In Samin Odhwani’s mind, the reaction from JW Johnson after the Dallas Flash won the 2024 Major League Pickleball Championship tells you everything you need to know about the team league.

Johnson, normally one of the most stoic players on tour, threw his hat down, let out a roar and embraced his teammates with a huge smile on his face after they beat the New Jersey 5s in the third match of the best-of-three final.

It was a reaction only MLP could bring out of a player like Johnson, Odhwani says, and that unmatched energy is the basis for the league’s slogan: “There’s nothing else like it.”

“To garner that level of emotion from a player like JW was amazing,” Odhwani said. “An MLP title is the hardest trophy to win in pro pickleball because there’s only one that gets handed out every year. You go through ups and downs with the team over the course of the season, and to come out at the end and be the team that wins is special – look no further than JW Johnson’s face when Augie Ge hit a drive to win them the championship.”

Building off of the thrilling end to the 2024 MLP season has been Odhwani’s main objective since becoming the Chief Strategy Officer of the United Pickleball Association at the beginning of the year. He previously was the director of business operations and then the vice president of strategy for 35V, which is a media and investment company founded by NBA star Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman, who were early MLP investors.

Odhwani said he feels the league has done a good job building off of 2024 and has strong momentum heading into the 2025 season, which kicks off this week with MLP Orlando on Thursday through Sunday.

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That momentum started with the league releasing a clear schedule and structure for the season back in January, something that hadn’t been done in recent years. The 2024 season especially felt like a mad scramble to get things organized after the PPA Tour and MLP merged under one entity – the UPA – resulting in a delay until later in the spring before teams knew when and where they’d be playing.

Big changes for Major League Pickleball in 2025

For the first time ever, this MLP season will be condensed into a four-month sprint to the playoffs, which will be held in August in San Diego (Aug. 15-17) and New York (Aug. 22-24).

Creating that defined “MLP season” was a big step for the league, Odhwani says, whereas in past years MLP events had been scattered among the traditional PPA Tour events. Other big changes for this year: The elimination of rally scoring in doubles and the expansion of Premier Level roster sizes to six players.

Going forward, Odhwani says he hopes the league can make a couple key changes each year that make the product better for fans. Those were this year’s big tweaks, and he’s confident they will pay off in the long run.

“Pickleball is unique in that it's so nascent that everyone thinks there's like a better way to do it, but sometimes you just need a steady hand to steer the ship in a direction that we feel like overall is the best way to go,” Odhwani said. “I feel like we've steadied the ship, and now it’s time to put some real gas in the tank and see how fast this thing can go.”

With roster expansion and other changes also came roster continuity for many teams in the league. Rules for this year mandated that every team drop at least one player from their 2024 rosters, then fill out their remaining roster spots via the free-agency draft, which was held in early March.

Multiple teams – such as the St. Louis Shock and the Dallas Flash – chose to redraft the players they dropped, so they will come into Orlando with the same likely starters they had last year. Other teams, like the 2024 runner-up New Jersey 5s, only replaced one player in their starting four.

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That’s a big storyline heading into this season, says Odhwani, who pointed out that big growth in other U.S. sports leagues has almost always coincided with the formation of dynasties – the Michael Jordan Bulls in the NBA, Alabama in college football, the Tom Brady/BIll Belichick Patriots in the NFL.

“As much as parody is amazing, you also want to cement some of these teams toward the top, and I think that's probably one of the most exciting things about this season,” he said. “How do teams start to build themselves into the Lakers or the Yankees of Major League Pickleball? And are they able to continue to expand their fan base in doing so?”

The league hopes to promote those top teams throughout the season with Saturday night and Sunday night marquee matchups at each event – similar to what ESPN/ABC do with College Gameday, highlighting the best matches in prime time. Those matchups will be announced ahead of each weekend of competition.

