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The first-ever major league sport to be founded in Austin launched today as Major League Pickleball was announced at Dreamland Dripping Springs on Tuesday morning.
The league will feature the world's 32 best male and female players in eight co-ed teams and will kick off at Dreamland, 2770 US-290, in a tournament dubbed the Pritchard Cup (named after pickleball founder Joel Pritchard) on Nov. 5-8. The grand prize will be $150,000, nearly the highest prize pool in pickleball history.
For pro pickleballer Jesse Irvine, the new league is a chance to get back on a court after injuries kept her out of professional tennis.
"When I started playing pickleball, initially I was a little skeptical, but then once I started playing, I was immediately hooked," Irvine told Austonia at the announcement of the major league sport. "I'm appreciative of the sport because it has given me that second chance, and I think there's a lot of players out there who feel the same way...it's good for your soul, it's just a great sport all around."
Jesse Irvine found a love for pickleball as an adult after playing tennis at a younger age. (Claire Partain/Austonia)
The league has some prominent Austin figures behind it, including Founder Steve Kuhns, owner of both Dreamland and bottled water company Richard's Rainwater; and President Mellie Price, a renowned entrepreneur and University of Texas at Austin professor who founded Front Gate Tickets before it was purchased by C3 Entertainment and C3 Events.
"The launch of Major League Pickleball is a proud moment for everyone in the pickleball community," Kuhn said. "I fell in love with pickleball six years ago and ever since I started playing, I've dreamt of building an elite-level pickleball league... Equally important for me, MLP is going to bring new people into our sport. Pickleball inspires joy, passion and a true love of the game among everyone who picks up a paddle, and MLP is going to showcase the sport to new audiences, helping build a long, healthy and sustainable future for our sport."
Other famous figures involved in the leadership process include former U.S. professional tennis player Jenny Klitch, who will serve as the team's commissioner and pickleball pro and marketer Dave Fleming as the brand ambassador. Austin City Limits co-founders Charles Attal and Charlie Walker; podcaster and researcher Brené Brown; former No. 4 world-ranked men's tennis player James Blake; and Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry will also be part of the eight-member Team Owner group.
If you're late to the pickleball scene, the sport is a mixture between ping-pong, badminton and tennis played on an indoor or outdoor badminton court with a slightly adjusted tennis net. The paddles are pickleball-specific but resemble ping-pong paddles, and a pickleball that resembles a wiffleball is used to play the game.
While pickleball rose as a prominent sport for older people looking to get active, it's now embraced with people of all ages that can agree on one thing: once you start, you can't stop.
Pro pickleballer Irina Tereschenko boils it down to a few factors: it's easy to learn, easy on the joints and easy to form friendships on and off the court.
"You can have no racquet sports background, or no athletic background for that matter, walk on the court and be playing within 20 minutes," Tereschenko said. "And that's exhilarating. People say after they play for the first time they become addicted, and that's a fact."
Austin has an appetite for pickleball with sites like Dreamland, which hosts three live-in professional pickleballers, Austin Pickle Ranch, the world's largest pickleball fields set to open in late 2021, and popular hangouts like Bouldin Acres that feature the rapidly-growing sport. Now, the city will play a key role in elevating the "world's fastest-growing sport," according to the Economist, into a household name.
Director of Operations Brooks Wiley who has gotten himself on the pickleball court more than a few times since he first caught wind of the sport from Kuhns himself a few years ago, said that the pickleball community is already well-established in Austin.
"Austin is a very outdoorsy lifestyle community," Wiley said. "Whether you're going out in the lake, paddle boarding, or running... and also just the community. I have friends that I've met through pickleball that were business associates and are now my legit friends that I go on vacations with."
After Tuesday's official launch, the leagues' first draft will be livestreamed in Rockwall, northeast of Dallas, from 7-9 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 1. Four players will be selected to compete at the inaugural tournament on Nov. 5-8 in womens' and men's singles and doubles and mixed doubles competitions.
