Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, everybody.
[00:00:01] Speaker B: Slieve senior Pickleball report is brought to.
[00:00:02] Speaker A: You by TNC Network.
[00:00:04] Speaker B: Get ready for an exciting episode of people of Pickleball with me, Mike Slieva.
[00:00:07] Speaker A: We're about to dive deep into conversations.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: With influential figures from the world of Pickleball.
[00:00:12] Speaker A: So let's get it going.
[00:00:21] Speaker B: Today in our people of Pickleball episode, we speak with Paul Bemundo. He's the CEO of the National Pickleball League. We talk about the 2024 season, the championship weekend coming up in Cincinnati, and what's going on in 2025 for expansion. But before we get to that, if you check out all our links in the description for discounts. And, hey, check out our newsletter as well. Lots going on there. And keep up with the pickle verse. All right, let's get to that combo with Paul.
[00:00:52] Speaker A: Welcome to the senior Pickleball Report, Paul.
[00:00:56] Speaker C: Thanks so much, sleeves. You've been so great for me and for the NPL, and I've been wanting to do this for a long time, and I'm glad we saw each other recently in Kansas City and made this happen. So thank you.
[00:01:08] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. My first memory of you, I was at the championship last year for NPL in Glendale, and I used to live in Phoenix, and I taught high school near Glendale. So I thought, oh, you know, I could drive over there. I live in New Mexico, and I spent the weekend and I sort of saw you getting the tour, so to speak, of the league, and you were walking around and meeting people, and I knew something was probably happening. So let's talk, before we kind of get into your role with NPL, let's talk about really how the game of pickleball really sort of entered your consciousness and when you became aware of what it is and what it could become.
[00:01:53] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, like, I guess I've known of it for several years. And as someone who likes to play many different sports, and I live in Connecticut. I'm a New Yorker. But it's weird for me. I lived in Connecticut now 15 years, so I guess I have to start saying, I'm from Connecticut now, too. But I'm a member of a club here, nothing fancy, like a nice little tennis and racket and swim club in Connecticut. And our pro was the one who probably first turned me on to pickleball. Just kind of. Just in general, right? Because I play tennis. I play a little bit of platform tennis. You know, people call it paddle up here in the northeast.
And he was the one kind of, like, pushing me on pickleball. So that was sort of the first, I guess, for me personally as a player and being conscious of it in that regard. From a business standpoint, I've been following what's going on in pickleball, and I've been fascinated by the growth, like many people, and my sort of personal story of how I came to come to Glendale, so I'll back up a little bit. Even before then, I was actually at a concert I'm very much in. I love all types of music. And Jackson Brown was coming to the Beacon Theater in New York.
My brother is a drummer, and we love going to shows together. So the two of us went to see Jackson Brown, and I got a text from somebody that I've done a lot of business with over the years saying, hey, would you be interested in maybe running a professional pickleball league? And, you know, I'm in the middle of the concert. I'm not usually that guy who's responding right. I'm usually, like, locked in on the show, but this, like, intrigued me, so I was like, sure. So he's texting me back a bunch of different things. I'm like, hey, actually, I'm in a show. Can I talk to you tomorrow? Yeah. And then it sort of, like, all rolled into there. I met Michael Chen, I met the other co founders. I met Beth and Rick and our investor Paul Keener and a bunch of different people and came out to Glendale. And I was sort of like, Michael loves to tell the story that I was like the undercover boss, but not very undercover because I was wearing a suit, thinking that here I am to meet people.
[00:03:55] Speaker A: You suck on a little.
