Share

Last month, Aris Sevastianos (who is the mastermind behind the El Remate padel newsletter) and I highlighted nine new U.S. padel clubs that will be opening in the coming months.

Now, we’re back with five more that should be on your radar — both in places where padel is old hat (like Houston, TX) and brand new (like Orange County, CA), plus a few spots in between.

These soon-to-open new clubs include:

Utah City Racquet Club (Vineyard, UT)

Utah City, a 700-acre mixed-use development in Vineyard, UT (just south of Salt Lake City), has partnered with Los Angeles-based racquet sports platform LVBL to launch, “Utah County’s first next-generation, lifestyle-focused racquet club.”

While plans originally called for six outdoor padel courts (as you can see in the rendering above), when it opens in this weekend, Utah City Racquet Club will feature four outdoor padel courts (along with six pickleball courts and two tennis courts) — making the all-out Utah padel avalanche we covered awhile back even bigger.

Further details on this weekend’s grand opening can be found here.

Estimated Opening Date: June 13, 2026

Padel Social (Bethesda, MD)

Much to the excitement of many D.C.-area racquet-sports enthusiasts, Padel Social will soon be (re)opening its doors, this time at a permanent location with three state-of-the-art (and ASCE-7-compliant) lighted outdoor padel courts from Sportsfield Specialties.

The new club (complete with a clubhouse and fully stocked pro shop) will be located just steps from its original pop-up location and have a very similar look and feel according to founder Jake Weinstock, who also tells me: “I really miss the people and can'‘t wait until we get the doors back open. We have such a great, diverse, and growing mix [of players].”

Estimated Re-opening Date: July 2026

DUS Padel (West Palm Beach, FL)

The team behind DUS Padel will soon be bringing a premium, wellness-focused padel club to West Palm Beach, FL with a new 26,000-square-foot facility that will feature five indoor courts, an organic café, recovery amenities including saunas and cold plunges, and the first official NOX Pro Shop in the U.S.

The founders are positioning it as a true “third place” where members can play, recover, work, socialize, and attend events under one roof.

Construction is already well underway and the first 100 members in the door can join up and get a wide variety of discounts and other perks (including unlimited spa access, three monthly guest passes, and 10% off lessons, clinics, food, beverages, and merchandise among other things) for as little as $2,250 per year or $225 per month.

Estimated Opening Date: Fall 2026

Punto Azul Padel Club (Houston, TX)

Later this year, a padel club known as Punto Azul will bring eight outdoor courts (three of which will be covered) from Padel Galis to the Oak Forest / Garden Oaks neighborhood of Houston, TX — which will help further establish Space City as the number two padel stronghold in the U.S. after Miami.

Fittingly enough, Punto Azul was founded by an Acapulco native, Jose Castrejon, who is committed to importing the sport’s rich culture from Mexico to the U.S., with a focus on community, hospitality, and youth development through a dedicated academy.

Rounded out by an on-site café, workspaces, bar, gym, and locker rooms, the club will help double the total number of courts in the downtown Houston area.

Estimated Opening Date: Fall 2026

Vortex Padel Club (Orange County, CA)

Thanks to Jennifer Hebrock of Mindspring Padel, I recently had a great chat with Talah Anwar, who is finally bringing the world’s fastest growing sport to Orange County, CA with the opening of four outdoor courts at Vortex Padel Club later this year.

As I learned in our conversation, Talah is a biomedical engineer by trade (!) who loves the power that sports like basketball, padel, and soccer have to not only bring people together but actually create all new communities.

In fact, over the past two years Talah and his friends have held eight multi-sport events around Orange County that have attracted between 300 - 400 athletes from all walks of life — and he looks to keep that momentum up with Vortex and padel once it opens to the public later this year.

Estimated Opening Date: Late 2026

Enjoy this article? If so, please be sure to subscribe to Padel Nation to get exciting updates and important insights on the rapidly emerging U.S. padel scene like this one delivered directly to your inbox 2X weekly — or share it with a padel-playing friend.

Subscribe now

Share

Finally, as always, a big thank you to the friends and preferred partners of Padel Nation who help make posts like this possible, including:

Interested in becoming a friend or preferred partner of Padel Nation? Drop us a line here and let’s talk!

Oh, and one other thing… I’ve actually got a full-blown padel book coming out in July. So, if you enjoy the work I’m doing in the U.S. padel space, you can support me by pre-ordering a copy (or two!) online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Many thanks in advance!

Editor’s Note: The following (lightly edited) guest feature comes from fellow American Collegiate Padel League advisory board member, Eric Loftus — who is a Partner at Cape & Island Tennis & Track, a sports construction firm that has built 3,350+ courts and tracks across New England over the past 50+ years.

He is also President of Northeast Padel and a Partner at Padel Solutions Group (an official U.S. distributor of Sportsfield Specialties courts).

He serves as Courts Division Director on the board of the American Sports Builders Association and chaired the joint editorial board that produced the ASBA/USPA Padel Court Installation and Maintenance Manual (2025) — the first national standard for padel court construction in the United States.

Subscribe now

Padel is the fastest-growing sport in the world, and courts are going up across the United States at a pace that would have seemed impossible five years ago.

Investors are writing checks. Clubs are breaking ground. Developers are adding padel to project plans before the ink is dry on the site permits.

Yet a meaningful number of those courts — already built, already in use, already collecting membership fees — may not be compliant structures under the building codes of the jurisdictions where they stand.

That is not a marketing claim. It is a structural engineering reality, and it is one that the American padel industry needs to confront directly — before someone gets hurt, before an investor loses their capital, and before a single preventable incident poisons the reputation of a sport that has worked hard to earn its place in the American market.

What “Legal” Actually Means for an Outdoor Padel Court

In the U.S., outdoor structures — including padel courts — are governed by the International Building Code (IBC), which has been adopted in all 50 states in some form.

The IBC’s structural design chapter references ASCE 7, the national engineering standard published by the American Society of Civil Engineers, as the required basis for calculating design loads on buildings and other structures.

For an outdoor padel court, the governing design case under ASCE 7 is almost always wind.

A padel court is a large, semi-enclosed structure — a steel frame with significant vertical glass surfaces — that behaves aerodynamically like a partially enclosed volume. Wind pushes against the glass from outside and, when it enters through openings, pushes outward from inside simultaneously.

The resulting forces on the frame, the glass panels, the anchor bolts, and the foundation can be substantial, and they vary significantly by location.But wind is not the only load that must be engineered. ASCE 7 governs the full spectrum of forces that act on an outdoor structure.

In northern climates, snow loads must also be calculated — the weight of accumulated snow on any horizontal or near-horizontal surface, including canopies and roofed court structures. Foundation design must account for soil bearing capacity, frost depth, and the transfer of all wind and gravity loads from the steel frame into the ground.

In seismically active regions, seismic loads must also be considered.

Each of these factors is site-specific, and each must be addressed by a licensed engineer. A padel court is not a simple structure dropped onto a concrete pad — it is a system of interdependent structural elements, each of which must be designed to work with the others.

ASCE 7 requires that every outdoor structure be engineered for the specific conditions at its specific geographic location, using site-specific load calculations, exposure categories, and pressure coefficients. The calculations must be performed by a licensed structural engineer, documented in stamped drawings, and submitted as part of the building permit application.

This is not optional. It is not a recommendation. It is the legal requirement in the vast majority of U.S. jurisdictions.

The Enforcement Gap

Here is where the practical reality diverges from the legal requirement — and where the risk accumulates.

Building code enforcement in the U.S. is handled at the local level by Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJs), typically municipal or county building departments. These departments vary enormously in their capacity, expertise, and resources.

A building department in a major city with experienced plan reviewers and structural engineers on staff will scrutinize a padel court permit application carefully. A building department in a smaller municipality that has never processed a padel court application before may issue a permit based on a site plan and a basic description of the structure, without ever reviewing structural calculations.

This happens. It is not rare. And it creates a dangerous illusion of compliance.

A permit is not the same as compliance. A permit means the municipality processed your application. It does not mean an engineer independently verified that the structure meets the adopted building code.

If the IBC has been adopted in that jurisdiction — and in most of the U.S. it has — the legal requirement exists whether or not the building official caught the deficiency. The liability exposure for the property owner is real regardless of whether a permit was issued.

There is a related enforcement gap that compounds this problem: some outdoor padel courts in the U.S. are operating on temporary or conditional permits — approvals issued to allow construction to begin or operations to commence while full documentation is still pending.

Temporary permits are a legitimate part of the construction process, but they are intended to be transitional. When a court continues to operate indefinitely under a temporary permit, the structural review that should have triggered full compliance may never occur.

The court is open. Players are on it. And the engineering that should have been verified before the first match was played has never been reviewed.

The American Sports Builders Association (ASBA), in its first-ever Padel Court Installation and Maintenance Manual published in 2025, identified this directly as one of the most common mistakes in U.S. padel court construction: using courts not certified by American engineers and ignoring wind loads.

The European Standard Is Not the American Standard

The majority of padel courts currently being installed in the United States are manufactured in Spain and other parts of Europe. Many of these are excellent products, well-engineered for the markets they were designed to serve.

The problem is that they were designed to serve European markets — and the engineering standard that governs structural design in Europe is not the same as the one that governs it in the U.S.

European courts are engineered to Eurocode EN 1991-1-4, the European standard for wind actions on structures. ASCE 7 and Eurocode 1 are not interchangeable. They use different definitions of basic wind speed (ASCE 7 uses a 3-second gust speed; Eurocode uses a 10-minute mean wind speed), different pressure coefficients, and different load combinations.

A direct numerical comparison between a wind speed rating under Eurocode and a wind speed rating under ASCE 7 is not valid — the underlying calculations are fundamentally different methodologies.

A court that is structurally adequate for its intended European market is not automatically compliant with U.S. building codes. To be compliant in the United States, a court must be re-engineered for the specific U.S. site, with stamped PE drawings from a U.S.-licensed structural engineer, using ASCE 7 as the governing standard. A European CE mark or Eurocode certification does not satisfy this requirement.

This is not a criticism of European engineering. It is a statement of regulatory fact. The U.S. has its own building codes, and those codes require ASCE 7 compliance. Full stop.

The Fine Print Problem

There is a more specific issue that deserves direct attention, because it is being actively marketed as a solution when it is, in fact, not one.

Some manufacturers — particularly those selling into wind-exposed markets — advertise their courts as wind-load compliant, with impressive-sounding speed ratings. Read the fine print, and you will sometimes find a qualification: the wind load rating applies to the steel structure only, with the glass panels removed.

