Behind the Scenes with Brooklyn Pickleball Team's COO Adam Behnke

In this exclusive interview, we sit down with Adam Behnke, Chief Operating Officer of the Brooklyn Pickleball Team, to discuss the growing pains and exciting developments of building a professional pickleball franchise from the ground up.

With just 16 weeks under their belt as a Brooklyn-based team, Behnke shares insights on everything from community engagement strategies to navigating league controversies, while juggling the day-to-day operations that keep the team competitive both on and off the court.

Behnke is a seasoned sports business executive currently serving as Chief Operating Officer of the Brooklyn Pickleball Team in Major League Pickleball, having previously held the same role with the D.C. Pickleball Team from 2023 to 2025. 

His diverse sports industry experience includes leadership positions with professional soccer teams Queensboro FC and Loudoun United FC, as well as a five-year tenure with the New York Yankees in various sales and service roles. Behnke holds a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University and a Master of Science in Sport Management and Sport Marketing from Indiana University Bloomington, where he competed as a Division I varsity athlete in cross country and track & field at both institutions.

How would you describe your role in three sentences?

I always say that I get the fancy title of COO, Chief Operating Officer, which sounds really sexy and cool, but the reality in startup sports is that you wear all the hats, roll up the sleeves, drink a lot of coffee, and really create something that is your own. 

My favorite part is that I get my hands involved in everything, and what we are creating is a lot of my vision and thoughts, but I try to do that with as many people who want to provide input so we can intertwine it together. 

The easiest way to say it is kind of a Swiss army knife that is adaptable and ready to take on anything - whether that's marketing, community events, coordination, logistics, operating the P&L, or the overall vision of what this is going to be.

How is the ownership and team structured?

We have our principal owners, Al Tylis and Sam Porter, that run our sports investment entity, which operates like a pickleball ETF that's balanced and diversified around building a sustainable pickleball business. 

From a corporate structure, we have our ownership group, I'm the COO, and then we have our marketing team which consists of our head of content and some amazing video editors who make all the awesome things you see on social media. 

We have an incredible ambassador group that operates in the local community, and I collaborate with them on events and how we show up. 

We're a lean team - myself, our head of content, our head coach, and our general manager Josh who's part-time because he does full-time work with City Pickle. So we're really a strong team of three full-time people plus our six rostered athletes.

How do you measure success for year one?

One of the biggest things in sports startups is making sure we're showing revenue growth year over year. We want to show ongoing growth and potential not only for business success, but to keep investors and ownership happy so they see the potential to get to breaking even or profitable. 

But most importantly, outside of finances, is where and how we show up from an awareness and marketing perspective and what we're doing to leave a positive impact in the community. 

Success is not only based on what the actual numbers show, but also on your reputation, what your brand looks and feels like, and the perception of it in the market.

 Ideally, our brand health would be really positive, and when anybody asks someone who has come in contact with Brooklyn Pickleball Team, we're getting a high approval rating and people walk away feeling like it's relatable, something you want to be a part of, and it's going to leave a smile on your face.

How much of valuation is performance-based versus sponsorship and marketing?

There are so many things in both the in-control and out-of-control buckets. Typically in sports, valuations are somewhere between 7 and 10x revenue, but there are market factors that affect that as well. 

What will definitely help growth is teams continuing to show up in meaningful ways with Major League Pickleball events locally, selling those out, having sponsors come in, getting onto MSG Network or broadcasts in addition to Pickleball TV. 

All of those things continue to elevate the brand and credibility. Both tangible and intangible factors matter because they overlap - if we're seen as a team that nobody likes or cares about, you're not going to get a big brand deal or get on TV as much. But if there's a true buzz around it, that's only going to help.

Why did you choose to invest so much in grassroots community work when other MLP teams don't?

We always believe that with any pro sports team, the true foundation and DNA must be community first. 

If that doesn't exist, I don't think the rest of it goes to the heights it truly could. We think starting a community first is critical to the longevity of the sport and the success of the team. We want to be one of those teams and brands that people enjoy being around. We want everyone to want to be friends with the Brooklyn Pickleball Team and feel like we're in this together. 

