McEnroe, Agassi and the $1M Pickleball Slam, by the Numbers
The first weekend in April is always packed wall-to-wall with sports. This year features NBA and NHL teams jockeying for playoff spots, the start of the MLB season, men’s and women’s Final Four basketball, WrestleMania, and the usual complements of NASCAR, golf, tennis and more. But make room for a new addition: pickleball.
The inaugural Pickleball Slam will be broadcast on ESPN at noon on Sunday from the Hard Rock Live at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla. It features a quartet of tennis Grand Slam champions swapping rackets for paddles. Andre Agassi, John McEnroe, Michael Chang and Andy Roddick will compete for $1 million in prize money—the largest payout in pickleball history.
More from Sportico.com
David Levy, the former longtime head of Turner Broadcasting, is the brains behind the Pickleball Slam via his Horizon Sports & Experiences, which he launched in November with former Momentum Worldwide CEO Chris Weil under the Horizon Media umbrella. Horizon and InsideOut Sports & Entertainment are producing the event.
“I always felt like Sunday was an open day with the semifinals of March Madness on Saturday and the finals on Monday,” Levy said in a phone interview. “This year the women’s final is on Sunday, and I thought if I could do the lead-in to that game on this action-packed viewership weekend, it would be the perfect place.”
With the launch of HS&E, Levy said he and Weill are focused on four “genres” where they saw opportunity, including Formula 1, soccer, golf and pickleball. Investors are piling into pickleball with developments, franchises and equipment. Levy knew he had to take a different approach. While at Turner, he was behind the inaugural The Match, which originally pitted Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in a winner-take-all golf showdown and continues today.
“We took that same concept with the best racket players in sports—McEnroe, Agassi, Roddick and Chang—and put them in the fastest growing sport in America right now with great brand names, and I think we have a magic formula there as well,” Levy said.
He highlighted the Williams sisters, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal as tennis icons he’d love to include in future editions.
Brands have gotten on board. Subway, Athletic Greens, Franklin Sports and K-Swiss joined Hard Rock as Pickleball Slam sponsors. Next month, Subway is launching the Pickleball Club and tapped Roddick to promote the item. Yes, the new sandwich includes pickles.
Here are the numbers to know about the Pickleball Slam and the sport itself.
1: The Pickleball Slam starts with a pair of singles matches: Chang vs. Roddick and Agassi against McEnroe. The final match of the day will be doubles, with Chang and McEnroe facing Agassi and Roddick.
3: Alphabet soup of pro pickleball leagues with the MLP, PPA and APP—shorthand for Major League Pickleball, Professional Pickleball Association and Association of Pickleball Professionals.
5: Number of events in the deal between HS&E and Hard Rock to stage Pickleball Slams. Levy cited Hard Rock locales Las Vegas, Atlantic City and Nashville as potential future sites.
17: Combined Grand Slam singles titles for the four Pickleball Slam participants. Chang and Roddick each have a single title, while McEnroe’s seven trails Agassi’s eight. Yet, McEnroe has 10 Slam titles in doubles on his resume.
$46: Minimum ticket price for Sunday with the top level at $506.
52%: Percentage of core pickleball players who are over 55, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association. The 18-34 and 35-54 age groupings each represent 17% of participants.
64: Age of McEnroe, who is more than a decade older than his fellow competitors. Roddick is the youngster at 40, while Agassi is 52 and Chang 51.
96: Teams entered in the Amateur Pickleball Slam Challenge event on Friday and Saturday with $10,000 on the line and a chance to play the tennis greats in pickleball.
108: Match winning streak in singles by Ben Johns, who is often considered the greatest pickleball player of all time.
1965: Year the sport was invented. Three dads—Joel Pritchard, Barney McCallum and Bill Bell—get credit for inventing the game on Bainbridge Island, Wash.
2,291: Players at the 2022 Margaritaville USA Pickleball National Championships at Indian Wells.
4,000: Number of seats at the Hard Rock. It will be the largest on-site audience to ever watch a Pickleball match, per Levy
70,000: Membership in USA Pickleball.
$5 million: Valuation of the MLP’s Frisco Clean Clause for a recent investment by internet influencers Dude Perfect. Many celebrities have invested in pickleball franchises, including Tom Brady, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Patrick Mahomes, Naomi Osaka, Drew Brees, Eva Longoria and Heidi Klum.
$5.5 million: Prize money this year on the Carvana PPA Tour for its 25 events.
8.9 million: Number of pickleball players in 2022, per the SFIA. Participation is up 159% since 2019. The next biggest growth was for off-course golf, such as simulators and TopGolf. It jumped 57%.
$180 million: Planned investment by developers to create at least 15 private pickleball clubs across Florida. The first Pickleball Club will open this month in Sarasota with a $1,500 initiation and monthly fees of $125 for an adult.
With assistance from Jacob Feldman.
Best of Sportico.com
