{"id":3743,"date":"2026-06-13T16:32:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T07:32:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/news\/mlp-disney-finale\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T16:32:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T07:32:47","slug":"mlp-disney-finale","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/news\/mlp-disney-finale\/","title":{"rendered":"Major League Pickleball to hold its first regular-season finale at Disney World\u201423 teams gather at ESPN Wide World of Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Major League Pickleball (<strong>MLP<\/strong>) will hold<strong>July 30\u2013August 2, 2026<\/strong>in Florida, USA, at<strong>the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex inside Walt Disney World<\/strong>, staging its final regular-season event. It is the first time in MLP history that the season finale is held at this venue.<strong>23 hometown teams and more than 100 top pros<\/strong>will gather to compete for a spot in the three-week playoffs.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"index_1\"><strong>The Disney venue marks the peak of pickleball's \u201centertainment-ification\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>ESPN Wide World of Sports is a large sports complex operated by Disney, known as a host site for a range of pro and amateur events. By placing the close of its regular season here, MLP signals its aim to present the sport as spectator entertainment paired with a theme park. Tickets are sold through Ticketmaster.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"index_2\"><strong>The 2026 season format and match structure<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The 2026 season consists of 13 events in all (9 regular-season events, 1 mid-season tournament, and a three-week playoff). Each team match combines men's doubles, women's doubles, and two mixed-doubles matches, with a \u201cDreamBreaker\u201d added if no winner is decided. The new scoring uses side-out scoring to 11 for doubles and rally scoring to 21 for the DreamBreaker.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"index_3\"><strong>Ripple effects on Japan's spectating and player environment<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>MLP spreads its star players across teams and uses region-branded \u201chometown\u201d operations to build fan loyalty. In Japan too, a team-competition culture is taking root, such as the corporate league run by Mitsui Fudosan, and the way the largest pro league in the U.S. designs its shows at an entertainment venue offers a reference point for running and broadcasting domestic events.<\/p>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Item<\/th>\n<th>Details<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Tournaments<\/td>\n<td>MLP 2026 final regular-season event<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Venues<\/td>\n<td>ESPN Wide World of Sports (inside Disney World)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Run<\/td>\n<td>July 30\u2013August 2, 2026<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Participants<\/td>\n<td>23 teams, 100-plus pro players<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Season structure<\/td>\n<td>13 events in all (9 regular + 1 mid-season tournament + 3-week playoffs)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Tickets<\/td>\n<td>Sold via Ticketmaster<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Recommended Reading:<br \/>\nand<a href=\"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/news\/mlp-season-opens\/\">Just Before MLP 2026 Kicks Off -- The Full Picture of 20-Team Integration, 6-Player Rosters, and 3-Week Playoffs<\/a><br \/>\nand<a href=\"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/news\/mlp-stlouis-preview\/\">MLP St. Louis kicks off June 4-7\u2014champion Shock defends at home, 11 teams clash<\/a><br \/>\nand<a href=\"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/news\/mlp-dallas-maddrops\/\">MLP 2026 opens: LA Mad Drops sweep Dallas undefeated\u2014Ben Johns wins all his matches<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.laughingplace.com\/disney-parks\/major-league-pickleball-espn-wide-world-of-sports\/\">Laughing Place<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MLP holds its first regular-season finale July 30-August 2 at ESPN Wide World of Sports at Disney World. Over 100 pros from 23 teams gather.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ssp_meta_description":"","swell_btn_cv_data":""},"categories":[32,53],"tags":[],"region":[],"class_list":["post-3743","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","category-tournament-info","category-overseas"],"acf":{"summary":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/3743","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=3743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3743"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pickle-times.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=3743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}