We have an open door policy - we want feedback good, bad and ugly, and we want everybody locally to feel like they have some sort of say in it. This gives us hope for a solid foundation, creates buzz around our events, and when you look at the business side with partnerships, we already have groups of people that can help create those things and make them happen.

What have you learned from your time with the Yankees and MLS that you're applying to Brooklyn?

The Yankees piece is super interesting because it's such a well-run, oiled machine where you take structured processes and templates and adapt them to the current situation. Then you take DC United and Loudoun United and the more startup spaces and see what worked and what didn't. 

Every community is different, but you do want to be everywhere all at once while being very smart about where you spend your time and energy. One of my bigger mistakes in the Loudoun days was that we almost did too much in the community without spending enough time on driving sponsorships that would help support those programs. 

Finding that balance is really critical so that it can stay around for a while, it's sustainable, and that model is supported by sponsorships, ticket sales, or whatever comes in from a business side.

What are some challenges you face in spreading the word about MLP, and what has worked?

The pickleball scene is very new and young, which is exciting and a big opportunity. One thing I've been impressed by is how powerful our community is when it comes to getting the word around and how quickly it travels - you share with a handful of people and it's in all the WhatsApp groups and Slack channels. 

But there's still so much we don't know about what actually works. We've seen a ton of success with our local community through hand-to-hand combat with postcards, business cards, and flyers at local pickleball facilities. All of that comes back to the relationships and community we're building.

Some things we've tried in New York City like billboards, taxi tops, or MTA takeovers have been successful and some have completely flopped, and can be expensive. But we know for a fact that going directly through our pickleball facilities, community league operators, and general pickleball players is definitely the best way to spread the word to the core pickleball audience. 

How do you navigate the relationship with the other MLP teams in the area?

We love the New York Hustlers and New Jersey Fives as much as we possibly can as a team that wants to beat both of them badly every time we're on court. We hope they're doing great things to build and grow the sport because that's what it's all about. 

We all have our platforms and networks, and I hope all of us see that as an opportunity to grow the game of pickleball with the philosophy that we're all in this together. As much as we want to respect the borders of New Jersey or other places in New York, we see the Northeast as a place that Brooklyn Pickleball Team can be in as many places as possible, even if that means going onto New Jersey turf until somebody tells us not to.

If you were to grade your season from F to A+, how would you grade it?

Our core team has dealt with more injuries than any other Major League Pickleball team in the history of the league. We went down with Dekel, then Riley, then Pat - all three of them. AJ Koller and Rafa stepped in to save us, and AJ continued his historic run with us through the end of the regular season. Riley made a big comeback through some great local doctors, and fingers crossed we get Dekel back for playoffs. 

All things considered, I'd give us a B+ realistically, because our Orlando event could have secured a few more points. But I feel like we're one of those teams that can win on any given day, especially when fully healthy. We may not have the youngest team, but we have a really smart, veteran team that cares deeply about each other and wants to fight for each other. I see us as the underdog going into the playoff run, but I think we have a shot.

What's your reaction to the growing pains of how MLP is being run, including concerns about the Ben Johns trade?

I can totally understand how that can be the perception. And it's one of those things that affects everybody. It's been a very hot topic the last couple weeks, especially with the best player on the men's side moving to a team that could make a championship run after many teams stuck with their horses all year. 

It can feel like you're getting leapfrogged after all this hard work. 

But big picture, we want the best players on the best teams, but we also want that to be done in the right way. While I don't know exactly what went on behind the scenes, I am happy that Ben is on a team that's going to be excited to compete for and cares about their players, because ultimately that's good for the league. Maybe how it all went down and how it looks was not the greatest. I think probably everybody can scratch their head around that one. 

But the fact that we do have who people call the GOAT of pickleball, playing for a competitive team next to Catherine Parenteau and Jade Kawamoto and Hunter Johnson, is going to be exciting. 