The logic offered is straightforward: remove the glass before a major wind event, and the structure survives. The glass is the “sail” that catches the wind; without it, the frame presents a much smaller cross-section to the wind and can withstand significantly higher speeds.

This is technically accurate. It is also practically useless as a compliance argument in the U.S. — and the physical reality of the glass itself makes the point clearly.

A standard panoramic padel court contains 18 glass panels, each measuring 2 meters wide by 3 meters tall (approximately 6 feet 7 inches by 9 feet 10 inches) in 12mm tempered glass — and each weighing approximately 400 pounds.

That is 3.6 tons of glass per court.

Removing all panels before a wind event is not a matter of pulling a few clips and stacking some panes in a corner. It is a multi-hour operation requiring trained personnel, specialized glass-handling equipment, and safe storage space for panels that cannot simply be laid on the ground.

Each panel must be carefully unclipped, supported, moved, and stored without edge contact — because tempered glass, once chipped or nicked at its edges, can spontaneously shatter. Replacement panels are not off-the-shelf items; they are custom-ordered components with meaningful lead times.

ASCE 7 requires that structures be engineered for wind loads as they will actually be used — with all components in place. A padel court is a padel court because it has glass walls. A structure with the glass removed is not a padel court; it is a steel frame. The building permit is issued for a padel court. The structure that must meet the code is a padel court — glass installed, in service, as designed.

Beyond the regulatory argument, there is a practical one that is equally decisive. As of today, there are only approximately ten to twelve installation crews in the entire U.S. with the training, equipment, and experience to properly remove and reinstall padel court glass panels.

These crews are spread across a country of 3.8 million square miles, and they are in high demand. They are not available on 24 hours notice.

A wind event does not schedule itself around crew availability. A nor’easter in New England, a severe thunderstorm complex in the Mid-Atlantic, a tornado watch in the Plains — these systems can develop and intensify in hours.

The operational model of “remove the glass before every significant wind event” is not a real-world risk management strategy. It is a liability disclaimer dressed up as a feature.

The question every property owner and club operator should ask is simple: In the event of an unexpected wind event, who is responsible if the glass fails? If the answer involves a clause about glass removal, the answer is you.

The same logic applies if the court carries a wind load rating that falls below the ASCE 7 design wind speed required for your specific location. A court rated for 90 mph installed in a jurisdiction where ASCE 7 requires a 115 mph design wind speed is not a compliant structure — regardless of what the marketing materials say. The liability does not transfer with the brochure.

What Real Compliance Looks Like

A properly engineered padel court in the United States involves the following, without exception:

Site-specific wind load calculation

The engineer of record uses ASCE 7 and the ASCE Hazard Tool (ascehazardtool.org) to determine the design wind speed for the specific geographic location, accounting for the site’s exposure category — whether it is in an open field, surrounded by trees and buildings, or in a coastal zone.

Full-system engineering — frame, glass, anchorage, and foundation

The wind loads calculated for the site must be transferred through every element of the structure: from the glass panels to the steel frame, from the frame to the anchor bolts, and from the anchor bolts into the concrete foundation. Each element must be independently verified.

A court that has a strong frame but under-designed anchor bolts, or a well-anchored frame on an inadequate slab, is not a compliant structure.

Stamped PE drawings

The structural calculations and construction drawings must be stamped by a licensed Professional Engineer (PE) registered in the state where the court is being built. This is the document that the building department reviews, that the inspector references, and that protects the property owner in the event of a dispute.

Foundation designed as part of the system

The concrete slab or perimeter foundation is not a generic construction element — it is a structural component of the court system. Its thickness, reinforcement, and anchor bolt pattern must be designed specifically for the wind loads at that site. A standard concrete slab poured without engineering input is not a compliant foundation for an outdoor padel court.

The Questions Every Buyer Should Ask

Before signing a contract for an outdoor padel court installation, every property owner, club operator, and developer should have clear answers to the following questions:

1. Is this court engineered to ASCE 7 — with the glass installed?

Not “wind resistant.” Not “tested to Eurocode.” Not “rated to 130 km/h.” Engineered to ASCE 7, with the glass panels in place, for the specific wind speed at this specific site.

2. Will I receive PE-stamped structural drawings?

Stamped by a licensed Professional Engineer registered in this state, covering the frame, the glass, the anchorage, and the foundation.

3. Who is designing the foundation?

Is the slab designed as part of the court system, or is it a generic concrete pour? Who is the engineer of record for the foundation, and are they coordinating with the court manufacturer’s structural requirements?

4. Who is responsible if the court fails in a wind event?

This is the question that clarifies everything. A manufacturer or installer who is confident in their engineering will answer it directly.

5. Who will maintain the safety standards of this court after installation?

A court is not a one-time transaction. Glass panels develop edge chips over time that can compromise structural integrity. Anchor bolt connections can loosen. Silicone seals that cushion glass against steel frames degrade with UV exposure and temperature cycling. The same engineering standards that govern the initial installation apply to the court’s ongoing condition.

Ask who is responsible for periodic inspection, what a maintenance program looks like, and what the process is for identifying and addressing structural concerns before they become failures. A court without a maintenance plan is a court whose compliance degrades from the day it is commissioned.

The Bigger Risk: What a Single Failure Could Do to the Entire Industry

There is a consequence to non-compliant construction that goes beyond the individual property owner, beyond the specific court, and beyond the specific storm. It is the one that should concern everyone in the American padel industry — builders, manufacturers, clubs, investors, and players alike.

Padel is still a young sport in the United States. Awareness is growing rapidly, but the sport does not yet have the deep cultural roots in this country that it has in Spain, Argentina, and other parts of the world where it has been played for generations.

The American public is still forming its opinion of padel — what it is, whether it is safe, whether it belongs at their club or in their community.

A single high-profile structural failure — a court that collapses in a storm, a glass panel that shatters while players are on the court, an injury that makes the local news — has the potential to set the entire industry back by years. Not because padel courts are inherently dangerous. They are not, when they are built correctly.

But the average person reading a headline does not know the difference between a properly engineered, code-compliant court and one that was installed without a structural engineer ever reviewing the drawings.

They will not read the fine print. They will read: “Padel Court Collapses. Players Injured.”

That headline does not damage one manufacturer or one installer. It damages padel on the whole. It gives ammunition to every zoning board that is already skeptical of the sport, every insurance underwriter who is already nervous about it, and every club board member who was on the fence about adding courts. It creates a reputational problem for an industry that has worked hard to establish itself as a serious, legitimate, and growing part of American sports culture.

This is the argument that transcends business competition. No one in this industry — not the American manufacturers, not the European importers, not the installers, not the clubs — benefits from a safety incident caused by a non-compliant court.

We are all building the same market. A failure anywhere in that market is a failure for all of us.

The standard exists. The engineering is well understood. The path to a safe, compliant, insurable court is not complicated or prohibitively expensive. What is required is the commitment to follow it — and the willingness to ask the hard questions before breaking ground, not after the storm.

A Note on Responsibility

The U.S. padel industry is at an inflection point, and the sport is growing faster than the infrastructure knowledge base that supports it.

Building officials are processing permit applications for a structure type they have never seen before. Property owners are relying on manufacturers and installers to tell them what compliance means. Installers are sometimes relying on European certifications that do not translate to U.S. code requirements.

This is not a situation that calls for alarm. It calls for education. The engineering standards are clear. The liability framework is clear. The path to a compliant, safe, insurable outdoor padel court is well-defined.

What has been missing is a clear, direct explanation of what that path looks like — and what the consequences are for those who take a different one.

The American padel industry has an opportunity to set a standard that the rest of the world will eventually follow. The United States has some of the most rigorous structural engineering requirements for outdoor structures of any country in the world, and for good reason.

Building to those standards is not a burden. It is a competitive advantage — for the builders who do it, for the property owners who require it, and for the sport itself.

Enjoy this article? If so, please be sure to subscribe to Padel Nation to get exciting updates and important insights on the rapidly emerging U.S. padel scene like this one delivered directly to your inbox 2X weekly — or share it with a padel-playing friend.

Subscribe now

Share

Finally, as always, a big thank you to the friends and preferred partners of Padel Nation who help make posts like this possible, including:

Interested in becoming a friend or preferred partner of Padel Nation? Drop us a line here and let’s talk!

Oh, and one other thing… I’ve actually got a full-blown padel book coming out in July. So, if you enjoy the work I’m doing in the U.S. padel space, you can support me by pre-ordering a copy (or two!) online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Many thanks in advance!

Editor’s note: The following (lightly edited) feature article is from regular guest contributor, Scott Matulis, a former PR Director for the Worldwide Senior Tennis Tour who discovered padel in Vegas two years ago and can now hit balls off of the glass occasionally. He is the author of the LinkedIn and Substack serial novel The Applicant.

Subscribe now

I wanted to know about the early days of padel in Los Angeles, so I asked Jon Guerra.

He’s been around the local padel scene longer than most people here and has seen it from a variety of angles: player, coach, club operator, and guy from another country trying to figure out how we do things here.

He’s been instrumental in growing a tiny community into something much bigger, and he’s currently the General Manager at the soon-to-open Los Angeles Padel Club (LAPC).

Like a lot of the guys who have been beating the daylights out of me, Guerra learned padel as a kid growing up in Spain. He came to the United States on a soccer scholarship, at Lindenwood University in St. Louis, where he almost immediately tore his ACL.

After three years in Missouri, where there was zero padel to be played, he finished his master’s degree in Interactive Media and Design and moved to Los Angeles — where he promptly tore his ACL again.

Oddly enough, that second knee injury led Jon back to padel. I blew the crap out of my ACL at about the same age, so we start our conversation there.

A Q&A With L.A. Padel OG Jon Guerra

Great to meet you. I tore my ACL when I was 25 and have had both knees replaced, so I know where you’re coming from knee-wise.

I tore my ACL in the same knee twice. I had the interior meniscus and ACL, and then the exterior meniscus and ACL. Soccer is one of those sports where you don’t control every movement because it’s an impact-contact sport. I stopped playing a few years ago.

Let’s start with how you ended up in Los Angeles. Was it for padel, or something else?

I moved to L.A. for a job at an interior design and architecture firm, HBA — Hirsch Bedner Associates. I was a product designer there, and eventually I became more of a branding and industrial designer. We developed hotels, casinos, resorts, apartment complexes — things like that.

Then I tore my ACL the second time. I had surgery at Torrance Memorial Hospital, and I tried to find a PT, gym or wellness center close to the hospital because I had to go there for revisions and follow-ups.

I found a club called South End Racquet & Health Club. They had two padel courts, and I thought, “Okay, this is destiny. This is meant to be.”