A brief history of Major League Pickleball

The league has gone through several expansions and contractions over the course of the past five years. Here’s a brief history of which teams competed in which seasons and every MLP event champion:

2021 season

Eight teams competed in the initial MLP event in November at Dreamland in Dripping Springs, Texas.

Participating teams: ATX Pickleballers, Chimeras, Discovery Warriors, The Lions, Pickle Ranchers, Team BLQK, Team Clean, Team Rally.

Winner: Team BLQK (Irina Tereschenko, Andrea Koop, Ben Johns, Rob Nunnery)

2022 season

The league expanded to 12 teams and held three events.

Participating teams: The 5s, ATX Pickleballers, BLQK, The Bus, Chimeras, Clean Cause (formerly Team Clean), Florida Smash, Hard Eights, Jackrabbits, Lions, Mad Drops, Ranchers (formerly Pickle Ranchers).

Winners:

2023 season

The league expanded to 24 teams and introduced the Premier and Challenger concept. Teams also became tied to geographical locations and the number of events increased to six.

Participating teams: Atlanta Bouncers, ATX Pickleballers (merged with Chimeras), AZ Drive, Bay Area Breakers (formerly the Jackrabbits), Brooklyn Aces, California BLQK Bears, Chicago Slice, Columbus Pickleball Club, D.C. Pickleball Team, Dallas Pickleball Club, Florida Smash, Frisco Clean Cause, Las Vegas Night Owls, Los Angeles Mad Drops, Miami Pickleball Club, Milwaukee Mashers (formerly the Lions), New Jersey 5s, New York Hustlers, Orlando Squeeze (initially Valhalla Volleys), Seattle Pioneers, SoCal Hard Eights, St. Louis Shock (initially Cabo Vamos), Texas Ranchers, Utah Black Diamonds.

Winners:

2024 season

Two of the teams were inactive (ATX Pickleballers and Milwaukee Mashers) and the league introduced a new seasonlong format that culminated in the playoffs.

Participating teams: Atlanta Bouncers (C), AZ Drive (P), Bay Area Breakers (C), Brooklyn Aces (C), California Black Bears (formerly BLQK Bears; C), Carolina Pickleball Club (formerly Seattle Pioneers; P), Chicago Slice (C), Columbus Sliders (formerly Columbus Pickleball Club; P), D.C. Pickleball Team (P), Dallas Flash (formerly Dallas Pickleball Club; P), Florida Smash (C), Frisco Pandas (formerly Clean Cause; C), Las Vegas Night Owls (C), Los Angeles Mad Drops (P), Miami Pickleball Club (C), New Jersey 5s (P), New York Hustlers (P), Orlando Squeeze (P), SoCal Hard Eights (C), St. Louis Shock (P), Texas Ranchers (P), Utah Black Diamonds (P).

Premier Level champion: Dallas Flash (Jorja Johnson, Tyra Black, JW Johnson, Augie Ge)

Challenger level champion: Miami Pickleball Club (Noe Khlif, Eric Oncins, Bobbi Oshiro, Milan Rane)

Where does Major League Pickleball go from here?

For the first time in its history, MLP is starting to look more than a year into the future as far as planning and scheduling, Odhwani says. That in itself is exciting for the organization, but the league also continues to get more sponsorship and TV interest. That was evident earlier this month in the announcement of DoorDash as the new title sponsor of the league and several local media partnerships that will provide expanded distribution in several team markets during the 2025 season.

“It's pretty inarguable that the sport is still growing a ton and it's unclear what the ceiling is,” Odhwani said. “Every time I try to guess that ceiling, I've been wrong.”

He said MLP will continue to push for a couple big improvements each year, but overall he’s excited about the condensed regular-season model the league has shifted to. Seeing players compete alongside their teammates week in and week out will help to develop interesting storylines as the year progresses, he said, similar to other major professional sports in the U.S.

“Being a team player is a skill,” he said. “And I think you're gonna see that skill come to life even more this year than in years past. Who can keep the team together for several months versus whose wheels are gonna fall off the wagon?”