Major League Pickleball Announces New 20-Team Format, End of Challenger Level in 2026

The Brooklyn Pickleball Team and NY Hustlers are merging while the Nashville Chefs and DC Pickleball Team are exploring sales

Two weeks ago, we covered the first announced Major League Pickleball competition rules for the 2026 year:

And here we are, announcing updates, two weeks later.

There are quite a few updates to the competition structure. Let's get into them starting with the most important.

MLP Is Consolidating to 20 Teams with No Level Designations

Yes, you read that right – No. More. Challenger.

All 20 teams participating will be playing in one league this year. No Challenger Level or Premier Level.

"But Erik, there were supposed to be 18 Premier Level teams and five (5) Challenger Level teams this year. Where did the other three teams go?"

Great question.

The Nashville Chefs and DC Pickleball Team are finalizing sale agreements and are utilizing 2026 to execute those transactions. They are not participating in the 2026 MLP season.

The NY Hustlers are merging with the Brooklyn Pickleball Team, and I assume the Hustlers owners are being bought out or have taken on some equity in Brooklyn. A little gray area here, but essentially, the NY Hustlers won't exist moving forward.

A clarification on rosters related to these moves: All signed UPA rostered players from the 2025 year for the NY Hustlers, Nashville Chefs, and DC Pickleball Team are dropped and will be available in the 2026 draft pool.

Event Details and Updates

As previously reported, all teams will participate in five of the nine events. However, the number of teams at each event has gone up given the increase to 20 teams in the league.

All events will have 11 teams, except Walt Disney, which will have 12 teams. At events with 11 teams, there will be one pool of five teams (four group play games) and one pool of six teams (five group play games).

Each team will play two events with a group of five teams and three events with a group of six teams. This means there will be 23 group play matches played by every team. If a team were to make it to Sunday at each of their five events, that team would end up playing 28 regular season matches.

Palm Beach Royals Expansion Details

The Palm Beach Royals are a new expansion franchise this offseason, so two new rules for expansion franchises have been established.

I made a post on X explaining this:

First, Palm Beach can trade cash to a team for a player. This can be done for up to one man and one woman. The $200,000 maximum trade amount is still in effect per transaction.

Secondly, and this is where it gets more complicated, the Royals can pick up to one man and one woman who are NOT currently on an MLP roster.

• If a player was UPA signed and eligible for the 2025 draft, but ended 2025 NOT on an MLP roster, Palm Beach could claim them for a $10,000 keeper fee and keep them at that price for up to three years (think AJ Koller).
• If a player was NOT eligible for the 2025 draft, but was signed since then, the Palm Beach Royals could claim them for an $80,000 keeper fee and keep them at that price for up to three years (think Sofia Sewing or any of the recently signed youth players).

In conclusion, there is a possibility of the Palm Beach Royals rostering up to four people (up to two men and two women) headed into the draft. All of these decisions need to be made by the Trade Window #1 deadline, on February 15th.

Heads up: hundreds of thousands of pickleballers read our free newsletter. Subscribe here for cutting edge strategy, insider news, pro analysis, the latest product innovations and more.

Trade Window #1 and Keeper Deadline 

• February 15 - 10am - Trade Window #1 Deadline
• February 15 - 4pm - Keepers are due 

All keepers will be announced by the league within 24 hours, on Monday, the 16th. Teams cannot have more than 5 players after the keeper deadline - if a team can technically keep all six rostered players based on all the rules, they are still forced to drop at least one.

Draft Information

The draft process has reverted to the way it was done last year: All teams must have four (4) players before teams can start bidding on the 5th or 6th player

• Roster spots 1-4 - minimum for a draft slot is $10k
• Roster spots 5-6 - minimum for a draft slot is $1k

One important note on this: teams cannot randomly select a player as a "sub" or 5th or 6th player. If a player is on a team's roster, they are deemed a top four player.

If a team has three men and one woman, they will be allowed to draft a woman in the first part of the draft (minimum of $10,000), even though they already have four rostered players. Basically everyone will be able to draft four starters before other teams can begin drafting the fifth and sixth players.

Cash for players is now allowed 

In the past, teams have always had to do a one of one trade, meaning one man is being traded for one man. This has always kept rosters even.

For the first time in MLP history, during this offseason, players can be traded for cash. There are three different categories of teams that can pay cash to other teams in exchange for a player/players:

• The four teams (Bay Area, Las Vegas, Florida, and California) that were in Challenger Level last year (only have four players rostered) can give another team cash for a player
• Any teams that do not have six players rostered, due to players not being UPA signed (Chicago, Atlanta, SoCal, etc.)
• As previously mentioned, the Palm Beach Royals can also pay cash for up to one man and one woman, if they choose

Of note, if a team receives cash for a player, they do not have to follow the rule to have three men and three women - they will get to six rostered players in the draft.

Keeping 2024 draftees in Trade Window #1

Teams were told a rule headed into Trade Window #1 - If a 2024 draftee is traded in Trade Window #1, they cannot be kept by the receiving team. However, there are some team exemptions for this rule. Essentially, if a team ended the 2025 season with either zero or one 2024 drafted player, they can trade for a 2024 player and keep them for just 2026. This can be done for up to two roster spots. The teams that are allowed to do this are Atlanta, Bay Area, Carolina, Chicago, Miami, Palm Beach, and SoCal.