Right after rehab, I started going to that club every day after work. I met a lot of cool people there — Spanish people, Mexican people, tennis players, padel players. It was a very small community at the time.

Around the same time, Sunset Padel Club closed.

What was Sunset Padel Club?

Right now it’s called The Padel Courts in Hollywood. Before that, it was called Sunset Padel. I believe it had two Spanish owners, though I don’t remember exactly. They closed after a few years. The market was too early for padel.

I think the progression of the sport in L.A. was that Sunset Padel and South End came first. They opened at a similar time, maybe a year apart. Then Sunset Padel had to close, but South End kept going.

What year was this?

I think Sunset Padel closed in 2015. I found the club in Torrance and started playing there. Because of my background in padel, and as I started getting in shape again, members would ask if I could give them a few tips or help them with a few baskets of balls.

Eventually, I started giving lessons in my spare time. That’s how I started. I was there from 2018 to 2024.

And you were still working your full-time job in design?

Yeah. I would go to the office every day at 8 a.m., leave around 5 or 5:45 p.m., then sit in traffic for 45 minutes to an hour going to Torrance. Then I’d play from 6:30 to 9 p.m., or whenever we wanted to stop.

That’s where I met Pablo Barajas, who was my partner. In 2019, we started playing the USPA tour — tournaments around the U.S. That’s when I started committing a little bit more. It wasn’t just going after work to play and have fun anymore. I started skipping games so I could practice more. That’s how it started.

How did your playing career go?

In 2023, I ended up being ranked 13th in the country. The best 16 players qualified for the Masters and I played it that year.

During that time, I was already negotiating with the new owners of The Padel Courts. In March 2024, I started working there as the head coach.

Because I was already working from home, I had a lot of flexibility. I started thinking, “How can I make this work?” My job was very stable and comfortable, but I had always been linked to sports — soccer, padel, surfing, judo, field hockey, whatever it was.

So in 2024, the opportunity was there. I started doing everything from programming to teaching clinics, giving lessons, organizing open play and helping with the pro shop. All the padel operations were my responsibility.

The owners were not familiar with the sport, but one of them had lived in Dubai for a year and saw what padel was like there. He thought, “Why don’t they have anything like this in L.A.?” That’s how we started.

I worked there all of 2024 and 2025. At the beginning of this year, they sold The Padel Courts to another group. But at that point, I was already committed to the LAPC adventure.

Steve (Shpilsky) and I met each other at The Padel Courts during open plays and clinics. The first clinic he had was with me. At the beginning, it wasn’t an approach for me to join them. He was just chatting with me as a friend: “We’re starting this thing. We’re looking for people.”

Eventually, he said, “We’re looking for a GM. We’re looking for coaches. Would you be interested in talking?” I said yes.

He didn’t want to just poach somebody from The Padel Courts, but the sale of that facility was part of the situation at the time. So I said, “Let’s see what you have and what you’re trying to do.” That’s how we connected. It felt like a really interesting project.

One of the cool things I’ve learned about LA is that it has a lot of padel courts at private houses. When did that start?

By 2018, when I moved to L.A., there were three or four houses with padel courts. There was a house in Bel Air and one in Beverly Hills. Those courts were built around 2017 or 2018, I think. Probably in the last three years, we’ve had more private courts built at houses than in all the years before.

Are large numbers of private padel courts exclusively an L.A. thing?

As far as I’m concerned, yes. I don’t think it happens the same way in Europe or South America because there is a more open approach to the sport. Padel started in country clubs and was kind of an elitist game in the ’80s and ’90s. You had to have access to a tennis club or country club.

But after 2000, everybody wanted to get into the sport. The U.S. market now is where the Spanish market was 25 years ago. We’re in that stage where you can feel that something is cooking. There is a lot of interest, a lot of new ventures, a lot of new money coming in. But it’s still small enough that people don’t have access to padel easily or affordably.

The private-house scene here is unique. I think it’s part of the social structure of L.A., where you have big residential areas with big backyards and space. The people who have access to that wealth travel and experience the sport in other countries. Then they come back and say, “Hey, my friend just built one. I’m going to build one too.”

Does that happen in the other big U.S. padel cities like New York or Miami?

I don’t think that happens in New York. It’s more of an urban area.

Miami got really big really fast because of South American culture. Miami has the largest Argentine population in the States, along with people from Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and other countries.

Argentina, along with Spain, is one of the main countries for padel. That’s why Miami grew so fast, but I don’t think the private-court scene is as big there compared to L.A.

Los Angeles also has a lot of folks from those same countries, and from Mexico, where padel is big. Is it comparable to Miami in that way?

L.A. is more socially layered. Right now, only a certain portion of the population has access to padel in L.A. because it’s expensive, regardless of where you’re from.

The padel community in L.A. is still more high-end. But it’s starting to open up a lot. I feel like in the next six months or year, everybody is going to have access to an affordable padel court.

There are a lot of padel clubs going up in Los Angeles now, and in Southern California in general. Is there room for everybody, or is there going to be a shakeout?

This is something we discuss a lot among those of us already in the community.

Because we are involved day after day in the sport, we don’t always notice the growth until certain milestones happen every year, like the L.A. Cup. We used to have only three teams per division, and now we have 100 people who want to play.

Those kind of milestones make you realize the sport is growing. So I don’t think there are enough padel courts for the demand we are going to have. There is going to be a moment when you realize the sport is booming, and you have to be ready before it happens. Otherwise, you are late.

We have the FIFA World Cup this summer. We have the Olympics. We have padel probably becoming an Olympic sport in the next Olympics or the one after that. There is going to be a moment when we have so much demand that we won’t be able to pretend anybody is going to have a monopoly on padel in L.A.

I’m from a town in Spain with 180,000 people, and we have at least 20 clubs. Nobody is fighting for players. So if that pattern follows, or Miami’s, I can’t imagine how anybody would say, “We have too many clubs right now.”

What about coaches? Do we have enough padel coaches in Los Angeles?

That’s the million-dollar question.

I’m not worried about how many coaches we have. I would ask, “How good are the coaches right now?”

I don’t want to be negative. Right now, there are very good coaches, but there are not many of them. The issue is the quality of coaching. I’m not saying there is bad coaching in the United States. I’m saying that because it’s very early, it’s easy to get into the sport and start coaching.

Can you give me a story or amusing anecdote from your time in L.A. padel?

I’ve played with all kinds of celebrities here in L.A., but the highlight of my padel life in L.A. — and this is because I have a soccer background — was when I was giving a clinic one night and all of a sudden a reservation came in under the name “Frank”.

It was three guys, and the fourth one was wearing a hoodie. When he took it off, it was Zinedine Zidane.

We literally stopped the lesson. The guys I was teaching and I tried to get a picture with him. We actually got a picture with him. Then we stopped the lesson and just watched him play.

Was he good?

He was pretty decent. Pretty good. I would say he’s high-intermediate-ish.

It was very random. I was alone in the club, with only two players, giving a lesson. Then all of a sudden he walked in like it was nothing.

Things like that happen all the time because of padel in the States. I have had more random situations than ever. Padel is one of those sports here, because of the community and how it’s growing, where there’s always some celebrity, some friend, or some kind of serendipity that gives you amazing stories.

Enjoy this article? If so, please be sure to subscribe to Padel Nation to get exciting updates and important insights on the rapidly emerging U.S. padel scene like this one delivered directly to your inbox 2X weekly — or share it with a padel-playing friend.

Subscribe now

Share

Finally, as always, a big thank you to the friends and preferred partners of Padel Nation who help make posts like this possible, including:

Interested in becoming a friend or preferred partner of Padel Nation? Drop us a line here and let’s talk!

Oh, and one other thing… I’ve actually got a full-blown padel book coming out in July. So, if you enjoy the work I’m doing in the U.S. padel space, you can support me by pre-ordering a copy (or two!) online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Many thanks in advance!

Dear Padel Nation,

I was lucky enough to both start and end May with padel trips around the Eastern half of the U.S., (re)visiting two clubs in Virginia to kick off the month and then checking out two new ones this past weekend in Ohio to close it out.

(Plus, I also got to play padel last month at both Kiawah and the Daniel Island Club here in South Carolina for the first time ever — which underscores a growing U.S. padel trend I explored in a recent article).

After having been among the first players to ever set foot on the three stunning courts at the Boar’s Head Resort in Charlottesville, VA, last May for a grassroots padel (and squash) event known as the Wahoo Invitational, I somehow managed to get invited back for the sophomore edition this year — and the experience was every bit as exceptional the second time around (the photo above will help to explain why).

From there I immediately headed to Richmond, VA, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite U.S. cities, and Padel Plant, which is easily among my favorite padel clubs in the entire country due to its ultra-unique setting (in a former hydroelectric power plant)… its incredibly lob-friendly ceiling heights… its inviting stay-after-you-play vibe (complete with local craft beers and delicious wood-fired pizzas)… and its rockstar staff (great to see Alex again and meet Blanca for the first time!).

After a few weeks at home, this past weekend saw me and a group of racquet-sports-obsessed friends traveling to Cincinnati, OH, to celebrate the birthday of the living legend who first brought padel to South Carolina by playing the sport at two very impressive new clubs:

• Cincinnati Open Sporting Club — which is home to two pristine outdoor padel courts along with dozens of tennis courts (which are used for the ATP/WTP 1000-level pro-tennis tournament they host each August) and some of the most luxe lounge, dining, bar, co-working, and (Midwest-Tennis-branded) pro-shop areas you’ll likely find anywhere in the racquets world.

• Club Padel Newtown — a soon-to-open club we profiled several months back that will initially open with four outdoor courts, a delightfully funky craft beer store (inside a retro gas station), a BBQ restaurant, plenty of indoor/outdoor lounge and event space, and a private dog park (among many other offerings) before adding an additional ten indoor courts at a later date.

Speaking of traveling to play padel, the padel tourism trend is obviously starting to gain major traction, as evidenced by the fact that last month Travel + Leisure ran a feature article on the new Privé Passport offering from the team behind Privé Padel (which I have covered numerous times since launching Padel Nation in January).

What’s more, Lee Witham (whose company Padel+ is responsible for building a majority of the courts I played on in May) penned a guest article for us last month exploring why one of the U.S.’s biggest tourist destinations may also be one of its most-overlooked padel paradises.

While I don’t currently have any padel trips planned for June, I am set to do my first international padel trip to Spain in July to attend the Premier Padel P1 in Málaga.

In the meantime, I’ll be covering (almost) everything you need to know about what’s happening in the U.S. padel world in June after recapping (almost) everything you need to know from May — which you can read about directly below.

As always, thanks for reading — and play up!

