Tom Brady and Kim Clijsters become latest star athletes to buy stakes in a pickleball team
Super Bowl champion Tom Brady and tennis hall-of-famer Kim Clijsters have officially hopped on the pickleball train.
The athletes, along with a team of investors, have purchased a pickleball team, joining the ranks of LeBron James, Kevin Love and Draymond Green who bought a team together last month.
"I've been trying to find a way to extend my professional sports career beyond my 40s, even into my 50s, 60s, 70s…and I think I got the answer," Brady said in a video posted to Instagram on Wednesday. "Seems like everyone else has the answer too: pickleball."
"I'm coming to dominate the sport," he added.
Major League Pickleball announced the acquisition in a press release Wednesday, saying that Brady and Clijsters bought an expansion team that will begin playing in the 2023 season.
"We are thrilled to welcome them to our unrivaled roster of strategic partners, who are individually and collectively instrumental in helping us elevate professional pickleball, showcase the joy it brings to millions of people around the globe, and further our '40 by 30' campaign – our mission to reach 40 million pickleball players by 2030," MLP founder Steve Kuhn said in the statement.
Brady echoed Kuhn's sentiments, saying he's ready to "bring awareness of this thing all around the country, all around the world."
The team is part of the league's plan to go from 12 to 16 total teams. MLP is also adding to its annual competitions, doubling them from three to six events.
"I'm thrilled to help showcase professional pickleball and make an impact on the sport through my experience gained in the top levels of professional tennis," Clijsters said in the press release.
The team is going to be 50% women-owned with the investments of Clijsters, Wall Street bond saleswoman Callie Simpkins and Knighthead Capital Management financial advisor Kaitlyn Kerr, who will serve as the team's general manager, according to MLP. The league called the ownership group a "testament to the league's foundational mission of gender equality."
Pickleball is one of few professional sports where players have the opportunity to play as co-ed teams in mixed doubles matches, in addition to men's and women's separate doubles games.
The sport, which was invented in Washington state in 1965, has become the fastest growing sport in the country, with 4.8 million players in 2021, according to the 2022 Sports & Fitness Industry Association Single Sport Report on Pickleball.
The game combines elements of tennis, ping pong and badminton, and has players rally a plastic wiffle ball back and forth with paddles over a net. There are courts available across the U.S. and Canada in recreation centers, parks, schools and more.
In addition to its growing popularity among casual players in the U.S., MLP is becoming an attractive investment opportunity for professional athletes — Super Bowl champion Drew Brees was one of the first to join the league, purchasing a stake in a team over the summer.