[00:03:57] Speaker C: Yeah. And as you know, at our events and pickleball events in general, it's much more of a casual environment. So everyone sort of quickly figured out something was going on, like you said with me, but it was actually a really good weekend. In all seriousness, to meet everybody. Although I wasn't formally on board yet, I was very interested. Thankfully, everyone at the league was interested in having me join, and then I joined shortly thereafter. But my impressions were it exceeded my expectations, I'll put it that way. I had a notion of what it might be heading out there, and I just thought, wow, in its first year, this is what you guys have been able to stand up. I love it, and I think hopefully I could ride that momentum and add to it this year. And I think that's what I and the people that I brought on board and the people that have been involved have been able to do is just make it in year two, hopefully, as good as year one, even though we're bigger and it's hard to maintain the same vibe. And I think we've tried to do that.
But I'm very proud that this year has gone, knock on wood as smoothly as it's gone leading into our championships now in Cincinnati in October. So it's been a really thrilling ride. And I haven't even been here a full year yet, but feels like I've been involved in pickleball and with the NPL and the National Pickleball League for a heck of a lot longer than that.
[00:05:19] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, you had the same impression I had. You know, I think I was.
My first event was Cincinnati. No, not Cincinnati, Kansas City last year. So. And then I went to the championship. But I like you. I was.
I was really blown away by what was happening.
And not only people being treated like professionals and the way the events were run and the energy and obviously the talent level, when you see it in person, is a whole new thing for me because I was like, it's one thing to watch high level pickleball on YouTube or tv, but to be there in person and then to realize these folks are my age and they're doing some amazing things, because if you look at their backgrounds, obviously they have, all of them have incredible, not only athletic backgrounds, but professional backgrounds. So I think the combination of those two things really have made a very special organization and product and brand, and you have. My event that I went to this year was Kansas City again at Picklecon, and I got to chat with you a little bit.
And what I would say the difference I noticed is this bigger and better bigger venue, obviously more eyes on the league itself and double the teams. So let's talk about that, because you're won six teams, unbelievable championship weekend. You couldn't have scripted it any better, how it went down, how it finished, people diving, making unbelievable shots, coverage on television.
And so you talk about riding momentum and you did. You go to these new venues, you have these new teams, you go to Picklecon, which we can talk about a little bit, too, as well.
Where is this going? I mean, this is crazy. On some levels it is.
You think about what this sport, when you and I were introduced to it a few years ago and what it has become and what it has become for people who are post professional life.
Where do you see this going? Where's NPL going? Where do you see this game going? Because it's crazy at this point, to me.
[00:07:36] Speaker C: Yeah, I just. I'm extremely bullish, as you might imagine. Right? I mean, I don't know that we're going to double every year, right? And that's not necessarily the plan, but it was an ambitious plan from last year to this year, to double in size and go from six to twelve teams and really have to do everything that's associated with that. But like I said, I think it was a challenge to me and to the small staff that we have and to the co founders and the owners.
But we pulled it off. Right.
It's made us have to be probably a little more Midwest centric because that's where some of the bigger venues were. So we're conscious of that. So we plan to be a little bit more out west, coming more in your neighborhood, and even out to the coast there. We've got two teams now, one in Seattle, one in Coachella Valley. So our plan is to do what we can. I mean, there are some venues that we're always talking to people all the time about new things coming up in various different locations, really across the country. So I would say that was one of our challenges was, you know, we've got twelve teams now, not six. Chicken and pickle was a fantastic partner last year. They've been a great partner this year. In fact, we, you know, in Kansas City, we had our Friday night party at chicken and pickle because we've maintained that relationship. We had one of our combines at chicken and pickle this year.
But finding a facility indoors, as you know, we're an indoor league that has clearly a minimum of twelve to be able to play, but everyone wants to warm up before their matches. We want to be able to have flexibility on moving some matches to another court. So we really are. The sweet spot for us now is probably more like 18, having twelve courts with six practice courts, so that the teams that are doing the team battles could jump on a court and start to warm up before they get on the actual court to play. So it's not easy to find many of those venues, which is one of the reasons why it made it more than a good option to return to the pickle Lodge in Cincinnati. We had a number of great venues that we were at Picklecon, as you mentioned, in Kansas City. We were at the Pickle House outside of Chicago, in Algonquin, Illinois. We were at paddle taps in Columbus, Ohio. So we've had. All of them have been phenomenal venues and have hosted great NPL events for us this year. But the one that I had people coming up to me saying, who have been involved in this sport a heck of a lot longer than me and even longer than you. And that have been playing pickleball for a long time, saying this is the best pickleball venue we've ever played it at, the Pickle Lodge. So I encourage you, hopefully you could come join us in October to be there October 20.