- ae

Subscribe now

««« Nine New U.S. Padel Clubs to Visit Soon »»»

The ever-growing list of padel clubs around the U.S. got even longer in May thanks to these nine soon-to-open clubs, which will be bringing 67 new padel courts to six states including California, Colorado, Florida, Texas, Ohio, and Washington (in fact, Seattle will finally get its very first padel courts this morning!).

««« Padel Haus Expands Its U.S. Empire Again »»»

In addition to the nine clubs mentioned above, leading U.S. padel club operator Padel Haus opened not just one, but two, brand-new (and very eagerly awaited clubs) in the month of May. You can get the full details on both of them here.

««« Wait, You Can Play Padel in ________?!? »»»

While operators like Padel Haus tend to get a lot of attention and publicity when they open new clubs in “tier-one” cities like Denver and New York City, plenty of other clubs continue to open in second- and third-tier cities around the U.S. with relatively little fanfare.

We tried to help right this wrong last month by highlighting a few off-the-beaten-path clubs you should know about in Colorado, New Mexico, Florida, Vermont, and West Virginia.

««« When Will the U.S. Hit Peak Padel? »»»

While I’m admittedly no math whiz, a few recent events (including all the clubs mentioned above opening) did lead me to dig into some hard data last month in an effort to get some sense of what might end up being the U.S. padel market’s saturation point in terms of total number of courts. Here’s where I landed.

««« Legendary U.S. Tennis Club Adds Padel »»»

For padel to get anywhere near its saturation point in the U.S., one helluva lot of tennis facilities around the country will need to start adding courts. And this iconic U.S. tennis venue finally installing one may well signal that a lot more dominoes are about to fall.

««« U.S. Padel Moves Closer to Center Stage »»»

Yes, ultra-traditional tennis clubs in the northeast are finally coming around to padel, — but so are ultra-hip cultural events like Coachella in the American southwest.

In fact, as Scott Matulis explored in this guest piece for us last month, a recent padel pop-up in the California desert could help catapult U.S. padel towards its biggest stage yet.

… and that’s a wrap — until next month, at least!

Enjoy this monthly U.S. padel recap? If so, please be sure to subscribe to Padel Nation to get exciting updates and important insights on the rapidly emerging U.S. padel scene like this one delivered directly to your inbox 2X weekly — or share it with a padel-playing friend.

Subscribe now

Share

Finally, as always, a big thank you to the friends and preferred partners of Padel Nation who help make posts like this possible, including:

Interested in becoming a friend or preferred partner of Padel Nation? Drop us a line here and let’s talk!

Oh, and one other thing… I’ve actually got a full-blown padel book coming out in July. So, if you enjoy the work I’m doing in the U.S. padel space, you can support me by pre-ordering a copy (or two!) online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Many thanks in advance!

Subscribe now

While the majority of the U.S. padel world’s attention usually goes to “tier-one” cities like Miami, Houston, and Los Angeles, you’re now starting to see padel popping up in second- and even third-tier cities across the country as well.

And given how relatively little attention some of locations get — yet how important I believe them to be to the overall growth of the sport around our country — I wanted to close out the month by highlighting a few of them, including:

Santa Fe, NM (@ Forked Lightning Racquet Club)

New Mexico’s capital city has always been one of my favorite in the entire U.S. (not to mention, among our nation’s very oldest). I love its ultra-funky, arty desert vibe and the fact it’s home to amazing southwestern food (including some of the best pozole I’ve ever tasted), the original Meow Wolf, and perhaps the most legendary turn-key squash establishment of all time, The Kiva Club.

However, up until recently it had never been anywhere I’d ever seriously considered moving, due in no small part to its lack of padel courts.

But that’s no longer an issue thanks to Forked Lightning Racquet Club and the three outdoor padel courts they opened earlier this year (along with 12 indoor and outdoor tennis courts and an additional dozen pickleball courts).

Apparently, I’m not the only one who’s excited about having padel in the area, either. Among the many big-name celebrities that attended its grand-opening festivities were tennis legends and former pros including Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf, Coco Vandeweghe, Mike and Bob Bryan, Luke and Murphy Jensen, Justin Gimelstob, and John Isner.

Colorado Springs, CO (@ Olympus Padel)

Having grown up in Colorado Springs, I couldn’t have been more excited (or surprised) when Evan Brown — who has also been involved with other notable U.S. padel projects like Aspen Padel Club, Mink Padel in Harlem, and The Padel Courts in Los Angeles — told me he would be opening Olympus Padel there a little over a year ago.

Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of playing there several times (including with my former high-school-tennis coach) and watching the community steadily grow (via the club’s thriving WhatsApp group).

Colorado Springs is also the home of the U.S. Olympic Training Center… my alma mater, Cheyenne Mountain High School, and its nearly four dozen combined boys and girls state tennis championships… another legendary turn-key squash club known as Guillermos’s… and the iconic Broadmoor Hotel and Resort with its storied tennis program.

So, perhaps it only makes sense that the Springs is now home to the world’s fastest growing sport, too.

Titusville, FL (@ Wakit Rakit / La Cita Tennis Club)

While this part of Florida is known as “the Space Coast” due to the numerous historic NASA facilities in the area, U.S. padel pioneer and O.G. Tito Moreno and the Wakit Rakit team also found it to be the perfect location for their first-ever club (with a second also recently opening in Spring, TX).

Of his decision to open a club here, rather than in a more established Florida city like Miami or Orlando, Moreno says:

“Titusville is the perfect spot to join America's padel boom. Padel's social energy and quick mastery make it addictive for families and friends, while its depth challenges experts. I'm here to build community and train toward representing Team USA at the 2032 Olympics."

In addition to two brand-new, soon-to-open padel courts, Wakit Rakit (which sits on the grounds of the iconic La Cita Tennis Club) features six Har-Tru clay tennis courts and two indoor racquetball courts.

Charleston, WV (@ Edgewood Country Club)

No offense to the other Charleston (I live in the South Carolina version), but West Virginia isn’t exactly the fist state that springs to mind when I think of must-visit racquet-sports destinations.

Yet Edgewood Country Club, which opened in 1898 in the mountains overlooking the West Virginia capital:

• Was the host venue of quite possibly the most fun hardball-doubles-squash tournament I’ve ever played in (and most definitely the only one where I’ve ever been offered both pre- and post-match dirty martinis!)…

• Was the first place I ever saw, let alone played, pickleball (clear back in 2019), and…

• Is now home to the first (and currently only) padel court in the state.

From what I’ve heard, it’s catching on fast. So, it might not be the only one for long — and a return trip may well be in order (especially if pre-match cocktails are still on offer)!

Wilmington, VT (@ Brook Bound Inn)

About 130 miles northwest of the emerging padel mini-mecca of Boston, you’ll find charming, rustic Brook Bound Inn and its seven private rooms along with a swimming pool and pickleball and padel courts spread across 32 acres of pristine Vermont forest.

Whitney Kraft, who has a four-decade-plus-long career in the racquet sports industry and is responsible for helping to bring some of the earliest padel courts to the U.S. serves as the Racquets Director.

So, next time you’re in need of a break from the hustle and bustle of your big city padel club, but you still want to be able to play, you might want to consider a trip to this off-the-beaten-path corner of Vermont.

Enjoy this article? If so, please be sure to subscribe to Padel Nation (for free!) to get exciting updates and important insights on the rapidly emerging U.S. padel scene like this one delivered directly to your inbox 2X weekly — or share it with a padel-playing friend.

Subscribe now

Share

Finally, as always, a big thank you to the friends and preferred partners of Padel Nation who help make posts like this possible, including:

Interested in becoming a friend or preferred partner of Padel Nation? Drop us a line here and let’s talk!

Oh, and one other thing… I’ve actually got a full-blown padel book coming out in July. So, if you enjoy the work I’m doing in the U.S. padel space, you can support me by pre-ordering a copy (or two!) online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Many thanks in advance.

Subscribe now

Despite working in the finance industry for 16-plus years (as a writer), math is decidedly not my strong suit.

However, two things recently happened that made me want to dig into the numbers around padel in the U.S. a bit and try to determine at what point the market might become oversaturated with courts.

First off, I wrote an article about padel clubs starting to close in the U.S. (though not due to saturation issues, mind you) — which drew a lot of attention, to say the least.

Secondly, while doing research for my forthcoming padel book (set to be released July 21st), I came across some interesting data from FIP’s World Padel Report 2025 — which I used to create the following table:

Given that the United Nations estimates that the U.S. currently has a population of roughly 349 million people, this means that, in theory, were padel to get as popular here as it is in:

• Mexico, which the birthplace of the sport, we could support nearly 7,000 courts…

• France, where the sport has exploded in popularity recently, we could support 21,500+ courts…

• Argentina, which along with Spain has historically been padel’s primary stronghold, we could support about 54,375 courts…

• Italy, which now is second only to Spain in total number of courts, we could support over 60,500 courts, or…

• Spain, where the sport has grown and flourished for years, we could support a whopping 127,000+ courts (which is about 50,000 more than the number of pickleball courts currently in the U.S.).

To be clear, this is not a prediction of how many courts we might one day have in the U.S., but merely an extrapolation of how many courts we could potentially expect to have were padel to take off in the U.S. to the degree it has in other more mature markets.

Stockholm Syndrome

Of course, when it comes to cautionary tales in the padel world, none loom larger than the major market collapse (or perhaps correction, depending on how you look at it) that occurred in Sweden a few years back, which completely wiped out over 100 clubs and other padel-related businesses and resulted in an estimated €500 million in capital losses.

While exact data is somewhat hard to come by, the numbers I’ve seen seem to suggest that Sweden peaked somewhere in the general ballpark of 5,000 total courts before things started to go south, which would imply a citizens per court ratio of roughly 2,125.

Granted, several factors — including soaring energy costs — contributed to the massive market pullback in Sweden. But if we were to take this 2,125 ratio as a warning sign, it would mean that you’d need to start worrying about market (over)saturation at:

• Around 1,250 courts in the greater Austin, TX metro area, where new padel clubs are starting to pop up left and right…

• Roughly 1,400 courts for the greater Salt Lake City area (including Provo and Orem), which is experiencing a major padel boom at the moment…

• Approximately 3,000 courts for the greater Miami metro area, which is undeniably the epicenter of padel in the U.S. right now…

• About 3,700 courts for the greater Houston area (including The Woodlands), which is making a solid push to be padel’s “second city” in the U.S. after Miami, and…

• Just over 6,000 courts for the greater Los Angeles area, where big new clubs are opening soon from leading operators including L.A. Padel Club, Ballers, and Bay Padel.

