Portland has a new pickleball league

(OCTOBER 24, 2024) A new professional pickleball league is starting in Portland. It is the Portland Pickleball League (PPL). The first season began on October 8, 2024. Games are at RECS, which is an indoor sports center in Clackamas. 

Jason Bock is a professional pickleball player. He started the league after seeing another league in Phoenix, Arizona. Bock wants to show people how fun professional pickleball can be. He hopes the league will grow.

There are four teams in the PPL: Rose City Riverhawks, PDX Puddle Jumpers, Bridgetown Brewers, and Stumptown Grinders. The players are between 17 and 40 years old. Many of them played tennis before. Most of the players are from Portland, but some come from Central Oregon and Washington. The league will have six games. Then there will be playoffs. There will be a championship game with a cash prize on December 7, 2024.

Most games will be on Tuesday nights because the players travel for weekend tournaments. People can also watch the games on YouTube. Bock says that watching professional pickleball is very different from watching amateurs. He says, "When people watch top-level pickleball, they say, 'I don’t know how your hands are that fast.'"

For details, visit https://www.portlandpickleballleague.com/