And I talked to the mayor, Mitch, the head of the Pickle Lodge and his partners about what they did. And apparently it was an old tennis facility and the mayor even admitted it was sort of run down. And these guys, Mitch and his partners, came in, completely renovated it, high ceilings, a ton of courts, multilevel, not necessarily the courts, but you're able to view from a second floor platform to both sides of. So I think it's going to be another. Just like we had a great event there in July, it'll be even better in October and it will be on CB's. So we're excited to like last year from Glendale, we had that on CB's sports. We're going to be doing that again this year. So we're excited about that coverage. I mean, we've had our live stream as you know, like, you know, all throughout, but I think it's nice to have a multi platform strategy and have it on television in addition to streaming it.
[00:11:09] Speaker A: Oh, absolutely. I mean, you've touched on a few things and obviously there are other leagues out there in the open, pro level trying to figure this out as well and trying to figure out what works. Do you see NPL down the road being teams having home and away games? I guess like the hotshots come and play the Scorpions or vice versa. Do you see that?
[00:11:36] Speaker C: Yeah, that is the future vision. We've always had this slow and steady type of approach and as I said, it might not sound that way from 2023 to 2024 and doubling in size, but next year we want to add a few more teams. We've talked about what would be the right number? Maybe it's four, so that we get to 16. And then you have anyone who's done NCAA brackets or any other kind of bracket. 16 is a good number. Divisible. Bye. Four and two and eight. And, you know, be able to get down to an eventual maybe eight and eight, like east and West coast being able to do that. Those types of things, I think is what our plan is for next year. Right. But the future vision is like my experience at the NBA and having, say, you know, somewhere around 32 teams and being able to have, and this is many years down the road, so growing steadily together but having a way matches where our owners either own their own facilities or they're affiliated with a facility in their market, and that's where they would host home and away matches. I mean, that's exactly what we're thinking. The analogy that I use now, because here in the northeast, I've got two boys and they're athletes, and although they play pickleball, which is great to hear, in Connecticut, they have it as part of the PE curriculum. And my older son just started high school, so they did it in middle school, which is awesome, but they're also lacrosse players. And so I give people in the sports business the analogy of the premier Lacrosse League, which I know some of those folks, and they travel around. That's what they had done in the beginning of their league, is they travel around together. And I think that is right now, the magic of what we've been able to build in terms of the community is last year having all six teams travel, this year having all twelve teams travel.
We've got an interesting situation in what's gone on with Houston because it's one market but two different venues, because use the facility. We could have hosted all of our teams there, but it would have been very tight. So the decision was to do it in two different venues. And I think that could be a model, too, that we do in the interim before we get to the home and away, is go somewhere that's one market where we're all together. We could still do the opening night party and then kind of split into certain teams playing in one venue, certain teams playing in another. And we could do that at places like, you know, chicken and pickle again, where they have certain locations that of their venues there. So that is something that we're exploring for 2025. And we're starting to get the calendar ready for what we're doing in 2025. So it's an interesting whole process to start all up again.
[00:14:14] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think the. Obviously, the obvious conundrum, or whatever you want to call it, challenges, is sort of waiting for the infrastructure to catch up. Obviously, there's massive amounts of building and going on. And I love. I guess what I really dig about NPL is they've taken what I consider to be an indoor sport and truly made it indoors because you don't have to deal with weather. And if you follow any of the professional leagues, they're always sending, there's rain delays, you're going down a particular part of the country, and obviously things that can change and change the entire dynamic of your weekend based on weather.
Do you see? Because you mentioned NBA.