The Cost Discount and Pickleball Premium

Given that booking a padel court in the U.S. can easily be anywhere between two and ten-times more expensive than booking a court in places like Spain or Sweden, my guess is that the numbers above are overstated by a corresponding factor.

What’s more, unlike in those places, a significant portion of padel’s target addressable market is likely already playing pickleball instead of (or perhaps in addition to) padel here in the U.S., which will likely further reduce demand for courts.

So, while not scientific, unless padel somehow becomes significantly cheaper to play here in the U.S. or city parks around the country begin putting up hundreds of free courts, my approach on determining a rough U.S. saturation point would be to:

• Apply Sweden’s 2125 “danger ratio” to the U.S. population — which works out to about 164,000 courts…

• Divide this by three or four to account for the significant cost disparities between U.S. and European markets — which comes out to about 54,750 or 41,000 respectively, and…

• Multiply this by somewhere between 0.75 and 0.50 to account for the percentage drop-off in demand due to pickleball (which I’d estimate between 25% and 50%)…

Which ultimately leaves you with about 41,000 courts on the high end and 20,500 on the low end.

Granted, I know those numbers will no doubt seem impossibly high to some (including me) and insultingly low to others (including everyone pushing the whole “We’ll have 20,000 courts in the U.S. by 2030” narrative on social media).

But, keep in mind, we only very recently even passed the 1,000-court mark here in the U.S., and in order for us to hit 20,000 courts by 2030, roughly 15 new courts would have to open every single day for the next 1,316 days straight (and unless 30 new courts opened this past weekend alone, we’re already behind pace!).

What’s more, even if 250 new courts opened every single month from here on out, it would still take over 13 years to hit the 41,000 court mark.

So, while I’m definitely bullish on the sport overall in the U.S. and happy to do whatever I can to help it grow, if I had to bet on these numbers, I’d definitely take the under.

Agree? Disagree? Please let us know in the comments below and/or vote in our poll:

Please also be sure to subscribe to Padel Nation (for free!) to get exciting updates and important insights on the rapidly emerging U.S. padel scene like this one delivered directly to your inbox 2X weekly — or share it with a padel-playing friend.

Subscribe now

Share

Finally, as always, a big thank you to the friends and preferred partners of Padel Nation who help make posts like this possible, including:

Interested in becoming a friend or preferred partner of Padel Nation? Drop us a line here and let’s talk!

Oh, and one other thing… I’ve actually got a full-blown padel book coming out in July. So, if you enjoy the work I’m doing in the U.S. padel space, you can support me by pre-ordering a copy (or two!) online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Many thanks in advance.

Subscribe now

When it comes to the question of whether tennis and padel can — and possibly even should — happily co-exist, there are certainly no shortage of opinions.

On the one hand, you’ve got tennis legend Novak Djokovic calling rapidly growing racquet sports like padel a “threat” to tennis during a 2024 Wimbledon press conference (despite the fact that he’s regularly been spotted playing it over the years).

Meanwhile, current men’s world-number-10-ranked Alexander Bublik made big headlines recently after telling reporters, “If you can’t play singles [tennis], you play doubles. If you can’t play doubles, you play padel.”

(Ironically, those comments were made during a tournament in Rome where he got bounced out early in both singles and doubles. Perhaps he should give padel a go?).

Then, on the other hand, you have notable tennis greats like Andy Murray, Rafa Nadal, and Dominic Thiem not only actively playing and promoting the sport, but also investing heavily in it, as well. Not to mention, AO Ventures, the investment arm of the Australian Open and Tennis Australia making a significant investment in leading U.S. padel club operator Padel Haus.

Beyond this, you are also starting to see big U.S. pro tennis venues adding padel courts. This includes LTP Daniel Island/Credit One Stadium, which hosts the WTA 500-level Credit One Charleston Open each spring in South Carolina and now has three padel courts, as well as the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, OH, which hosts the ATP/WTA 1000-level Cincinnati Open each August and now has two padel courts (which I’ll actually be playing on a week from tomorrow!).

What’s more, as I covered in a recent article, here in the U.S., we’re starting to see a growing number of legendary country, city, and racquet clubs — including the likes of The Philadelphia Cricket Club, Merion Cricket Club, and The Piedmont Driving Club — start to open padel courts at their facilities.

And to this ever-growing list, we now can now add one of the most iconic of them all…

West Side Story

Founded in 1892 in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens, NY, on nearly 12 acres, the legendary West Side Tennis Club is among the most historic — and heralded — racquet-sports clubs in the entire U.S. (and world, for that matter). This is thanks in large part to the fact that it:

• Was the host venue of the U.S. Open from 1915 to 1977…

• Features 38 grass, green and red Har-Tru, and hard tennis courts (along with three platform-tennis courts), and…

• Is anchored by a picturesque Tudor-style clubhouse and the historic 14,000-seat Forest Hills Stadium, which has hosted major concerts from artists including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and Jimi Hendrix.

And, as of about a week and a half ago, it’s now also home to a brand-new Mundial court from Padel Galis.

Of West Side’s decision to finally add a padel court to its full-time offerings, the club’s Racquets Committee Co-Chair, Marnie Perez Ochoa (whose grandparents actually both competed in U.S. Opens that were hosted at West Side), tells me:

“We reviewed a number of the top court manufacturers throughout the process, but ultimately felt most comfortable moving forward with Padel Galis because of their experience and established outdoor footprint in the Northeast specifically.

Since padel is still a relatively new sport not just for many of our members, but operationally for the Club as well, it was important for us to work with a partner that had substantial experience installing and maintaining courts in climates similar to New York.

We wanted a group that could really guide us through the process and help educate us on the operational side of the sport, not just sell us a court. We also worked closely with them on some of the design elements.

For example, we selected a green turf color that subtly nods to the Club’s iconic grass courts, which are such a defining part of West Side’s identity. We also customized the protective coverings around the court to maintain a clean, minimal aesthetic while still incorporating the Club’s logo and branding in a tasteful way.”

As Ever With Padel, Patience Pays Off

While adding padel courts to West Side had been discussed by various boards and committees off and on for the better part of the past decade, the club’s first real introduction to the sport didn’t come until 2024 with the addition of a pop-up court from InstantPadel.

As Marnie recalls:

"It went up for the summer season as an introductory way for members to experience and learn the sport. The court was available throughout the summer and then removed in the fall. It served its purpose well by exposing members to padel and generating conversation and interest around the sport, but ultimately it was not enough at the time to justify moving directly into a larger permanent project.

Over the following year, the club continued monitoring both industry trends and member interest. We saw a broader shift across the racquet-sports industry, with many traditional tennis clubs evolving into more comprehensive ‘racquet-sports’ clubs. Peer clubs with similar membership bases, including the Philadelphia Cricket Club and more recently Sportime Randall’s Island and CityView, all embraced padel in thoughtful ways.

We also started seeing more and more West Side members traveling regularly to Brooklyn, Manhattan, and even New Jersey just to play padel, which reinforced that the interest and demand within the membership was real and continuing to grow.”

One and Done — or Just the Beginning?

While adding a single padel court to a very traditional club with over three dozen tennis courts may not exactly seem like a seismic shift, padel advocates like Marnie know that if you can get people (and especially racquet-sports junkies) to play padel just once, they’ll likely come back again and again.

She explains:

The idea behind starting with one court was to take a measured approach. It gives members the opportunity to experience padel on a true regulation court while allowing the club to evaluate demand, programming, and overall fit before considering anything larger long term.

Since installation, the surrounding area has also naturally evolved into another social gathering space for members, especially during the busy summer and concert season.

The membership has received the court and sport really well so far. There’s definitely been curiosity and some initial intimidation around the walls and mesh since it looks very different from tennis, but once members actually step on court and try it, that usually disappears pretty quickly.

A huge part of the early success and member buy-in has also been the engagement and energy from our Director of Racquet Sports, Chris Sanni. His willingness to embrace all racquet sports and help introduce members to the game in an approachable way has been incredibly important.

So Happy Together?

Shortly after the installers put the finishing touches on the West Side court, Marnie texted me the following video and a note that simply read: “We have a court!!”

While her excitement and sheer joy at finally having a “home court” is palpable (and very understandable — especially for me), she knows that, for the time being, she and her fellow West Side padel lovers will need to straddle the line between practical and cautiously optimistic, ultimately telling me:

“I think our approach is to remain thoughtful and member-driven as the sport continues to evolve.

In the near term, the goal is really just to continue introducing members to padel, build consistent usage, and learn from how the membership responds to the court and programming over time.

Longer term, we hope padel continues growing in a healthy and sustainable way both at West Side and across New York and the U.S. More broadly, we think racquet clubs are increasingly moving toward offering multiple sports and experiences under one roof, and we want to continue evaluating how padel fits into that future for our membership.”

Enjoy this article? If so, please be sure to subscribe to Padel Nation (for free!) to get exciting updates and important insights on the rapidly emerging U.S. padel scene like this one delivered directly to your inbox 2X weekly — or share it with a padel-playing friend.

Subscribe now

Share

Finally, as always, a big thank you to the friends and preferred partners of Padel Nation who help make posts like this possible, including:

Interested in becoming a friend or preferred partner of Padel Nation? Drop us a line here and let’s talk!

Oh, and one other thing… I’ve actually got a full-blown padel book coming out in July. So, if you enjoy the work I’m doing in the U.S. padel space, you can support me by pre-ordering a copy (or two!) online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Many thanks in advance.

Editor’s Note: The following (lightly edited) guest article comes from Lee Witham, a former professional squash player and the founder of CourtPro+, a global procurement, project management, and export services company serving clients across North America, the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand, now headquartered in Puerto Rico.

I’ve had the pleasure of playing on the Jubo Padel courts Lee and his team have installed everywhere from Denver (at the Denver Racquets Club) to Charlottesville, VA (at the Boar’s Head Resort) to here at home in Charleston, SC (at LTP Daniel Island and the Daniel Island Club).

So, when Lee reached out asking if I had any interest in an article about the rise of padel in Puerto Rico, I jumped at the chance to have him share his unique insights with our readers. Enjoy!

Subscribe now

Having first visited Puerto Rico 25 years ago, I’ve watched the island undergo dramatic improvements in infrastructure over the decades. But one thing has never changed across any of my visits: the warmth of the people, their love of community, and their passion for sport.

From the moment I arrived, it was clear to me that padel would be a natural fit here — and Puerto Rico’s relationship with padel is no accident.

As a U.S. territory with deep Spanish heritage and strong Latin American cultural ties, the island sits at a unique crossroads. Spain remains the undisputed heartland of the sport, home to over 17,000 courts and the world’s leading players, and that cultural familiarity has clearly filtered through. It goes a long way to explaining why Puerto Rico’s player community feels more mature than you might expect for such an early-stage market.

