Professional pickleball is returning to St. Louis next week, and this time the hometown team has a championship to defend.
The St. Louis Shock, reigning Major League Pickleball Cup champions, will host MLP St. Louis at Chaifetz Arena June 4-7, marking the franchise’s only home appearance of the 2026 season. The four-day event brings many of the sport’s top-ranked players to the city as part of the third stop on the 2026 Major League Pickleball schedule presented by DoorDash.
Fresh off a historic 2025 season in which the Shock became the only franchise to win both the regular season title and the MLP Cup Championship in the same year, the team enters the new season with its championship core intact. All four players from last year’s title-winning roster are returning, including Anna Bright, currently ranked No. 2 in the world in women’s pickleball.
Bright briefly became available during the 2026 MLP Draft, prompting the Shock to make one of the league’s boldest offseason moves. The organization submitted a record-setting $1.23 million bid for the No. 1 overall draft pick, the highest draft-position bid in Major League Pickleball history, to bring Bright back to St. Louis.
The Shock will once again be led by head coach Erik Lange as the team begins its title defense in front of a home crowd at Chaifetz Arena.
Major League Pickleball uses a team-based format featuring men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles competition. Matches that end in a tie are decided by a singles tiebreaker known as the “DreamBreaker,” one of the league’s signature formats.
During the St. Louis stop, the Shock will compete in four group-play matches with playoff positioning and event standings points on the line. The home schedule includes:
• Thursday, June 4 at 4 p.m.: Bay Area Breakers vs. St. Louis Shock
• Friday, June 5 at 4 p.m.: St. Louis Shock vs. Atlanta Bouncers
• Saturday, June 6 at 11:30 a.m.: St. Louis Shock vs. Orlando Squeeze
• Saturday, June 6 at 4 p.m.: Palm Beach Royals vs. St. Louis Shock
Sunday’s competition will determine final event standings, with cross-group matchups deciding how points are distributed heading deeper into the season.
Tickets are on sale now through MLPSTL.com and Ticketmaster. Single-day courtside tickets start at $52, while VIP packages begin at $284 and include lounge access, drink tickets, food and premium sideline seating. Multi-day ticket packages are also available.
The event arrives as pickleball continues its rapid growth nationwide, with Major League Pickleball expanding its footprint across the country in 2026. The Shock have also played a role in that expansion off the court. In 2025, the franchise launched the first MLP-affiliated minor league pickleball program in the country. What began as a regional initiative has since expanded to 15 locations nationwide, with the organization projecting more than 500 players participating this year.
The 2026 MLP season includes nine regular season events, a midseason tournament in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and a three-week playoff culminating in Championship Weekend at Central Park in New York City later this summer.
For four days in early June, though, the spotlight shifts to St. Louis, where the defending champions will look to begin another title run on their home court.