Read more about pickleball:
Where and how to play pickleball in Austin(USA Pickleball/Twitter)- A dream venue for all ages: Dreamland Dripping Springs - austonia ›
- A guide to all-things pickleball in Austin - austonia ›
- 18 places you can play pickleball in Austin ›
- A guide to all-things pickleball in Austin - austonia ›
- 3 pickleball-themed restaurants on the way to Austin - austonia ›
- First Major League Pickleball season comes to a close in Austin - austonia ›
- New curling rink opens in Austin - austonia ›
- Batter up: Cricket becomes latest sport to take root in Austin - austonia ›
- Austin Gamblers, new pro bull riding team, hosts downtown event - austonia ›
- San Antonio Spurs could play basketball at Austin's Moody Center - austonia ›
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On Sunday, May 29, we’ll experience one of the year’s biggest calls to adventure in the Mars/Jupiter conjunction—a potent duo whose combined force will start to be especially strongly felt when Mars moves into Aries on May 24. Contrastingly, Mercury, the ruler of Gemini, will keep our mental temperament grounded and steady as they move slowly through the sensual, materially-oriented sign of Taurus for most of the month. These contrasting forces might be tricky to weave together—read ahead for tips on how your sign can find the right approach this month!
Gemini: May 21-June 20
Gemini: May 21-June 20Welcome to the season of your Solar Return, Gemini! This month will set the stage for your whole coming year, so it will be great to start it off on the right foot. The most important bit of cosmic context is Mercury moving slowly till the end of the month in the grounded sign of Taurus. This is an encouragement to savor your questions and conversations with the world, without needing to rush to answers and to mull over the elemental, fundamental aspects of your life. It would be great to give yourself perspective, especially by experiencing new environments and by moving through the world in a new manner. Allow yourself to be surprised! You might loosen some of your hardened beliefs, but don’t discount the trustworthiness or substance of the new ideas you may stumble upon.
Cancer: June 21-July 22
Cancer: June 21-July 22For you, Cancer, the paradoxes of Gemini season have to do with inwardness and outwardness. On the one hand, you can expect your inner world to be as active as ever, swirling with meaningful thoughts and experiences needing to be digested. On the other, this month features a strong call to get out of your shell, open up to the world at large, and bravely share yourself—perhaps even in an unprecedented way! In transitioning between these extremes, the Moon can be as good a guide as ever—heading into and out of the New Moon on the 30th, you might focus on articulating and envisioning this burgeoning impulse and nourishing the terrain for its growth. As we ramp up to the full moon on the 14th, you might find small ways to embody, communicate and make real this developing dream.
Leo: July 23-Aug 22
Leo: July 23-Aug. 22This Gemini Season is particularly intense for you, Leo, as it calls forth both a fiery, hungry spirit and a more serious, dedicated energy, aware of life’s hardships and limitations. These impulses herald a summer of growth and maturation, which would be great to get a good jump on. Just don’t let this process make you too heavyhearted or self-involved! Your friends, community, and experience of the broader social world at large can help soften and clarify this strong, fiery self that’s metamorphosing. You might rely upon this bigger, human perspective to help you progress smoothly and gracefully. Although it might require some extra humility, taking yourself less seriously can be a superpower. A lighthearted approach can be extraordinarily efficient and effective. It might be paradoxical, but consider that relying on a bigger, greater power than your own is your path to individual fullness.
Virgo: Aug. 23-Sept. 21
Virgo: Aug. 23-Sept. 21This Gemini season brings a charge for you to expand into more substantive and serious subjects, Virgo. Especially if you feel you’ve been playing small, this will provide an opportunity for you to grow into more meaningful and demanding work in the world. At times, this will feel hectic and harsh—there will be no shortage of fire this month. You, as much as anyone, though, can help find the right place and time for that fire, directing it where there’s a need for more energy and oomph. Lightheartedness can be really helpful in navigating and dancing with this heat—with a bit of humor and perspective, you can respond and adapt quickly and gracefully. By the end of the month, you should be able to feel like your view of and faith in the bigger picture has expanded.
Libra: Sept. 22-Oct. 23
Libra: Sept. 22-Oct. 23This Gemini season will provide ample opportunities for you to learn and grow through your relationships, Libra. We’re really looking at the full spectrum of potential experiences here—on the one hand, Mars’ entry into Aries can ignite flammable subjects, and people are generally likely to be on edge, assertive and protective. On the other, Venus’ conjunction with Uranus toward the end of the month can bring unexpected encounters and new forms of relationship into play. Throughout all of this, there’s a theme for the next year of growth through fiery, direct relationships. This is a step beyond just keeping the peace which may be discomforting, but consider that it may take your relationships to incredibly satisfying and enduring places.
Scorpio: Oct. 24-Nov. 21
Scorpio: Oct. 24-Nov. 21This Gemini season brings opportunities for sharpening both your wits and tools, Scorpio, although this may feel like a trial by fire. Although they may feel particularly urgent and exciting this month, many of these challenges and opportunities will last throughout the summer, so take your time to get your focus clear and settle into a groove. The real challenge and potential this month have to do with navigating subtle, intricate dynamics so that you aren’t flustered and know exactly where to put your effort. In order to develop this discernment, you can definitely rely on trusted allies, who can act as mirrors, triangulation points and simple safe havens amid the storm. This is a strategic necessity, but be sure to give thanks and enjoy the simple goodness of companionship, too!