I do love the idea of having divisions because people are traveling in your midwest centric now. But, yeah, if you have, obviously, an east coast, a west coast and eastern division, and you get to a point where you have 30 some teams and you have this incredible playoff, I guess, tournament, you could. I love what you're doing. You could take it to chicken and pickle, and you could take it to some of these venues that some of your players are a part of. And so I love the spreading out of sort of the product in the brand because for me, I think what attracted me to pickleball, but specifically champion senior pro Pickleball, is there are a ton of characters already built into this league. There are people that I have followed who don't really need to be promoted in a way that is not genuine because there are, and I'm specifically talking about the men's side right now. Like, you know, Dave Weinbach, the badger, for example, great, large personality, well known, besides the infrastructure and, you know, potentially having divisions in east and west, where do you see sort of the development of promoting players and their personalities? Because I think, I would argue the NPL has as many personalities as any league out there already, and well known ones, and an endless farm system of people who are going to turn a particular age that will have reputations coming into your league.
[00:16:28] Speaker C: Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. I think so much of it is about storytelling, about our players. And I would say the women's side is been extremely impressive to me, too. Their level of play, you know, how important it is to us. It's. It's. It's. It's something that we feel very strongly about. I feel strongly about the fact that it is completely 50 50. Right. All of our rosters are made up of half women, half men. We've got, you know, women's doubles, men's doubles, but then mixed doubles, and all the points count the same. The first draft pick is as important as the last draft pick because they're all still playing and their points counting the same. So I think that's an interesting element of our team based indoor, the ability to live stream everything so that people could watch all the players. All those things are, I think, hallmarks of what we wanted to build and what we're continuing to build. And it is the storytelling. I mean, there are some phenomenal personalities. There's some good little rivalry being built out, not only individually between teams. That's what's nice and I, you know, even people like Danny Werfel, right? So there's naturally the tennis players and rapid sports players who've come into our league. But Danny Werfel, as you know, many people know, Heisman Trophy winner, had a great career in the NFL. I mean, he literally said, and we didn't even prompt him to say this. He said, my football friends are going to hate me for saying this, and I'm in the College Football hall of Fame, but I'm having more fun playing pickleball than I ever did playing football. And there's a lot of reasons why he says that, right? Because he could share a game with his sons and play with his family and being back part of a team and cheering on people even when he's not playing. So he's really bought in. And we've heard that from himself and top women's pros, top men's pros, all who have played in other formats and said the NPL has got it right. We love this mixture of playing in a doubles format, but playing as part of a team because it brings such a different element to, to the game.
[00:18:32] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. And you have, you know, you have all these people with these personalities and these impressive resumes athletically, not to mention, obviously, professionally, that, you know, you have people that have played on Davis cup, you have people that have played in Wimbledon, you have people have played who have won us open pickleball titles. And so I envision for me, because I have my backgrounds in public speaking and I've done some broadcasting, that, you know, once this thing gets to a place where you can, you know, introduce these people as they enter the courts and, you know, because there's, you know, you just. Rick Witzkin getting introduced to walking on the court, you know, he's just gonna strut out there and do his thing and entertain the crowd. And you have all of these people that are really, I guess, really polished and don't need what I would call a lot of coaching to sort of get the crowd involved and get fans to follow not only the team they're on the, but them individually. I'm pretty excited to see where that goes because, like I mentioned earlier, you do. You have this endless farm system of people who are going to be established players and have these personalities and these backgrounds that fans are already aware of and may follow them, obviously, into NPL, much like golf when, you know, people become a little older and they play in the senior pro tour. And some of those people are more beloved than the newbies because there's an investment into them and their brands.
