MLP owners engage in Twitter war over lopsided team spending

St. Louis Shock owners Ross Chaifetz and Richard Chaifetz at the MLP Mid-Season Tournament. — St. Louis Shock owner and GM Ross Chaifetz voiced his opinions on how MLP should address a salary cap and salary floor in a Twitter thread Tuesday morning. Major League Pickleball

MLP owners engage in Twitter war over lopsided team spending

Pickleball.com Staff

Jul 14 2026 3:40 PM ET

This discourse emerged from Shock owner and GM Ross Chaifetz arguing that having some teams (like St. Louis) spending drastically more money on their roster than other teams with no salary cap in place isn’t as bad for league parity as others suggest, and that every team has had equal opportunities to acquire talent.

“I’m not opposed to a [salary] cap,” he wrote. “But forced dilution of top 20 talent across all teams is akin to socialist redistribution of wealth. If teams want to invest let them reap the rewards (and raise the floor of the non-spending franchise values along the way).”

Black Bears owner Ritchie Tuazon made it clear that he disagrees, imploring Chaifetz to “be a man and compete on a level playing field” and that “winning is more fun that way.”

For context, St. Louis spent $325,000 to keep Kate Fahey, Hayden Patriquin, and Gabe Tardio on its roster for 2026 before spending an additional $1.23 million to reacquire Anna Bright in the draft. That’s a total of $1,555,000 spent on their roster for this season.

California spent a total of $85,000 in the draft, though that figure could very well have risen as they have completely reworked their roster through the trade market.

Here’s how Chaifetz responded:

??? The playing field is as equal as possible. You had every opportunity to pay to be in premier league early, draft ALW, Ben, AB, or even trade for any player you would have liked since then. Appears your GM was more focused on his podcast…

I’m not opposed to a floor/cap…
— Ross Chaifetz (@RossChaifetz) July 14, 2026

This is where tensions escalated, especially after Chaifetz indirectly called out Black Bears former GM and current president, Jimmy Miller, who co-hosts the popular "King of the Court" podcast alongside Tyler Loong.

The playing field is not equal when teams with unlimited father’s money spend irrational amounts to ensure victory. A cap and floor as proposed (cap 2x of the floor) seems like a reasonable compromise.
— Ritchie Tuazon (@ritchiebobby) July 14, 2026

Ross,

Might want to take a deep breath. While you make some good points and you might be right on a lot of this. Your delivery makes you sound like a complete douche bag. No microphones, am I right!? And I know of a couple of investments where you chose the free ride route. So…
— Jimmy Miller (@JimmyMiller_PB) July 14, 2026

Tensions continue to flare as the future of MLP continues to be decided.