Building the Foundation at Dorado Beach

A few years ago, my company had the privilege of helping develop the Sports Hub at the Dorado Beach Resort, one of our earliest projects on the island.

The facility brought together padel, pickleball, beach tennis, and tennis courts, anchored by a spacious lawn and café designed to encourage socializing, a place where kids could run free and families could linger after a match.

Given the resort’s proximity to the beach, careful attention was also paid to minimizing light pollution to protect the surrounding environment, a detail that shaped much of the court and lighting design.

Since then, CourtPro+ has gone on to build premium racquets facilities across the U.S. mainland, including hurricane-rated courts at The Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach and the UVA racquets facility at Boar’s Head Resort in Virginia.

Hurricane-rated construction is something every developer and club in Puerto Rico should be factoring into their plans from the outset, a lesson the island, with its exposure to severe weather, cannot afford to overlook.

At the time of the Dorado project, we were fairly confident it was the only padel facility on the island — little did we know what was coming.

Fast Forward Three Years

Just six weeks ago, my company, CourtPro+, relocated its office to Puerto Rico. Having spent much of the past year in Valencia, Spain, a region with over 200 Padel courts, our first concern on arriving was whether finding courts to play on would be a struggle.

As it turns out, we were right to worry — but for entirely the wrong reason.

When searching for a home, I actually stipulated to our broker that the property had to be near padel courts. Within a few days of arriving, we were pleasantly surprised by how much the sport had taken root across the island. This includes:

• Two outdoor courts at the Dorado Beach Resort (a Ritz-Carlton partner)…

• Three outdoor courts at the Riviera Tennis Center…

• Two outdoor courts at Eco’s Sports Park…

• Three canopy-covered and one outdoor court at The Drop Club…

• Four canopy-covered courts at Smash Labs Racquet Club…

• Two outdoor courts at the Four Seasons Bahía…

• Two outdoor courts at the Safe Harbor Marina San Juan, and…

• Two indoor courts at The Grounds (more on this in a minute)…

This is, of course, in addition to various private courts around the island.

As I’ve witnessed firsthand, a growing number of padel clubs have established themselves in Puerto Rico, and the community is vibrant and enthusiastic.

A Community Built Around the Court

We were fortunate enough to find a home in the Riviera, a residential community that features three padel courts, with plans to add a fourth and cover one with a canopy.

The courts sit alongside pickleball, tennis, and beach tennis facilities, and an open-concept clubhouse ties it all together.

I recently had the chance to play with Augustín Rojo of VRM Companies, an accomplished padel player himself and the developer behind the Riviera, who told me that the racquets facility is a cornerstone of the development and of their future projects.

Residents enjoy complimentary court access when courts aren’t reserved, along with priority booking over non-residents. It’s the kind of community amenity that genuinely changes how people choose where to live.

Augustín put it simply: “It’s a great place to bring people together.” That sentiment resonates, and it was certainly a factor in my decision to move here.

This mirrors conversations I’ve been having with developers in Florida, many of whom are now seriously exploring padel courts as a differentiating feature for their communities.

New Arrivals, Indoor Courts, and Growing Pains

One of the island’s newest additions is The Grounds Club, which recently became the first venue in Puerto Rico to offer indoor padel courts, with a wellness suite set to open this month. It’s an exciting milestone for the sport’s development on the island.

But for all the progress, Puerto Rico’s padel scene is still finding its footing, and there are real challenges to address.

With over 20 courts on the island, Puerto Rico has roughly 20% as many courts as Miami, which is considered the padel capital of the United States. That’s not a bad starting point. But the demand has outpaced the infrastructure. With nearly 600 players in the island’s padel WhatsApp group, securing a court reservation has become almost impossible.

That said, what genuinely impressed me was the quality of the player community itself. Puerto Rican padel enthusiasts are well-versed in the rules and deeply engaged with the sport. Perhaps most striking is the level of play, which is remarkably high given how recently the sport arrived on the island, a strong foundation to build on.

There are also practical infrastructure issues to resolve. Puerto Rico’s rainfall is frequent and heavy, and while pickleball and tennis courts tend to dry relatively quickly, padel courts are a different matter.

Drainage is a persistent issue at several clubs, and as a court builder myself, I’ve observed a number of technical errors in existing setups. These are the kinds of mistakes that tend to happen when experienced court builders aren’t brought in from the start.

Looking Ahead

Despite the growing pains, the trajectory is clear. Puerto Rico’s padel community is passionate, knowledgeable, and growing quickly. The infrastructure is coming: courts are being built, indoor facilities are opening, and developers are recognizing the sport’s power to build community.

One particularly exciting development on the horizon comes from a local entrepreneur I recently met with who brings extensive production and social media experience to the table, with plans to take padel directly to new audiences across the island through a pop-up concept that would bring the sport to different cities — so, be sure to watch this space.

And for anyone on the U.S. mainland wondering whether padel has reached Puerto Rico: it has and it’s just getting started.

Enjoy this article? If so, please be sure to subscribe to Padel Nation (for free!) to get exciting updates and important insights on the rapidly emerging U.S. padel scene like this one delivered directly to your inbox 2X weekly — or share it with a padel-playing friend.

Share

Finally, as always, a big thank you to the friends and preferred partners of Padel Nation who help make posts like this possible, including:

Interested in becoming a friend or preferred partner of Padel Nation? Drop us a line here and let’s talk!

Oh, and one other thing… I’ve actually got a full-blown padel book coming out in July. So, if you enjoy the work I’m doing in the U.S. padel space, you can support me by pre-ordering a copy (or two!) online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Many thanks in advance.

Editor’s note: The following (lightly edited) feature article is from regular guest contributor, Scott Matulis, a former PR Director for the Worldwide Senior Tennis Tour who discovered padel in Vegas two years ago and can now hit balls off of the glass occasionally. He is the author of the LinkedIn and Substack serial novel The Applicant.

Of course, some might argue that padel has already taken “center stage” in the U.S. with events like the recent Premier Padel P1 event in Miami. But for the sport to really grow here in the States like it has in Europe and South America, I’d argue we need to find ways to expose tens of thousands more people to the magic of the sport (in addition to just hosting big events catering to those who already love it).

Which is exactly what happened in the California desert at Coachella this past month and why I’m more than happy to publish Scott’s account of how this event unfolded and helped padel move closer than ever to center stage culturally in the U.S.

Subscribe now

We all know that padel has exploded internationally and that, as a result, operators in the U.S. believe it can be just as popular here as it is in Spain, where it’s the second-most popular participation sport behind soccer.

The feeling is that it can, with the right type of promotion, expand beyond private clubs and racket-sport diehards to take a place in lifestyle, entertainment, and popular culture.

Which is why it’s so notable that for two weekends this past April, amid the usual Coachella festival mix of music, celebrities, cocktails, pop-up brand lounges, and people dressed to kill, two blue padel courts appeared in the desert.

Getting Splashy

If you’ve ever been to Coachella, then you know that the festival is so much more than a series of concerts. It delivers a yearly discovery platform for fashion, food, brands, celebrities, experiences and most of all what comes next. All the cool kids go.

Which is why Padel Up, a leading Los Angeles club operator, along with a top-flight roster of sponsors led by club management platform Playbypoint and padel equipment brand SIUX, conjured two padel courts out of the dust in Indio. They put them strategically adjacent to the festival grounds at the Mirabella Estate as part of CÎROC Vodka’s CÎROC Athletic Club, giving festival-goers the opportunity to check padel out up close, hit a few balls, and feel the vibe. Many did.

According to Padel Up co-founder Peter Worton:

“The Coachella activation had been part of our thinking for some time. People who attend the festival are open to new experiences, and that’s a demo we need to capture to grow the sport in the U.S. So when the opportunity presented itself, we moved quickly. The goal was to introduce padel to a new audience in a high-impact way. We wanted to make a splash.”

Worton’s co-founder and Padel Up CEO Andre Brown added:

“Padel has a way of hooking people the second they step on the court, and there are millions who just haven’t had that experience yet. Bringing padel to the desert during one of the biggest cultural moments of the year is exactly the kind of bold move this sport needs. We wanted people to walk off the festival grounds, pick up a racket for the first time, and understand why the rest of the world is already obsessed.”

Staying Serious

Padel Up Indio launched with a 12-team Pro-Am tournament on April 11 and continued full bore through April 26. The Pro-Am, focused on highlighting female athletes who are crucial to padel’s growth, anchored the rest of the event’s padel programming and created energy that drew people in from other activations across the property.

It also showed that padel was a serious sport. It featured male pros paired with top female amateurs competing for $11,000 in prize money. The winning team of Valentin Mussi, a former college tennis player from Argentina, and Paige Cline, who played at the University of South Carolina, earned $6,000 for the win.

“The pro am was my first real experience in the world of padel and I get why the sport has so much momentum,” Cline explained. “The venue was perfect, the competition was high level and drew an amazing crowd. Padel Up created the perfect event.”

Curating Culture (to Build Awareness)

In addition to watching the pros, playing some padel, and hobnobbing with festival celebs who were also playing — or considering playing — guests also got to hang out in a premium hospitality lounge, sip custom-crafted CÎROC cocktails and shop limited-edition CÎROC Athletic Club merchandise. An assortment of DJs, including Louis the Child, Jonas Blue, Arlo and Juicy J, performed on-site, enhancing the padel courts’ “next-new-thing” vibe.

Playbypoint powered the entire activation, handling player bookings, scheduling matches, player ratings, and on-site operations. The activation also served as the launch pad for Playbypoint’s new player-matching feature, Game Match, which enables padel players of all levels to find a game or join a group.

Jo Vos, the CMO at Playbypoint, explained:

“This activation wasn’t just about putting padel courts next to a music festival. It’s about proving that padel belongs in the mainstream cultural conversation.

The clubs winning right now aren’t necessarily the ones with the most courts, they’re the ones building real communities and creating experiences that bring players back, and that’s what Playbypoint is built for.

We wanted anyone who picked up a racquet in the desert to walk away connected to a game they can keep playing at home.”

Jad Elam, Director of U.S. Sales and Marketing for SIUX, echoed this sentiment, telling me:

“At SIUX, we’re always looking for the most exciting and unexpected ways to connect with players and introduce padel to new audiences. Activations like what we built in Indio are more than marketing moments for us, they’re investments in the growth of the sport and in the future of the U.S. padel community.

We’re focused on pushing the industry forward in new ways, doubling down on the American market, and creating the kinds of experiences that make people want to be part of padel. If we can help grow the sport while becoming one of the most relevant and aspirational brands in the space, that’s exactly where we want to be.”

