(Texas Ranchers Media Release)
AUSTIN, TEXAS – October 24, 2023 – The Texas Ranchers – one of the eight founding Major League Pickleball (MLP) teams in the U.S. – today announced that GRAMMY Award-winning artist Lil Wayne will join the team’s ownership group and will serve as a strategic advisor. Lil Wayne joins the Texas Ranchers’ group of more than 30 owners, which spans power players from professional sports, fashion, business, music and entertainment.
In his role as strategic advisor, Lil Wayne will provide direction for the brand to help drive national and local fandom to the sport, further strengthening the Texas Ranchers position as America’s Pickleball Team. He will also support creative ideation and the development of future apparel collaborations, and work with the team to build pickleball courts in underserved areas.
“Pickleball is the moment and I’m excited to be part of the Texas Ranchers ownership group,” said Lil Wayne. “I’ve enjoyed watching and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to join this team of owners.”
“We’re so excited to have Lil Wayne on board,” said Evan Floersch, CEO of the Texas Ranchers. “From the get-go, we set out to build a team that, at its core, was centered in pop culture to support our mission of becoming one of the most recognized brands in American sports. Having Wayne’s guidance, along with the rest of this incredible ownership group, emphasizes our stance on redefining sports ownership and being a positive force for good in our local pickleball community and beyond.”
The Ranchers have expanded the ownership group with the additions of singer-songwriter and rapper The Kid LAROI; sports commentator and former NFL athlete Emmanuel Acho; 8VC venture capital partner Alex Moore; LA Clippers owner and CEO of Verbena Road Holdings Dennis Wong; real estate moguls Richard and Pam Squires; Matt Mullenweg, the Founder of WordPress; The Ruia Family, the billionaire business tycoons who founded and own the Essar Group in India; CEO and Founder of ENTITY Academy Jennifer Schwab Wangers; and CEO and Founder of Levitate Foundry Steph Liu.
The Ranchers ownership group includes #1 ranked golfer in the world Scottie Scheffler; award-winning country music star Zach Bryan and veteran managers Danny Kang and Stefan Max; United Talent Agency partner Mike G; Kenny Meiselas, partner at Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks, P.C; Dallas Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons; Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud, Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett; Atlanta Falcons running back Bijan Robinson; #1 ranked American tennis player Taylor Fritz; one of the NFL’s top agents David Mulugheta; radio personality Bobby Bones; founder and designer Kendra Scott; Raising Cane’s founder Todd Graves; leading marketing group Get Engaged Media and its co-founders and partners Cam Fordham, Alex Dermer and Ben Hiott; and Hollywood brand amplifiers Ken Hertz and Liz Heller.
Additional owners include: Ajay Nwosu (CEO & President, TeqBall), Navin Chaddha (Mayfield), Arjun Sethi (Tribe Capital), Max Altman (Apollo Projects), Garrett Salpeter (NeuFit), Gordie Gronkowski, Jr. (Gronk Fitness; VUE Drink), Brek Shea (Blade & Grass FC), Michael Ma (Liquid 2VC; CreatorDAO), Jesse Boskoff (Status Labs), Harold Hughes (Bandwagon), Devon Low & Jeremy Hills (Kollective), Bill Vuylsteke (ProvidentFM), Nancy Fechnay (Founder, Unique Ventures), Ted Moskovitz (Founder, DecentraNet), Brad Palmer (Palm Ventures), Limited Ventures, Jason Loebig (Live Better Co), Mike Krilivsky (NFTPay), Drew Austin and Elana Dickman’s Red Beard Ventures, Spencer Kaye (Transform Capital), Eric Goldreyer (bnbfinder), Tony Gupta (LXMI Capital), Lucas Siegel (Flukies Capital), Nick Jarjour (JarjourCo), and TRID and Sheena Melwani (Content Creator and Media Personality), among others.
For more information on the Texas Ranchers, please visit https://ranchers.com/ and follow the team on Instagram.