Margaritaville becomes Major League Pickleball's first-ever title sponsor

Margaritaville will serve as the title sponsor of Major League Pickleball throughout the professional league’s 2023 season, the hotel and resort chain announced today. This sponsorship will rebrand Major League Pickleball as “MLP by Margaritaville,” with Margaritaville set to “play a large part in the branding and strategy of on-site fan activations” at MLP’s upcoming events and pickleball matches, according to a press release. Margaritaville’s announcement comes on the heels of MLP’s release of a redesigned league format for its 2023 season that will triple its number of teams from eight to 24 and boost the overall championship prize money to $5 million. “We’ve been growing MLP for just over a year, and 2023 is going to be the year where we establish ourselves as a serious professional league,” Steve Kuhn, the league’s founder and chairman, said in a press release. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Major League Pickleball (@majorleaguepb) Since MLP’s establishment in 2021, the league has recruited several sponsors, including Skechers and Franklin—but Margaritaville will be the league’s first-ever title sponsor, and will offer the league one of its largest company investments to date (terms of the deal were not disclosed). Last month, Anheuser-Busch InBev announced it was purchasing an MLP team for the 2023 season. Brands have been quick to hop on the pickleball bandwagon over the last two years, but Margaritaville has been involved in the pickleball realm since 2017. The brand since 2018 has served as the title sponsor of the USA Pickleball National Championships—an annual tournament series held by pickleball’s governing body, USA Pickleball—and is also the official lodging partner of the Professional Pickleball Association’s PPA Tour event. The company’s support for pickleball extends beyond these tournament sponsorships, too, with Margaritaville beginning to construct pickleball courts at its senior-living locations and resorts five years ago. In 2018, Margaritaville also partnered with sports equipment company HEAD to develop a collection of branded pickleball paddles, bags and apparel. Although Margaritaville also partners with other sports leagues, including MLB and the NFL, pickleball has quickly become Margaritville’s “sport of choice,” the company’s chief marketing officer, Tamara Baldanza-Dekker, previously told Ad Age. “We’ve almost become synonymous with [pickleball],” she added, pointing to Margaritaville’s four-year title sponsorship of the USA Pickleball championships. “It’s exciting to be part of pickleball’s continued success and evolution, so we look forward to keeping the momentum going with Major League Pickleball,” John Cohlan, Margaritaville CEO, said in the press release. MLP will launch its 2023 season tonight with the live broadcast of one of the league’s two drafts tonight on Tennis Channel. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs

Margaritaville becomes Major League Pickleball's first-ever title sponsor

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