And that’s the real lesson from the two blue, carpeted courts in Indio. Padel in the U.S. is still new enough that most people need to experience it before they understand it, and see it live before they fall in love with it.

Putting courts next to one of the country’s biggest cultural events was not just clever marketing. It was a statement: padel does not have to wait for Americans to discover it at a club or see highlights on YouTube. It can go where the culture already is. And fit right in.

Enjoy this article? If so, please be sure to subscribe to Padel Nation (for free!) to get exciting updates and important insights on the rapidly emerging U.S. padel scene like this one delivered directly to your inbox 2X weekly — or share it with a padel-playing friend.

Subscribe now

Share

Finally, as always, a big thank you to the friends and preferred partners of Padel Nation who help make posts like this possible, including:

Interested in becoming a friend or preferred partner of Padel Nation? Drop us a line here and let’s talk!

Oh, and one other thing… I’ve actually got a full-blown padel book coming out in July. So, if you enjoy the work I’m doing in the U.S. padel space, you can support me by pre-ordering a copy (or two!) online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Many thanks in advance.

Subscribe now

Editor’s Note: If there’s one person in the U.S. padel world who seems to have his ear as close to the ground as I do when it comes to new club openings, it’s got to be Aris Sevastianos of the El Remate newsletter. Which is why I asked him to team up with me to co-author an article highlighting some — but not all — of the new U.S. padel club openings we have to look forward to over the coming months.

If your club isn’t featured here, don’t worry! This will likely just be the first of an ongoing multi-part series. And if you’ve got an upcoming padel club opening you’d like to put on our respective radars for future lists, feel free to drop us a line here or in the comments below.

So far, 2026 has seen no shortage of U.S. padel club openings, and it looks like this trend is only going to pick up steam from here.

In fact, as we’ve covered in various Padel Nation features over the past few months, in the very near future, numerous new clubs are coming soon to South Carolina… the Pacific Northwest… and the greater Salt Lake City area (which also recently debuted some of the nation’s first municipal courts at a public park in Vineyard, UT).

This also all comes on the heels of Padel Haus finally launching its two newest clubs in Brooklyn and Denver and adding an additional 10 courts to the U.S. landscape.

But, beyond all of these club openings, here are a few other upcoming ones we think you should know about — or, better yet, plan to go visit once they’re ready to rock:

Icon Padel Club (Aventura, FL)

As you can see in the featured photo above, when it finally opens, Icon Padel Club will offer its members seven pristine courts on top of a parking garage in Aventura, just north of Miami.

However, what’s not shown in this particular rendering is that all seven courts will actually be covered by a canopy, giving the club a breezy indoor-outdoor feel and making south Florida’s intense summer sun and heavy downpours a non-issue for those lucky enough to play there.

Beyond padel, this luxury- and lifestyle-focused facility — which bills itself as, “Miami’s most exclusive padel club” — will feature pilates, yoga, a sauna, a cold plunge, gym space, organic food, and a bar.

Estimated opening date: July 2026

Jam Padel (Bellevue, WA)

In just about three weeks, Washington state will finally get its first dedicated padel club thanks to Pablo Arcuschin (who wrote a great guest piece for us awhile back) and the team at Jam Padel, which was formerly known as the Pacific Padel Project.

Out of the gates, Jam Padel will be a pop-up concept (powered by Padelpista) with three outdoor courts in the Spring Distict of Bellevue, which will be open seven days a week through the end of September.

And given that Jam Padel’s website highlights the fact that it’s just one rail stop from downtown Bellevue and two from Seattle, plus less than 15 minutes from the campus of Microsoft and just five from Meta, you can expect a diverse group of players from all over the region will be playing there very soon.

Estimated opening date: June 1, 2026

L.A. Padel Club (Los Angeles, CA)

It’s hard to imagine a more highly anticipated, high-profile, or highly covered U.S. padel club opening than Los Angeles Padel Club (LAPC) — which will feature seven outdoor courts along with a clubhouse set inside a painstakingly restored historic L.A. mansion.

Given that LAPC draws inspiration from Europe’s finest athletic social clubs and the effortless sophistication of the South of France, you can expect it to be a leading new place to see and be seen in L.A.

Along with padel, LAPC will also feature luxurious lounge area, private members-only locker rooms, co-working and meeting spaces, relaxation and recovery zones, a pro-shop with custom-gear concierge, an artisanal café and juice bar, and an outdoor terrace.

Estimated opening date: Early Summer 2026

Padel Club Newtown (Cincinnati, OH)

As mentioned in an article I (Austin) wrote late last year, Ohio is finally getting in on the padel action thanks to clubs in Cleveland (already open) and Cincinnati, including Padel Club Newtown, which I’ll be visiting at the end of this month.

Cincinnati’s first dedicated padel facility will initially feature four outdoor courts, but a planned phase two build-out is slated to bring an additional eight indoor courts to Robert James Park along with a distillery, a BBQ restaurant, a dog park, an outpost of Fifty West Brewing, and a to-go-style craft beer store known as The Growler Stop.

(What’s more, nearby Cincinnati Sports Club also has plans to add two covered outdoor courts this summer, as well)

Estimated opening date: May 2026

Lobb’s Padel (The Woodlands, TX)

In the coming months, a concept known as Lobb’s Padel will open within a 75,000 square foot, $8 million indoor sports hub known as Dudley Sports Plaza Woodlands and feature five indoor climate-controlled courts with lob-friendly, 35-foot-high ceilings.

As you can see in this Instagram walk-through with founder Justin Huet Dastarac, in addition to padel, Lobb’s will also feature wellness and social areas, a fully stocked pro shop, high-end locker rooms, a bar, and food from one of Houston’s leading coffee shops.

Estimated opening date: Summer 2026

Studio Arenna (Denver, CO)

While Padel Haus finally getting its doors open in the Five Points neighborhood of Denver is definitely making headlines, just across I-25 another club is set to open soon as well, which will bring an additional six indoor courts (with 32-foot-high ceilings) to the Mile High City.

While this Denver location is only one of several that Studio Arenna plans to open in the coming year or so, it’s definitely the one that’s drawing the most attention at the moment (especially from people I know and play with in Colorado).

Estimated opening date: Summer 2026

The Padel Collective (Austin, TX)

Following closely on the heels of Padel39 opening its second location and bringing an additional dozen courts to the Texas capital, a brand-new club known as The Padel Collective will bring five indoor courts to the area in the coming months, followed by another five outdoor courts at a later date.

From the look of things, The Padel Collective will be a very design-forward club (complete which chic, terracotta-hued courts and soothing, muted colors throughout) that focuses intently on wellness, community, and belonging — rather than just status.

And given that they’ll be home to some of the only indoor courts in ATX, you can expect them to be busy year-round, especially during Texas’s sweltering summers.

Estimated opening date: August 2026

Deuces Padel Club (Laredo, TX)

While perhaps not on everyone’s padel radar, numerous clubs and courts are starting to pop up in Texas border towns like Brownsville, El Paso, and McAllen. To this list, you’ll soon be able to Laredo, thanks to Deuces Padel Club and the nine outdoor courts it will soon bring to the area, along with a pro shop, café and bar, and dedicated wellness areas.

Estimated opening date: Summer 2026

Bulldog Padel (Orlando, FL)

Co-founded by serial entrepreneur Jim Allen, who is very vocal about his bullishness on the sport (at least on LinkedIn), Bulldog Padel will initially bring six outdoor courts to the Lake Nona area of Orlando, FL — just minutes from the USTA National Campus and its four padel courts and also Orlando International Airport.

In a recent conversation, Allen said they hope to break ground very soon and that they may look to add indoor courts down the road, which would no doubt be welcome during the stifling summer heat and humidity.

Estimated opening date: Fall 2026

Enjoy this article? If so, please be sure to subscribe to Padel Nation (for free!) to get exciting updates and important insights on the rapidly emerging U.S. padel scene like this one delivered directly to your inbox 2X weekly — or share it with a padel-playing friend.

Subscribe now

Share

Finally, as always, a big thank you to the friends and preferred partners of Padel Nation who help make posts like this possible, including:

Interested in becoming a friend or preferred partner of Padel Nation? Drop us a line here and let’s talk!

Oh, and one other thing… I’ve actually got a full-blown padel book coming out in July. So, if you enjoy the work I’m doing in the U.S. padel space, you can support me by pre-ordering a copy (or two!) online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Many thanks in advance.

Subscribe now

Last month, the total number of padel courts in the U.S. finally surpassed the 1,000 mark — and, this month, we’ll be able to add at least 10 more to that tally thanks to Padel Haus opening two new five-court clubs, one in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn and the other in the Five Points neighborhood of Denver.

As Padel Haus’s Chief Growth Officer, Joshua Ulino, told me in a recent conversation:

“Opening our fifth and sixth clubs, and moving into our fourth market, helps cement us as the leading padel club operator in the U.S. and sets us up well for continued growth.

Both of these clubs are distinctly Padel Haus and elevate the standard for what padel clubs can and should be. They are an amazing base for our operations as we grow into our seventh club in Dallas and the clubs that come after that.”

(The addition of five new indoor courts at Padel Haus Greenpoint is also no doubt welcome news for Brooklynite padel addicts who, just last week, learned that nearby Padel& was shuttering due to lease issues and joining an ever-growing number of padel clubs around the U.S. that are closing their doors.)

Padel Haus Greenpoint

Located just steps away from historic McCarren Park on the border of Williamsburg, this brand-new Padel Haus location will closely mirror its four other current locations — including two more in Brooklyn along with one in Atlanta and another in Nashville — by featuring plush locker rooms, spacious lounge areas, a fully stocked pro shop, and the brand’s signature Juice Haus offering (plus very lob-friendly 35-foot-high ceilings, to boot!).

It will also increase the total number of courts Padel Haus operates in the borough of Brooklyn to 16, making it far and away the No. 1 padel club operator in the greater New York City area by court count.

While the Greenpoint location has already started accepting court bookings as of last Friday (May 1st), an official grand-opening celebration won’t be taking place until July 23rd — just prior to the USPA 2000 Major that will be hosted there July 24th - 26th.

And local players are excited, to say the least. This includes friend and fellow padel addict Andrew Weisser, who says:

“As a Padel Haus member for over two years, I’ve watched the brand level up with every club, and Greenpoint sets a new bar. Five indoor courts with incredible ceiling height built to spec for padel, spa-quality locker rooms with rain showers, member lounge, and Juice Haus, a staple at every club.

Sitting directly across from McCarren Park Tennis Center, it isn’t just a world-class facility… it’s a growth engine for the sport. In just a few days on court, I’ve seen more walk-ins curious about padel than anywhere else in NYC. That’s how this sport scales in the U.S.”

