🏀 Earning a $9M Raise in 9 Games

It seems like every sport besides the NFL is becoming niche.

For example, if you watch the NBA every night how confident are you that you could bring up “last night’s game” to someone and they would have watched it too?

I think this is part of the reason women’s sports are having their moment right now since there is no expectation that you have to watch the same thing as anyone else to stay “in the loop.”

We’re all just free to watch whatever we find compelling.

🗞 The Big Story: Pickleball is Fucked

📉 Biggest Loser: $650 to Park at an NWSL Game

🏆 Winner’s Circle: Earning $9M Raise in 9 Games

🗞 The Big Story

Pickleball may be the fastest-growing sport in America, but it’s losing millions of dollars per year at the professional level.

And it’s all because of one major miscalculation.

Seeing Green: In the past three years, pickleball has exploded in popularity, seeing a 224% increase in participation and investments into professional leagues and teams from big names like:

• LeBron James

• Tom Brady

• Mark Cuban

• Drake

• Michael B. Jordan

However, this overnight success created an intense competition between two rival professional tours:

• Major League Pickleball (MLP)

• Professional Pickleball Association (PPA)

And in an attempt to gain an advantage over one another, both of the tours started signing players to exclusive contracts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.

There was just one problem, this model wasn’t sustainable.

Better Together (Right?): This led to the two rivals eventually merging in February 2023 under the United Pickleball Association, which also allowed for $75 million of new investment to be put into the new organization.

But now, a year later, the harsh reality of starting a new professional sports league is starting to set in.

No Money, Mo Problems: For starters, the combined PPA-MLP operation isn’t profitable and isn’t projected to be until 2026.

This year, the two leagues will generate an estimated $50-$100M in total revenue, with most of that money coming from sponsorships:

• MLP: 80% of revenue from sponsorships

• PPA: 50% of revenue from sponsorships

The PPA says that its sponsorship revenue is up 75% year over year, with some deals valued at over $1 million. However, a contract obtained by SBJ shows that other deals can be worth as little as $29,000 per event.

The rest of the revenue comes from tickets and amateur registration fees, each of which generates less than $1 million per year.

But still, the PPA and MLP will spend a combined $30 million on players this year, a 250% increase over 2023 even after handing out pay cuts.

And as of right now, no professional pickleball events earn any media rights fees from networks, which is probably due to low viewership numbers.

For example, Championship Sunday of the PPA’s season-opening tournament drew just 500,000 viewers on Fox this year, making it the 18th most-watched sports broadcast of the day.

What’s Next? In all reality, the future of pickleball on TV in the U.S. probably looks a lot like esports, cornhole, or CrossFit, which means less-than-stellar TV viewership at the pro levels, even with strong casual fan participation.

📉 Biggest Loser

This might be one of the most revolutionary stadiums in the country, but fans are still calling out one key issue when it comes to home games.

Background: On March 16, the Kansas City Current of the NWSL won a historic home opener in front of a sold-out crowd of 11,500 fans in their brand-new, $120 million stadium.

But it wasn’t just the crowd that made the game notable, because for the first time ever, anywhere in the world, a professional women’s sporting event was being held in a stadium built exclusively for women’s sports.

Stadium Specs: CPKC Stadium was privately funded and sits just two miles outside Kansas City along the Missouri River. It features:

• World-class food

• 13 luxury suites with private patios

• Premium field-level seating

• State-of-the-art AI security*

Once fans are inside the stadium, they’ll notice the field is made of real Bermuda grass with a sub-air system that removes moisture from the field as well as underground heating to keep the pitch thawed during cold months.

But even more impressive is the fact that each one of the 11,500 seats in the stadium is within 100 feet of the pitch, creating an even more energetic atmosphere.

Get in Line: Before the season had even started, the Current had already sold out of season tickets, which means that only 2,000 tickets are available on a per-match basis.

But even with all the excitement for this historic, new facility, the team still hasn’t been able to solve one major issue:

Parking.

A few weeks ahead of their home opener, the Current announced they would be opening three parking lots for fans (only one of which is paved) and they would be charging $50 per game to park (this doesn’t include taxes and fees).

• $50 per game x 13 home games = $650

• Season tickets behind the North Goal: $630

Regardless, the team, which is valued at $75 million, is looking to capitalize on its historic new venue and continue to lead by example when it comes to investing in women’s sports.

🏆 Winner’s Circle

One March Madness coach went from almost losing his job to earning a $9M raise in just 9 games, but that’s not even the craziest part of his contract.

Hot Seat: When Kevin Keatts came into the ACC Tournament a few weeks ago, it looked like this was going to be his last year coaching NC State.

The team had gone a disappointing 24-14 and finished 10th in the conference behind schools that weren’t even close to making March Madness.

In fact, the Wolfpack were losing at halftime of their first-round matchup in the ACC tournament against the conference's worst team, Louisville.

Miracle Run: They managed to win five games in five days to win their first ACC Tournament since 1987, and this secured Keatts:

• Automatic two-year contract extension through 2030

• $500K per year pay increase starting next year

He also got a $100K bonus for winning the conference tournament and an additional $25,000 bonus for earning the team an automatic bid to March Madness.

But it gets even better because Keatts has been getting paid for every game his team has won in the NCAA Tournament:

• $25,000 bonus for beating Texas Tech (Round of 64)

• $50,000 bonus for beating Oakland (Round of 32)

• $50,000 bonus for beating Marquette (Sweet 16)

• $50,000 bonus for beating Duke (Elite 8)

For those of you keeping track, that’s a total of $300,000 just for winning his last 9 games.

That’s an average of over $33,000 per win.

But it doesn’t stop there:

• If NC State beats Purdue in the Final Four, Keatts earns an additional $50,000

• If NC State wins the National Championship, Keatts earns an additional $150,000

That’s $500,000 in bonuses just this month.

But if you take into account his raise and extension, Keatts has actually added $9 million in total value to his contract just from these last 9 games.

Talk about a generational run.

⏱ In Other News

• The (Untold) History of Trevor Bauer…

• The A’s are moving to Sacramento (for now).

• MLB makes no sense sometimes…

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👋 The high school I’m coaching at in Minneapolis has our first baseball game on Monday.

I’ll keep you updated on our status throughout the season, but if we finish with a winning record this year that would be major progress. 🏀 Earning a $9M Raise in 9 Games