The entire St. Louis Shock organization, including players, owners, and staff, celebrate the 2025 MLP Cup win.
MLP/St. Louis Shock
One of the questions I get often when discussing the unique state of professional pickleball at present is a simple one: How is Major League Pickleball going to become a self-supporting league?
The answer is always kind of a simple one: they need TV deals to drive revenue.
To that end, the St. Louis Shock just announced the first such deal in the league’s nascent existence. They have signed a 3-year deal with PickleballTV to broadcast their behind the scenes show “Shock & Awe, presented by Heat Controller.”
The new season of the show, which began last year, debuts tonight, 5/27/26, at 7pm EST on PickleballTV. Per the press release, “The show offers an all-access look at the Shock’s pursuit of the MLP Championship and provides a unique perspective into the key business decisions, partnerships, roster, and front office decisions made by MLP’s leading franchise.” The show will continue to air on PBTV after each Shock regular season/playoff event for the rest of the summer.
Basically, if you liked the Partners documentary, you’ll like Shock & Awe as well, especially since the stars of Partners are essentially the Shock roster (Anna Bright, Kate Fahey, Hayden Patriquin, and Gabriel Tardio).
Ross Chaifetz, the Owner and General Manager of the Shock, spoke on behalf of the team in saying, “the STL Shock are thrilled to be the first ever MLP team to announce a media partnership. This is a game changer for our league, sport, and franchise.”
Hopefully this serves as a pathway for other enterprising MLP team owners to search out new and additional revenue streams as the league continues to move forward.