The last few months have been insane with the Major League Pickleball and Pro Pickleball Association merger. If you need a recap, here is how it went down.
-MLP blew up and PPA got scared and created Vibe Pickleball (which IMO was just a play to get MLP to do a deal).
-MLP and PPA announced they were merging and Vibe was no more.
- They never officially merged and then Steve Kuhn (MLP) went AWOL and started signing players to MLP only deals and blew up the merger talks.
-Tour Wars happened and everyone got paid! (Or so they thought)
-Merge talks happened again and everything was gonna be cool, then Steve went AWOL again and resigned after a failed coup type deal.
-Some big money owners stepped in and said we can fund this, let's make a deal.
-MLP (mainly) and PPA start telling players they need to take pay cuts in order for this to work.Some do and some don't. PPA players are asked to take less of a cut even thought they got more money.
-2024 hits and there still no deal.
-Deal is almost done and a different owner steps in and says I'll fund the deal with better terms. The big wigs talk it out and this offer goes away.
-2 weeks away from the first MLP event and no deal, no one has been paid and there are rumors of the first event being cancelled and Challenger MLP being cancelled for the year.
What is going on here?! Why does it seem like this whole deal is contingent on the PPA being the major beneficiary in this deal?
It makes it seem like MLP is desperate and will be the major compromising party in all of this. What are we missing? Is this all really to streamline some of the event operations? Say what you will about Steve Kuhn and what he did...but the man knows how to move quickly and protect the vision.