As pickleball looks to “develop the television deals and star power of tennis and other more established sports," there is “no guarantee that the masses will watch it,” according to Hirsch, Haridasani Gupta, Mattu & Warner of the N.Y. TIMES. The sport’s investors have been “driven partly by a desire to get in early” as valuations of pickleball teams reportedly range “anywhere from” $1M to $10M. Former Turner President David Levy said, "We don’t know whether pickleball is going to be a television event -- if it’s not, there probably won’t be a lot of revenue attached to it. Sponsors want what? Reach and branding.” But Smith College Economist Andrew Zimbalist said the sport “doesn’t make for good television.” Thirty Five Ventures founder Richard Kleiman said the “viewership side of it -- people watching at home -- is going to be a challenge.” Avenue Capital Group CEO Marc Lasry, whose company is “one of sport’s earliest big ticket investors,” is “taking a long-term view on television pickleball riches.” Lasry: “TV rights are like steroids. Ultimately, the media rights will get there. The question is: is it a year from now or five years from now?” Lasry added, “If you say to me, I got 50 million people playing pickleball, but you’re never going to watch it on TV -- Would you still want to own a piece of that business?” (N.Y. TIMES, 8/19).
