The current incarnation of the league originates from the attempted secession of the Omaha Supernovas from the PVF during the 2025 season, amid a dispute over the league's ownership. The team planned to establish a rival league that was to be called Major League Volleyball, with $100 million in funding from investors. At the end of the season, a peace deal was struck which prevented the secession, welcomed the investors into the league, and rebranded it as Major League Volleyball.
MLV currently consists of eight independently owned franchises that annually compete in a regular season for spots in a playoff tournament that determines the league's champion. Three more franchises are planned to join in the future. Salaries ranging from $60,000 to $175,000 are offered to players, along with additional benefits and revenue sharing agreements. The league's matches are broadcast on the CBS Sports Network, Fox Sports, The Roku Channel, VBTV, and YouTube. As of its 2025 season, the current champion of MLV is the Orlando Valkyries.
Major League Volleyball's (MLV) first incarnation, the Pro Volleyball Federation (PVF), was one of three professional women's volleyball leagues in the United States that commenced play in the 2020s, alongside the AU Pro Volleyball Championship and LOVB Pro.[1][2][3] Its inaugural 2024 season was dominated by the success of the Omaha Supernovas, who earned the highest average attendance for a professional volleyball team in the world,[4] broke the United States attendance record for a volleyball game thrice,[5] and won the PVF Championship in straight sets against the Grand Rapids Rise.[6][7] Off the court, the PVF came into conflict with the Supernovas over their attempted acquisition of the Vegas Thrill in August 2023, which was blocked by the league.[8] By December, an attempt at a hostile takeover of the PVF itself by the Supernovas' owners was alleged to have started,[9] inspiring PVF co-founders Dan Whinham and Stephen Evans to "resist" the takeover by selling $1 million in shares of the league to Rise owner Dan DeVos in February 2024.[9][10]
The Supernovas played what was to be their final season in the PVF,[14] falling short of a back-to-back championship with a playoff semifinal loss to the Indy Ignite.[18][19] In August, the PVF and MLV struck a deal that saw the return of the Supernovas to a league rebranded as Major League Volleyball, and the admission of the Sacramento team as an expansion franchise, alongside the establishment of a new franchise based in Washington, D.C.[20][21]
The salary range for players in MLV is $60,000 to $175,000,[26][27][28] with "benefits" worth $10,000, and an undisclosed amount of revenue sharing with their respective teams, also being offered.[29][30] Two players on each team are also paid an additional $40,000 to serve as the team's ambassadors.[31]
1 2 Sanchez 2024, "By December 2023 [...] the White Group was in the process of executing a leveraged corporate takeover of PVF. [Whinham and Evans] believed that such a development would be bad for PVF and its fledgling league, (they) tried to resist Mr. White’s takeover."
↑ Sanchez 2024, "[...] the founders of the Pro Volleyball Federation inked a $1 million deal on Feb. 12 to sell to DeVos' PVF Ventures. The founders say the sale was motivated by their desire to preserve the new league and avoid a "leveraged corporate takeover" by another franchise owner based in Omaha, Neb."
↑ Sanderson, Wes (February 17, 2025). "Reaching New Heights". Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal. Archived from the original on August 20, 2025. Retrieved August 20, 2025. Last year, the league announced that top players on each team would earn a base salary of up to $175,000 and each player to earn a roster spot making at least $60,000 for the season.
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2026 Major League Volleyball season 
