APP Announces Big Investment—and It Comes With a Reminder: Asia Is Already Part of the Plan
The Association of Pickleball Players (APP Tour) made headlines this week when it announced it is doubling U.S. prize money and adding two more stops to its 2027 American calendar. But buried inside that announcement is a detail that matters just as much for pickleball’s growth on this side of the world: the APP Asia Tour is now explicitly part of how the organisation is framing its global expansion.
In laying out its 2027 investment plans, the APP was careful to note that its U.S. schedule isn’t the whole story. Alongside the APP Tour’s domestic growth, the organisation pointed to the APP Asia Tour and its leading role in the Global Pickleball Alliance (GPA) as the other pillars bolstering its international pro player offerings. Together, the APP Tour, the APP Asia Tour, and the GPA now combine to offer pro players worldwide more than 50 events a year—a figure the organisation is using to make the case that pickleball’s growth is no longer a U.S.-centric story.
That’s a meaningful framing shift. When an organisation doubles its domestic prize money to USD $3 million and expands its U.S. calendar to 12 stops, it would be easy for everything else to read as an afterthought. Instead, the APP chose to fold its Asian and global operations directly into the same announcement, positioning the region’s tour as a co-pillar of its growth strategy rather than a separate initiative running on its own track. And if the recently concluded Leapmotor APP Asia Penang Open in Malaysia is any indication, this initiative is something worthy of pursuing with full support.
For players competing on the Asian circuit, the practical upside is straightforward: more events across the combined APP Tour, APP Asia Tour, and GPA structure means more chances to earn ranking points, build exposure, and attract sponsors—the same competitive infrastructure the APP is investing in domestically, extended outward. The organisation’s founder, Ken Herrmann, framed the broader push as building a Tour capable of sustaining long-term professional careers rather than simply staging more tournaments, a philosophy that, by the APP’s own account, now applies across its international offerings as much as its American ones.
The specifics of what 2027 holds for the Asian side of that operation—new markets, expanded events, or additional investment—weren’t detailed in this particular announcement. But the signal is there all the same: as the APP doubles down on its home market, it’s making a point of showing its work on the Asia side of the ledger too.