[00:19:59] Speaker C: I totally agree. And my friends in golf, I say that all the time when I try, and it's wonderful to be in this role, and I'm privileged to be in this role. And when I talk to people and tell them what I do, everyone's got a story. Even someone who is unfamiliar with pickleball will tell me. Pickleball is such on the consciousness of everyone, not only in America, but really around the world. Even when I traveled internationally this summer, it resonates with people, and everyone's got a story. And like you said, the pros in our league, the champions pros, they are so accomplished in what they've done. Like, I mentioned the tennis players and you mentioned Rick, even Beth. She was that Picklecon telling one of the questions, went around in one of the forums that they had there, and basically, like, asking them about, like, some of their most interesting moments coming from tennis to pickleball and basketball was talking about, you know, playing against Martina Navarre to lover. Right? Like, and winning, right, like, in doubles. And then she's like, oh, I probably should have talked about when I played Billie Jean King. I was like, you played Billie Jean King? She was like, yeah, when I was a young woman, I played Billie Jean at the end of her career. Like, things like that that are just, like, remarkable. And that's just one person and a couple of stories. People have all these different stories and then entrepreneurs that we have in our league. So not only just people that come from tennis and racket sports, but people who have super accomplished in their lives outside of pickleball, I think we have an enormous opportunity to tell those stories, and we're starting to. We're trying to, but it's one of those things that we're just, you know, there are so many different people. We're going to have more than 200 people play in our league this year. We've got 186 rostered players. But people have lives outside of this. People have weddings to go to. People can't be there on a certain weekend. So we know that. And then we have, like, a whole list of substitute players who couldn't commit to four out of six weekends but wanted to be a part of it and have played one or two or three NPL weekends. So it's great to get new players in, as you said, and people to experience the league. And I think, you know, going into next season, coming out of our championships, we envision having a ton of interest in people playing in the NPL, which is why we plan to expand again.
[00:22:21] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Because when you have stars like Beth Bellamy who have the background that she has and she's unbelievably approachable, which is fantastic as well.
Yeah, you do, you draw particular people to your league, whether they're players, investors, or whatever, because they want to be surrounded by people like that and people who have accomplished incredible things and who are still accomplishing incredible things. I mean, Beth's pickleball career is unbelievable if you start to look at what she's done in a very short period of time. And I know she's been injured for the last year, but obviously hope to get her back for championship weekend because she's fun to watch. And again, like I mentioned, she's just. She's just really nice.
[00:23:07] Speaker C: So many great stories.
[00:23:08] Speaker A: You just start sitting around people like that. They're big stars, but they're very approachable.
[00:23:13] Speaker C: Yeah. And great family stories, too. She's one of a couple of siblings that we've got and family members in the league. Her sister Julie has played on her team, on Oklahoma City, on the Punishers. So the fact that, yes, Beth has been hurt, but she's been there cheering on her sister and on her teammates and then, you know, hopefully we will have her back for the championships. As you said, it's a pleasure to get to know all these people personally, but to be able to bring them to the world. Right, and our sponsors being exposed to them, too, like our corporate partners, that's been great too, because they've been able to really use our platform, obviously, for their brand, but also to get relationships with our team owners, with players, and our players now using product like, you know, incrediwear and people are coming off the court drinking a fat tire and, you know, using gearbox for their patterns or, you know, gamma's our official ball, like, so all of these different things have been great. It's a genuine interest in growing the sport. I mean, that is our mission. We want to grow the sport. We want to showcase champions, pros, showing them at their best, and hopefully we've accomplished that and we'll continue to do that.
[00:24:29] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I always tell folks, get to see them and get there in person and I think it's fantastic. You're the only organization, professional league that livestreams all the matches. It's fantastic to see, but if you get an opportunity to go in person and sit courtside, it will blow your mind, the level of play that these folks are competing at. And what I think I love at the end of the day, and you mentioned this earlier, is. It is a massive, very tight knit, loving community of people and supporting each other, trying to beat each other on the court. But at the end of the day, if you follow any of them on social media or you follow the league itself on social media, which I recommend, you can follow that in the description. You see the camaraderie and the support, whether or not it's on a different team or not. You know, these people care about each other, and they compete against each other all year in, inside and outside of NPL. And they're great friends and their lifetime friends. And you're part of that now.
