Howdy. This is The Erne, the Wendy’s of pickleball. Always fresh, never frozen.

Here’s what we've got today:

• Pickleball goes Disney

• PPA event gets over 1 million viewers 🤯 

• Wheel of Fortune meets pickleball

PICKLEBALL GOES DISNEY

It’s official - Disney is getting into the pickleball craze.

Disney just announced that pickleball will be available at several Disney World hotels. They even got in a nice little pickleball pun in their official announcement:

“We’re excited to announce that pickleball is available at several of our recreational tennis courts including Disney’s Yacht Club Resort, Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas – Kidani Village, and Disney’s Old Key West Resort. If you forgot your paddle at home, no worries! Each location will offer complimentary equipment for players. Haven’t heard of pickleball? Well … trust us when we say, it’s a pretty big dill!”

Trust us when we say that Disney embracing pickleball is also a pretty big dill. We can picture it now, paying an arm and a leg to play pickleball against Mickey and Minnie.

Now the real question is…which Mickey Mouse character would be the best pickleballer 🤔

PPA EVENT GETS OVER 1 MILLION VIEWERS 🤯 

The PPA tour’s Newport Shootout was played from April 21-23 and saw J.W. Johnson win 2 golds - one in mixed doubles and the other in men’s doubles.

The tv viewership numbers for the event have been released, and they were massive. Over 1.25 million viewers tuned in across CBS, CBS Sports Network, and the Tennis Channel.

We wrote recently about the Pickleball Slam and the huge audience that tuned in to watch the 4 former tennis pros battle it out in pickle. Many speculated that this was the only reason the event had a large viewership.

This recent PPA event proves that pickleball is here to stay as a spectator sport, as the event was a bigger draw than 3 NBA playoff games and 17 MLB games.

WHEEL OF FORTUNE MEETS PICKLEBALL

Pat and Vanna played (well, if you can call it that) each other in a friendly game of pickleball on a recnet Wheel of Fortune episode.

The show, which has aired continuously since 1975, still averages 8.3 million viewers per week.

We won’t comment on Pat and Vanna’s playing ability, and we are sticking to the old adage: any publicity is good publicity (even if their dinking game is sub-par).

WHAT’S COOKING IN THE KITCHEN

• The US Open looked electric

• American Pickleball Tour comes to Biloxi

• Check out the cutest pickleball game of all time

THE PICKLE JAR

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