Season Two for Naples Professional Pickleball Team

“We're fully geared up for another great year.”

Bob Strommen issued that declaration recently about the National Pickleball League, which opens its second season in May. As the owner of Naples JBB United, he’s also personally “geared up” about the prospects for his squad, which was part of the NPL’s 2023 debut. 

The league is for senior professionals, players from around the world who are 50 and above, an approach Strommen compares to that of the PGA’s Tour Champions circuit. Aside from JBB United, in 2023 the league had franchises in Austin, Denver, Indianapolis, Oklahoma City and Boca Raton. Reflecting the sport's exploding popularity, the league has doubled in size for 2024, adding teams in Coachella Valley, Seattle, Princeton (NJ), Kansas City, Houston and Columbus. 

Matches are played monthly. The season begins May 17 in Chicago and moves on to Columbus, Cincinnati, Kansas City and Houston. The league’s Championship Weekend is scheduled for Oct. 17 through Oct. 20, with the location yet to be determined. There, teams will compete for $150,000 in prize money, up from $100,000 last year. 

Naples JBB United finished fourth during the regular season last year and fifth in the National Pickleball League’s championship tournament.

Unlike Major League Pickleball, a professional circuit for younger players, the NPL limits itself to doubles matches: men’s, women’s and mixed. 

“As you get older, the singles game is a little tougher,” explained Strommen. “Because we're so committed to the legacy of the game and the lifestyle aspect, where you can be almost any age and be competitive, we require every team to have one male and one female over the age of 60. We had some people trying out that were in their 70s who are just amazing athletes because they've stayed so active in their life.”

To prevent foul weather from affecting play or attendance, matches are only held in covered facilities. For the debut season, matches were held on the courts of a chain of mid-South indoor-outdoor entertainment complexes: Chicken-N-Pickle. This year, they’ll be held on courts located in NPL franchise cities. 

Eventually, each owner will have their own home courts, according to Strommen, who has based the JBB United franchise at the Naples Pickleball Center, located at East Naples Community Park. The NPC is home to the annual Minto US Open Pickleball Championships, which attracts an international field of top-ranked professional and amateur players to the park’s 64 courts. The Minto US Open Pickleball Championship runs from April 13-20. 

Strommen has been one of the NPC’s managing partners since 2020. With 66 courts at East Naples and 14 at nearby Veterans Community Park, the NPC describes itself as being the world’s largest dedicated pickleball complex in one location and the “Pickleball Capital of the World,” a tagline Strommen has trademarked.

A dedicated recreational pickleball player, the Collier County resident owns two St. Paul, Minnesota-based companies: Strommen and Associates, a financial services firm, and CheckPoints Consulting. He’s also an author and speaker, as well as a former high school soccer coach. 

The “JBB” portion of his franchise’s name honors the legacies of Joel Pritchard, Barney McCallum and Bill Bell, who created pickleball in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington. 

Strommen intends to build or establish a covered pickleball facility for the franchise within Collier County or elsewhere in Southwest Florida. 

“That’s in part because I think there's a demand for it, but I also think it's part of my commitment to the league that if we're going to have a team in the Southwest Florida/Collier County area, that there will be a covered facility. Even though we would only be using it for a very small percentage of the time, when you consider a 12-month cycle, it will just be just another asset of Collier County and continue to be known as the ‘Pickleball Capital of the World.’”

This year’s draft will be held in April in Naples. Unlike last year, Strommen and the other owners will be thinking local when it comes to drafting rosters for the coming season. Not playing in their home markets meant that wasn’t an important consideration. 

“A player’s geographical location really wasn’t a consideration because there was no way to have a local tie to the players or team,” he said. “This year, we've made a point of changing that because it's critical for the sake of the team and the host city. It allows players to start getting involved with local youths, doing camps, doing clinics, and to start having a youth movement towards watching pickleball. I saw that happen with professional soccer. Soccer teams had to develop a fan base within the community. I think that’s going to start happening, not only within Naples but also in all of the locations around the country.”

For more information about the Naples JBB United professional pickleball team, please visit nplpickleball.com/naples-jbb-united  and facebook.com/jbbunited. For more information about the National Pickleball League, please visit nplpickleball.com. For more information about Naples Pickleball Center, please visit naplespickleballcenter.info/