Sagittarius: Nov. 22-Dec. 21
Sagittarius: Nov. 22-Dec. 21The sharp, powerful impulses and stimulation of this Gemini season are pushing you to the development of your free will, Sagittarius—a spirit of playful, proud independence and spontaneity. There are a couple of ways that you might think about this. First, that courage is necessary to truly live out your convictions and ideals, as well as a way to ultimately best serve the world. Truth isn’t always soft or easy. On the other hand, this isn’t too complex and is keyed to cutting through stagnation. There’s a sort of simplicity and instinctive wisdom that you can draw upon and develop into this month, letting things happen. If you need to, you can think of this as an act of trust, or faith in a basic goodness and natural, flowing order of things.
Capricorn: Dec. 22-Jan. 19
Capricorn: Dec. 22-Jan. 19The motion and activity of this Gemini season can quickly develop your values and taste, Capricorn, as you strip back ordinary and inherited ways of thinking and open your eyes to life’s beauty. This simple and vibrant beauty will stimulate your desire to savor life’s goodness and strive for the highest quality experience possible. Along the way, your fixed, limited ideas about what is possible can fall away, even as the new and extraordinary may require incredible strength and devotion from you. Although these are lofty ideals, they’ll have a lot to do with your tangible, everyday experience of your body and sense of home—this is a primal, almost wild energy being rekindled. Alongside this intense fire comes a certain risk, so make sure to enter into this new adventure step by step, without injuring yourself or anyone else.
Aquarius: Jan. 20-Feb. 18
Aquarius: Jan. 20-Feb. 18This Gemini season can help you learn how to feel more rooted and alive in life’s simple aspects, Aquarius. Although this can certainly take place in tandem with new teachers, these don’t have to be big gurus—rather, your curiosity, delight, and common sense might be the best guides. In this regard, your quality of perception, thought and the well-being of your inner child can all make great strides. Through the first part of the month, this will likely feel exciting and overwhelming. As we approach our new moon, though, you can get a better sense of where you need to be settling into more focus and definition in your life. This back and forth between a growing sense of clarity and inner authority and a stronger capacity to be firm and to the point will continue to deepen throughout the summer.
Pisces: Feb. 19-March 20
Pisces: Feb. 19-March 20This Gemini season is focused on helping you develop a stronger sense of connection to the world around you, Pisces. Although this can take place by rearranging and bringing more life into your body and environment, an initial spirit of fresh possibility and willingness to release what is stale and outgrown is a necessity. In doing so, you can land upon a greater sense of capability and being resourced for life’s adaptations and evolutions. This will certainly be a month of growth in your material world and relationship with your body, but the serious litmus test is how settled you feel internally—the quality and clarity of your thoughts and inner world. Ideally, though this summer you’ll develop a stronger trust in yourself and an easier interface between your inner riches and outer quality of experience.
Aries: March 21-April 19
Aries: March 21-April 19The Mars/Jupiter conjunction is especially important for you, Aries, as it happens in your home sign. This signifies a spark of expansion that will play out over the coming year. Here, Jupiter is calling you into new ventures and adventures, to level up and act on the big dreams and desires brewing inside of you. Thus, this month is a great time to initiate some bigger change, to take some jump, leap or healthy risk. Although you don’t want to let this moment slip away, please don’t get impulsive or headstrong—make sure you’ve got at least a bit of a plan. Ideally, whatever you’re aiming at will require a good bit of care, and you can expect that much of this opportune, fertile energy will continue and develop throughout the next year.
Taurus: April 20-May 20
Taurus: April 20-May 20The start of the coming month will challenge you to keep up the pace, Taurus, so that it can consolidate into a healthy rhythm. Finding the right stride, you can find yourself breathing more easily, and maybe let yourself loosen your grip or take your hands off the handlebars, trusting your sense of balance and the strength in your legs. This can set the stage for an opportune spell at the end of Gemini Season, as your ruler Venus makes a conjunction with Uranus—you might keep an eye out for spontaneous side adventures, ways to create space for synchronicity, or simple moments where life is calling you into new ways of being. Ideally, these will feel like clear upgrades, but if you need to think of them as experiments or trial runs, that’s totally okay, too.
