Major League Pickleball Returns And So Do The Los Angeles Mad Drops

BusinessSportsMoneyMajor League Pickleball Returns And So Do The Los Angeles Mad DropsByTodd Boss,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Todd Boss writes about Pickleball, the fastest growing sport in USAFollow AuthorMay 26, 2026, 09:44am EDTBen Johns is back, leading the LA Mad Drops to an undefeated weekend (seen here with mixed partner Jade Kawamoto).MLPThe 2026 season of Major League Pickleball (MLP) presented by DoorDash has arrived. This is technically the 6th season of MLP, dating back to the very first event in November 2021 at the now defunct Dreamland facility in Dripping Springs, Texas, and we’ve certainly come a long way from that initial weekend exhibition event.This season promises to be perhaps the most stable, well-planned season in the league’s existence. After several years of pre-merger personnel issues, the mad-scramble that the 2024 season was thanks to the continued merger delays, and the 2025 season still intertwined with standing PPA events, we head into 2026 with one league, 20 teams, and a solid schedule set to play out. The league has provided some helpful videos for the newbies to MLP, as the structure has changed this year to help make individual weekend events more meaningful and to instill excitement; spoiler alert, this weekend’s action certainly was a step up from some of the events last year.League structure & season overviewEvent format overviewMatch format overviewKey links for tracking the event this weekend, which feature livestreams from the primary courts at the facility on MLP’s YouTube channel and on PickleballTV.com. There’s also a slew of data-centric links at the bottom of this post that you should bookmark if you’re a MLP fan.MLP Dallas Week 1 Event home pageMLP Dallas Media Notes, with player news, rosters, etc.League Standings and Team/Player StatsMLP 2026 Schedule along with Rosters for the 20 Premier League TeamsTransaction Recap & Player NewsAhead of the weekend, th...