Is Team Play Taking Over?

The first Major League Pickleball (MLP) event, which occurred in the latter half of 2021, was also the first large-scale team event for the sport.

Introducing the concept of a draft and team ownership was exciting in itself, but incorporating rally scoring, a singles tiebreaker and mic’ing up the pros definitely elevated the overall experience.

Well, fast forward a few years and it feels like the rest of the pickleball world has fully bought into team play.

But is it here to stay?

I’m not saying it’s going to take over entirely or eliminate the traditional match format. I still think it’s just adding another page to the book of pickleball awesomeness.

Let's talk about it ...

For those who aren’t overly familiar with how team play works, the format typically involves 2 women and 2 men per team - though MLP recently expanded to 3 men and 3 women, which gives teams more flexibility and depth.

One of the biggest differences is how quickly camaraderie builds. Players are allowed to coach each other between points (something that isn’t allowed in standard matches), and they’re often helping teammates with challenges, timeouts, and on-court decisions.

Add to that the energy from the bench - cheering after big rallies, hyping each other up - and it creates a totally different vibe that’s just as fun to watch as it is to play in.

Each full match consists of one women’s doubles, one men’s doubles, and two mixed doubles games.

MLP has slightly moved away from rally scoring and now uses traditional side-out scoring for all doubles matches, with games played to 11, win by 2.

It’s a nod back to how most players learned the game and brings a familiar rhythm back to pro-level play. It also puts a little more pressure on each serve, which keeps matches tight and competitive from start to finish.

If both teams win two games apiece, the match is still decided by a singles tiebreaker - MLP calls it the DreamBreaker.

That part of the format still uses rally scoring, now to 21 points, and each player rotates in for a set number of rallies.

You’ll often see female players matched up against male players, which is something unique to this format and not seen anywhere else in pro pickleball.

Teams submit their lineup in secret, with the “home” team revealing first and the “away” team adjusting based on that. It keeps the strategy interesting, and even now - several seasons in - the DreamBreaker continues to deliver some of the most fun, fast, and chaotic moments in MLP.

So... could team play be the future of pickleball? It’s definitely becoming a bigger part of the landscape.

We already know that doubles play - whether mixed or same-gender - is far more popular than singles in pickleball, which is kind of the opposite of tennis.

People often ask why that is, especially if they’re coming from tennis, where singles is king. Honestly, I think it comes down to a few key things: pickleball is more fun and social with more people on the court, and it’s simply more accessible.

As the sport grows, demand for court time has outpaced the number of available courts. So if you’re trying to make the most of limited space and time, four people per court makes a lot more sense than one-on-one singles.

For all of the latest information on MLP team formats, check out their article here.

And it’s not just players leaning in - fans are responding, too. Attendance at live events has definitely grown since the inception,  and MLP’s streaming numbers continue to climb each season.

Watching MLP events now, the crowds are louder, the players are looser, and the energy feels contagious. The team format seems to draw people in who may not normally follow pickleball that closely.

In 2024 alone, MLP attendance surpassed 320,000 - a 40% jump from 2023 - with more than $30 million in player earnings. Fans streamed over 1 billion minutes of pickleball content across CBS, ESPN, Amazon Prime, and the newly launched PickleballTV (MLP 2024 Review).

The mic’d-up moments, team chants, the hype from the benches, and the back-and-forth momentum swings make for an entertaining product - whether you’re watching in person or streaming it online.

One of the biggest success stories in MLP has been the rise in earnings and visibility for female athletes.

As of this season, top women are averaging around $260,000 per year, which puts them ahead of salaries in other major women’s sports like the WNBA or NWSL.

That’s no small thing. It’s turning pickleball into one of the most lucrative pro sports for women in the U.S., and with that comes more attention, more sponsorships, and more young athletes seriously considering pickleball as a long-term career.

And it’s not just at the pro level - collegiate pickleball is already using team formats, and the vibe is very familiar to anyone who’s followed college sports.

I remember watching footage from the 2022 DUPR Collegiate National Championships between North Carolina and James Madison, and it had everything: chants, big point celebrations, fast-paced rallies, and that kind of team pride that you usually see in March Madness.

Since then, college teams have continued popping up, and I’d be shocked if we don’t see more structured leagues and school-sponsored programs in the near future.

Tennis has had its own share of team events - the Davis Cup, Laver Cup, and the now mostly dormant World TeamTennis all tried to create that same team dynamic.

But for whatever reason, they never really captured the same energy that pickleball seems to create almost naturally.

Maybe it’s just that tennis has been around for so long and built its identity around tradition and individual competition.

Or maybe pickleball just lends itself better to teams because the community vibe has been baked in from the start.

It’s also worth noting how well the team concept works at the amateur and club level. A lot of clubs have already started running their own mini-MLP style events, complete with drafts, benches, and full team branding.

It helps distribute talent more evenly, creates a fun bit of drama around team selections, and gets everyone involved without making it too serious.

Rally scoring can still be a hot topic - some players swear it rewards the “true” winner of each rally, while others miss the old-school flow of traditional scoring.

But either way, when paired with team play, it makes for a shorter, more TV-friendly product.

So is team play taking over? It might be. It’s not replacing the classic formats we all know and love—but it’s making a strong case for being just as important.

Whether you're a casual fan, a rec player, or a pro, there's something uniquely engaging about the team vibe. It’s fun, it’s fast, it’s unpredictable—and it’s continuing to push the sport forward in ways we probably didn’t imagine a few years ago.

If this is the future of pickleball, I’m here for it.

This article was taken from our 'Control the Kitchen' Newsletter, if you're interested in receiving more content like this, please feel free to sign up using the subscribe section located at the bottom left of this page (or underneath the article if you're on mobile), thanks!