah<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Match 2: MLP Columbus<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><thead><tr><th>Group A<\/th><th>Group B<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>Atlanta, California, Chicago, Colorado, Miami, New Jersey<\/td><td>Carolina, Florida, Las Vegas, Palm Beach Royals, St. Louis<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Match 3: MLP St. Louis<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><thead><tr><th>Group A<\/th><th>Group B<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>Brooklyn, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, SoCal, Utah<\/td><td>Atlanta, Bay Area, Orlando, Palm Beach Royals, St. Louis<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Match 4: MLP Austin<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><thead><tr><th>Group A<\/th><th>Group B<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>California, Carolina, Colorado, Miami, SoCal<\/td><td>Atlanta, Bay Area, Dallas, Florida, New Jersey, Texas<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Point system<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At each MLP tournament, the following points are awarded according to standing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><thead><tr><th>Standing<\/th><th>1st<\/th><th>2nd<\/th><th>3rd<\/th><th>4th<\/th><th>5th<\/th><th>6th<\/th><th>7th<\/th><th>8th<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>Point<\/td><td>25<\/td><td>18<\/td><td>15<\/td><td>12<\/td><td>10<\/td><td>8<\/td><td>6<\/td><td>4<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How many points you can pile up in the first four tournaments holds the fate of the whole season. The start in the two opening matches, Dallas and Columbus, is especially important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Q. Are the MLP group divisions random?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A. The group divisions change from tournament to tournament. The same team may be placed in a different group across multiple tournaments, and fresh matchups are created every tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Q. Has the San Diego tournament been dropped?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A. It hasn\u2019t been dropped; its schedule was changed to Regular Season Match 7 on July 16\u201319. Newport Beach has been promoted to a playoff venue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Q. Where can I buy tickets?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A. You can buy tickets for each tournament from the official MLP website (majorleaguepickleball.com). Popular tournaments can sell out early, so we recommend checking early.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Related Articles<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the domestic pickleball scene, also check out<a href=\"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/news\/npl-2026-senior-elite-league\/\">the NPL 2026 Senior Elite League.<\/a>Also, the latest information on<a href=\"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/news\/milp-regional-showdown-2026\/\">the MILP Regional Showdown 2026<\/a>is being updated. For Golden Ticket information, see<a href=\"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/news\/usa-pickleball-golden-ticket-2026-schedule\/\">USA Pickleball Golden Ticket 2026.<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[Sources]<br>and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedinkpickleball.com\/major-league-pickleball-announces-groups-for-first-four-2026-events-and-venue-updates\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Dink: MLP 2026 Groups and Venue Updates<\/a><br>and<a href=\"https:\/\/majorleaguepickleball.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Major League Pickleball official website<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u30e1\u30b8\u30e3\u30fc\u30ea\u30fc\u30b0\u30d4\u30c3\u30af\u30eb\u30dc\u30fc\u30eb\uff08MLP\uff09\u304c2026\u30b7\u30fc\u30ba\u30f3\u958b\u5e554\u5927\u4f1a\u306e\u30b0\u30eb\u30fc\u30d7\u5206\u3051\u3068\u4f1a\u5834\u5909\u66f4\u3092\u6b63\u5f0f\u767a\u8868\u3057\u305f\u3002\u30b5\u30f3 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ssp_meta_description":"","swell_btn_cv_data":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"region":[],"class_list":["post-3454","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"summary":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/3454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3454"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=3454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}