Long term, I hope this is a positive thing for the league and just a blip on the radar, but ideally we learn from it and it gets done in a better way that doesn't immediately spark the word collusion.

How does the formation of a players association affect your role and the future of pickleball?

We went through this with USL when I was there in year 12, so I've seen it firsthand. It's an insanely complex process for everybody and takes a ton of time to figure out. But ultimately, if we're going to get to where we believe we're all going with pro pickleball, this has to happen at some point - it's in line with the rest of pro sports leagues. 

While I'm maybe a little surprised it's happening this early in our existence, I'm excited for that challenge and think it's only positive for credibility and legitimacy. It will give us the ability to grow and properly get the necessary things in place for our players to be excited about being a pro pickleball player, be properly compensated and taken care of. 

Yes, it's going to be a lot of work and a long process, but I'm glad it's happening.

What has been the biggest surprise running a pickleball team this year?

First on the court, the surprise was the injuries. I don't think Dekel and Riley have missed a match in five years, probably the same with Pat. So to have all three of our guys go down was a complete surprise. The weight that our women had to carry for the final three weeks was immense, but so much kudos to how AJ stepped up and Riley came back. 

In the community, there haven't been a lot of surprises - just a lot of great communication opportunities. I'm never surprised by different opportunities popping up, whether it's events or different things we should be at. There are a lot of pleasant surprises on a daily basis from a variety of different third parties and people. You never know what you're going to get day to day - the amount of different emails, texts, calls, or LinkedIn messages can always be surprising.

What do you think is the biggest gap MLP needs to fill in the next 12 months?

One of the biggest pieces we're really excited about is getting to our first media deal, which I think is coming in the quite foreseeable future. There's also the sports betting stuff that's happening - those are two huge driving forces to greater exposure across the entire country and globe, as well as access to different markets and credibility of the sport. 

But also at the local events we host, how do we take them from a couple thousand people to 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,000? How do we take the everyday pickleball player and convert them into wanting to care about Major League Pickleball? If there are 20, 30, 40 million people playing the sport and we can somehow convert a very small percentage - half a percent to 2% - to viewers, those viewership numbers look a lot like MLS and others that have secured media deals in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Tell us about Riley Newman moving to New York City.

I am really excited about Riley Newman making the move to New York City. He is now officially a New York resident. Not many teams get to say that they have one or two of their pros living locally. I don't know what that's going to entail, but hopefully a lot more collaboration on local events and him being wherever we are. 

I'm excited for Riley too - he gets to experience the best city in the world. That gives me hope around the day we get to have our own facility and have all our players here. I think that's a key piece of the future - as we build out minor league programs with DUPR 12, 14, 16, 18, 20 teams and have more of a local player pool up to Riley Newman and those like him, it's going to be exciting to build together.

What's the current stage of your minor league program?

We currently have selected four males and four females for our DUPR 20 roster from the tryout we hosted at PKLYN in June. We're hosting our first training session tomorrow and plan to compete in our first MILP tournament over the September 6th weekend in Philadelphia. 

We wanted to start with DUPR 20 first so that when we host DUPR 18, 16, 14, 12 events, we have higher level players that can help assess and be part of it. 

The goal is to have representation from every level at Minor League Pickleball Nationals, where those players are repping Brooklyn against other teams. That then opens the door to the farm system and builds out of what a typical pro sports team looks like top to bottom.

What's the advantage of building that pipeline versus just drafting the best players?

We want to have the ability to get to know more top level players in the community and have people feel really proud about repping Brooklyn at their local tournaments. 

Josh and Kyle from the coaching side want to add value to our local community on a more regular basis. We hope to one day have that story where we identify a 14-year-old kid who goes through the system and we get to tell the pathway-to-pro story. 

There are also people who don't want to go pro but want to be on the minor league team, and that's totally cool because they can represent the brand in a positive way, and we can build this whole thing together.

On the business side, there are going to be sponsorships - people who want to be the presenting sponsor of the minor league team or provide free products. It helps us rise in credibility and maybe brings in new brands to interact with too.

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