Major League Pickleball made several big announcements Thursday that will impact the 2026 season. In a call with reporters earlier this week, league officials outlined the changes and explained the rationale behind the decisions. There's a lot to unpack, so let's get to it.

All teams will compete at the same level in 2026

After initially promoting only the Las Vegas Night Owls from Challenger to Premier at the end of the 2025 season, the league has now decided to do away with the Challenger and Premier designations altogether. There will be 20 teams competing in one division this year, and the plan is to keep everybody in one division in future years.

New York teams merge, Nashville and D.C. sitting out this year

- The New York Hustlers are merging with the Brooklyn Pickleball Team. The franchise will operate as the Brooklyn Pickleball Team moving forward.

- The Nashville Chefs and D.C. Pickleball Team (both exploring sale agreements) will not play in 2026. Both franchises asked the league for more time to finalize their potential sales, which could involve relocation/rebranding. The league agreed to let those teams spend this year finalizing those transactions and the plan is to bring those franchises back into the fold in 2027.

- All players who ended the 2025 season on the New York, Nashville and D.C rosters will go into the free-agency draft player pool. A full player pool will be released after all other teams have made their keeper selections on Feb. 15.

More clarity on trade/keeper rules

- Trade Window #1 will close on Feb. 15 at 10 a.m. ET.

- Keepers will be due that day at 4 p.m. ET.

If a team ended the 2025 season with player(s) on their roster that are no longer UPA-signed, they:

- May trade cash for player(s), so long as the deal is approved by the league and a team never has more than a total of six UPA-signed players -- three men and three women -- rostered at any time. In the case where a cash for player(s) trade happens, the team who acquires cash does not have to have three males / three females on their roster.

- Players no longer under contract will count as drops at the keeper deadline.

- Language is being updated from “every team must drop at least one player” to “teams may keep + hold a maximum of five players at the Keeper Deadline” (Example: If a team has only four currently UPA-signed players eligible to be kept and held, they may do so, with the no longer signed players counting as drops at the keeper deadline).

- Active teams that played 2025 Challenger (Bay Area, California, Florida and Las Vegas) may trade for additional keepers. Challenger rosters were capped at four in 2025, but all teams will roster six players for 2026.

- Cash-for-player trades are now allowed ONLY by teams that have fewer than six currently UPA-signed players on their roster (ascending Challenger teams and teams who ended the 2025 season with rostered players that are no longer under UPA contract).

League details process for Palm Beach expansion franchise

MLP has made some exceptions to allow the Palm Beach Royals -- the expansion franchise that was announced late last year -- to acquire some players before the free-agency draft.

Palm Beach may add a total of up to four players ahead of the Feb. 15 keeper deadline via two avenues (max of two players per acquisition type).

TRADES: The team is allowed to make trades during Trade Window #1 (Jan. 28-Feb. 15), should they choose to exchange cash for players -- no more than one male and one female can be acquired this way.

- May acquire player(s) who were: drafted in 2024 and kept for 2025 -- Palm Beach would be able to hold this/these player(s) ONLY for the 2026 season.

- Alternatively, they can acquire players selected in the 2025 free-agency draft -- these player(s) can be held for up to two seasons (2026 and 2027).

FREE AGENT PICKUPS OF NON-ROSTERED, UPA-SIGNED PLAYERS: The Royals can acquire no more than one male and one female player who were not on a team in 2025. For example, this could include recent signee Sofia Sewing, rising junior player Camden Chaffin or players like AJ Koller, who was not on a team last year but was often used as an injury substitution.

- These players may be held for up to three seasons (2026-2028) at their Draft Points value.

- Existing free agents who were eligible for the 2025 free-agency draft and did not end the 2025 season on an MLP roster have a Draft Points value of 10,000.

- New or emerging talent added to the league’s approved player pool following the 2025 free-agency draft who were not eligible to be drafted in 2025 will have a Draft Points value of 80,000.

Changes to regular season event format

- All teams will participate in five of the nine regular season events. Find the full event schedule here. Individual team schedules will be released soon.

- All events will have 11 participating teams with the exception of Walt Disney World, which will have 12 teams.

- There will be one group of five and one group of six at each event; Walt Disney World will have two groups of 6.

- Group standings will be determined by standings points earned during group play, with each match worth a total of three (3) points (regulation win = 3; DreamBreaker™ win = 2; DreamBreaker™ loss = 1; regulation loss = 0).

- The same seeded team in each group will play each other on Sunday (Group A No. 1 vs. Group B No. 1), with event standings points on the line, based on Sunday match results.

- Event Standings Points for each event will be 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-1-1, based on final results (winner of the No. 1 vs. No. 1 match will receive 25 event standings points, with the loser earning 18 points, etc.)

- Standings points will be earned based on overall performance at each event, NOT from each match.

Free-agency draft scheduled for Friday, Feb. 27

- The 2026 free-agency draft will operate similarly to the 2025 version, with dynamic bidding for each draft slot.

- The draft will be broken into two parts, and teams will draft to complete their full roster of six.

- All teams must have two men and two women (a starting four, essentially) before any team is allowed to bid on a fifth or sixth player ... this will force some teams to drop multiple players if they want to be able to pick in the first part of the draft. For example, the St. Louis Shock must drop one of: Anna Bright, Hayden Patriquin or Gabe Tardio. If they want to be able to pursue that player or a comparable talent in the free-agency draft, they would also have to drop one of their bench players of the same gender.

- Teams that are eligible and choose to hold five total players may not select their sixth player until all other teams have at least four rostered players.

- A draft slot that will be used on a player filling a teams’ first four roster slots will have a minimum bid of $10,000; draft slots that will be used to select a player to fill a fifth or sixth roster slot has a bid minimum of $1,000

Other changes for 2026

- Teams may set a starting lineup for a match that utilizes more than four players as long as it is part of the lineup submission. For example, this allows teams to use a different male player for men’s doubles and mixed doubles.

- If necessary, DreamBreaker™ lineups will be determined by teams following the second Mixed game, and teams may choose any four players from their roster – two men and two women – regardless of any substitutions used during doubles.

- Teams will be allowed to participate in one waiver wire period to swap out up to one of their players ONLY for one UPA-signed, MLP non-rostered player during the 2026 season on July 1, following regular season event No. 6, which ends June 28.

- Playoffs will expand to three weeks and 12 teams for 2026.