[00:25:29] Speaker C: Yeah. Look, and that's. That's what sport is about. That's why I try and tell my own kids when I coach them, and, you know, other young people and people is, it's supposed to be healthy competition. You're supposed to want to win, right? Like, you. You. But at the end of the day, you. You need to lose with Grace as much as you win with Grace. And I think that's what I'm most proud of. Our players is as heated as it gets. They understand, like, there is a winner and there's a loser and. But. But we're all friends at the end of the day. And I think the. The community that we built, the closest thing in my career that I've told people that it reminds me of is when I was the chief marketing officer of the Ivy League. And it's the same kind of thing. These schools, these eight schools, the ancient eight, they want to beat the heck out of each other, right? Whether it's Harvard, Yale, and Penn and Princeton and Cornell and Columbia and, you know, Brown and Dartmouth. But when they all came together, they wanted what was best for the Ivy League and for college sports and for these young women and men. And I think it's the same thing here. Like all of our team owners, they love to trash talk each other. They love to jab each other, but they want what's best for the league, right? They want what's best for the players, first and foremost. And I think that's been what I love the most about it, is getting to know all the personalities, owners, players, co founders. And now everyone really does want to row in the same direction to build a game of pickleball at the champions pro level.
[00:26:52] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, Paul, congratulations. Really great first year. Obviously, the big event coming up, the end of the year, the championship in Cincinnati. Best of luck in that. Before we get you out of here, what are you looking forward to at championship weekend yourself?
[00:27:11] Speaker C: Well, look, I mean, everything's up for grabs, right? That's the beauty of the way the format we've set up with twelve teams, it was. It's a bit of an odd number, as I said, compared to. I mean, even though it's an even number. Bit of a strange number, I should say. Better word than 16. But we'll have four teams that will have a buy. So on Friday, on the 18th, the non buy team. So teams five through twelve will be competing first. So then, you know, go into the bracket basically for the final eight going into Saturday, going all the way down to the final two on Sunday. So the fact that anyone could win is great. You could really come last to first in the end if you wind up being able to. Right. And there's a heck of a lot of prize money on the line, which is great, too. It's exciting for the players and the team owners.
And I did get to experience it, like you where I first saw you last year in Glendale for the championship. And it was a phenomenal event and we plan to do the same thing, bigger, better, you know, with the teams we have there. Our plan is to also do a really cool team breaker for the teams that are not involved in the championship. So kind of an all star format that'll be something that we'll have there. So please do. Like sleeve said, please do come to the Pickle Lodge in Westchester, Ohio, just north of the airport in Cincinnati. Easy to get to, but if you can't tune in to CB's, we'll be announcing the date shortly when it'll airtain. But I think it's going to be a great, great weekend. I'm excited for it. Since we've been there before, we kind of know what to expect with the Pickle Lodge. And Mitch and I said before, and his staff have been great. So I couldn't be more thrilled at coming into the culmination of the 2024 season for the NPL and looking ahead to 2025 and beyond. So thanks for having me, sleeves, and I look forward to hopefully having you at the championships with us.
[00:28:59] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. It's Paul Bermondo, CEO of the National Pickleball League. All links in the description. Again, folks, find a team, root for somebody. It's a great league. It's not going anywhere. It's just going up. And championship weekend coming up October and again, look for them in 2025. If you're interested in playing in NPL or getting involved in any way, we'll have a link to their website in the description as well. Thanks for your time, Paul, and best of luck. Hope to see you in October.
[00:29:28] Speaker C: All right. Thanks, thieves. Thank you very much. Good to talk to everybody and hopefully we'll see you at our championship and see you down the road.
[00:29:34] Speaker B: Hope you enjoyed our conversation with Paul. Get out and check out the National Pickleball League. If not this season, check them out next season. Unbelievable ball and really great community as well. All right, folks, at the end of the day, hey, you know what to do. Let's pickle.