Meanwhile. NYC resident, player, and Courtr Founder Antonio Goes tells me:

“Padel Haus has built one of the cleanest operator playbooks in U.S. padel, so honestly their expansion feels natural. And Greenpoint is the right neighborhood: that pocket of Brooklyn is what I’m calling the Sports Quarter — golf, gym, climbing, tennis, pickleball, and now Padel Haus, all wrapped around a single block. They saw it before anyone else did.”

Padel Haus Denver

Although Brooklyn was the initial focus of Padel Haus’s expansion plans, it has also been steadily working to build clubs across the country, with locations in both Atlanta and Nashville opening last year and a Dallas location tentatively set to open later this year (which will feature six indoor courts spread across 25,000 square feet of space).

However, I’d argue that Padel Haus Denver is perhaps the most highly anticipated location of theirs to open outside of Brooklyn thus far.

This is due in large part to the fact that it is the first dedicated padel club in the downtown area of the Mile High City (though operators including Ace Padel and Studio Arenna have announced plans to open clubs nearby, as well).

After a fairly lengthy wait (I first wrote about them breaking ground nearly two years ago), Padel Haus Denver will soft-open next week with five indoor courts, 25-foot-high ceilings, premium locker rooms, a state-of-the-art gym, co-working spaces, and its signature Juice Haus, of course.

Ulino tells me that from there you can expect, “a series of signature Open Haus events over the coming weeks to introduce people around Denver to the Haus,” before they host an official grand opening the weekend of June 26th.

As someone who was born and raised in Colorado — and still spends roughly three to six weeks per year out there — I couldn’t be more excited for Padel Haus Denver to finally open its doors. And I’m obviously not alone.

As Jeff Mayorga, a Denver-based ambassador for performance-focused padel brand Pallap USA, puts it:

“Padel Haus started the trend across the U.S. and continues to lead. As they enter each new city, with each new club, they continue to raise the bar for the U.S. Padel experience. Santiago and his team are a major reason for the growth of padel across the U.S.

The new Denver location brings the padel experience to a new level with superior amenities that create an atmosphere unseen in U.S. padel.

You can visit Padel Haus Greenpoint at 12 Berry St, Brooklyn, NY, 11249, daily between 7am and 11pm.

Beginning next week, you can visit Padel Haus Denver at 2501 Welton St, Denver, CO 80205. For updates on opening hours, be sure to check their website.

Enjoy this article? If so, please be sure to subscribe to Padel Nation (for free!) to get exciting updates and important insights on the rapidly emerging U.S. padel scene like this one delivered directly to your inbox 2X weekly — or share it with a padel-playing friend.

Subscribe now

Share

Finally, as always, a big thank you to the friends and preferred partners of Padel Nation who help make posts like this possible, including:

Interested in becoming a friend or preferred partner of Padel Nation? Drop us a line here and let’s talk!

Oh, and one other thing… I’ve actually got a full-blown padel book coming out in July. So, if you enjoy the work I’m doing in the U.S. padel space, you can support me by pre-ordering a copy (or two!) online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Many thanks in advance.

Dear Padel Nation,

I used to start these monthly recaps with “Dear Padel Nation readers,” but after four months of getting to know many of you (who, somewhat to my surprise, are actually spread all over the world), it’s becoming clear that Padel Nation isn’t just a newsletter…

Instead, it’s a community of like-minded individuals whose lives have been forever changed in one way or another by padel and want to help grow the sport here in the U.S. anyway they can as a result.

(Take Scott Matulis for example. He discovered the sport at P1 Padel in Vegas in 2024… instantly fell head-over-heels in love, both with the game and the unique community around it… stumbled across my padel scribblings a few years later… and now is a regular guest author for our site.)

It may sound sappy, but in a time and place where so many people have so many reasons to be divided, it’s great to see an ever-growing group of incredibly diverse individuals finding something that not only unites them, but also inspires and uplifts them.

I saw this first-hand last month at the grand opening of 40Forty Padel Club in Mauldin, SC — a club that after years of blood, sweat, and tears from founder Daniel Fitzgerald (a former U.S. Army Ranger who discovered padel in Ecuador while visiting his now fiancé) is finally open and attracting curious new players from all walks of life.

Meanwhile, just this past month…

• New clubs and courts opened everywhere from Mesa, AZ (at Mesa Padel Club) to Portland, OR (at Foundry Padel)… to St. Petersburg, FL (at St. Pete Athletic)…

• We got word that another project known as The Foundry Padel will be bringing the sport to Virginia Beach, VA, next year…

• A heavy-hitting group of padel brands including Padel Up, Playbypoint, and SIUX teamed up to bring padel to Coachella and its 250,000+ festival goers in the California desert…

• The National Padel League (NPL) announced it would expand to 40+ cities for its 2026 season… juniors from across the Americas descended on PadelX to compete in the FIP Promises Miami 2026… the U.S. National Team competed admirably at the America Padel Cup in Quito, Ecuador…

• The CEO of the Pro Padel League (PPL) penned a thoughtful letter about how and why padel must be built differently in the U.S., and the PPL expanded its reach to locations including Palm Beach, FL, and Washington D.C…

• 80 collegiate padel players representing colleges and universities across the U.S. came together in Austin, TX, for the first-ever National Collegiate Padel Championships — and the American Collegiate Padel League continued signing up leading collegiate teams and host clubs…

• Rumors surfaced that a number of outdoor public padel courts may soon be opening at East Potomac Park in Washington D.C….

… and that’s just to name a few of the bigger developments that happened in the world of U.S. padel in April.

Point being, the sport is definitely growing (though not as fast as some had hoped — or hyped) and evolving (sometimes in ways nobody quite predicted) — and in our own small ways, we’re all a part of it.

So, starting with this month’s edition of The Changeover, I will now be addressing all of us simply as, “Dear Padel Nation.”

With that in mind, directly below are a few other notable stories that unfolded last month around the world of U.S. padel that you might be interested in.

Thanks for reading — and play up!

ae

Share

««« Utah Set to Experience Padel Avalanche »»»

While the greater Salt Lake City area admittedly might not be the first place that comes to mind when you think about when it comes to emerging U.S. padel meccas, that may all be about to change, thanks to at least four new clubs opening in the region over the next few months (plus the Utah padel O.G.s at SLC Padel Club — which recently added a fourth court to their facility). Here’s what you need to know.

««« Privé Padel Brings U.S. 1,000th Court »»»

Last month, there was much excitement about the fact that the U.S. now has over 1,000 padel courts. This was thanks in large part to Privé Padel (who also just launched their Privé Passport program today), which opened a one-court pop-up at the THesis Hotel Miami in Coral Gables, FL. You can get a behind-the-scenes look at all the VIP festivities here.

««« The Quiet Rise of Padel at Country Clubs »»»

Although you don’t hear all that much about it, a big part of the reason that the U.S. just blew past the 1,000 court mark is all of the various private, country, and city clubs around the U.S. that are adding padel courts.

What will this ultimately mean for the growth of the sport in the U.S. — and will it put pressure on all of the pay-to-play clubs popping up across the country? You can get my take here.

««« Yes, U.S. Padel Clubs Are Now Closing, Too »»»

Within minutes of me publishing an article last month entitled, “Are U.S. Padel Clubs About to Start Closing as Fast as They’re Opening?,” I had people frantically calling, texting, and e-mailing me non-stop.

Some wanted to know if I thought they were mistaking a mistake by opening a club. Others wanted a list of clubs for sale. Still others asked for my help in selling their current club.

To be honest, I’m not sure how much help I can offer on any of these fronts, but as I mentioned in this article, I do know of at least five padel clubs around the U.S. that have recently closed and I have some thoughts on what others will have to do to survive.

(Oh, and we also just learned that Padel& in Brooklyn will also be closing the doors to its four-court, indoor facility less than a year after oppenng due to lease issues stemming from a major neighborhood redevelopment).

««« What U.S. Padel Can Learn From Squash »»»

I’d argue that nobody in the world is more in tune with the history of squash — or more keenly aware of both the sport’s triumphs and its shortcomings — than James Zug.

His writings about padel’s sister sport have been published by everyone from Squash Magazine and Racquet Magazine to Vanity Fair, The New York Times, and The Atlantic — and in a guest article for Padel Nation this month, he weighed on what U.S. padel could learn from squash.

««« Is This Teenager the Future of U.S. Padel? »»»

Guest author Scott Matulis, whom I mentioned earlier, spent an entire weekend at the Playbypoint Las Vegas Open at P1 Padel (which was the first USPA 2000 Major of the year) to learn more about why an Argentine teenager may well be “the future of U.S. padel.” Here’s what he discovered.

… and that’s a wrap — until next month, at least!

Enjoy this monthly U.S. padel recap? If so, please be sure to subscribe to Padel Nation to get exciting updates and important insights on the rapidly emerging U.S. padel scene like this one delivered directly to your inbox 2X weekly — or share it with a padel-playing friend.

Subscribe now

Share

Finally, as always, a big thank you to the friends and preferred partners of Padel Nation who help make posts like this possible, including:

Interested in becoming a friend or preferred partner of Padel Nation? Drop us a line here and let’s talk!

Oh, and one other thing… I’ve actually got a full-blown padel book coming out in July. So, if you enjoy the work I’m doing in the U.S. padel space, you can support me by pre-ordering a copy (or two!) online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Many thanks in advance!

Editor’s Note: The following post is a (lightly edited) article penned by guest author Scott Matulis, a long-time public relations pro who was once the PR Director for the Worldwide Senior Tennis Tour. He discovered padel in Las Vegas in 2024 and can now hit balls off of the glass occasionally. He is the author of the LinkedIn and Substack serial novel The Applicant.

Share

Current United States Padel Association (UPSA) No. 1 Vinny Di Francesco returned to Las Vegas, Nevada this past weekend with partner Ivo Andenmatten looking to win his third consecutive Division 1 title at the 2026 Playbypoint Las Vegas Open, a USPA 2000-level event, after winning it last year with Andenmatten and the year before that with Nicolas Agritelley.

“It’s incredibly important for us to be able to attract good young players like Vinny and Ivo to our event,” said Las Vegas Open tournament director Phil Martinez. “Padel is one of the fastest growing sports in the U.S. and putting on a high-level tournament with the best players is crucial to helping it grow and also to the success of our club.”

For a player still in his teens, Di Francesco’s résumé is filling up fast. He entered the tournament ranked No. 1 in the USPA’s men’s rankings, was part of the USA team that won the 2023 Pan-American Open Championship, and currently plays for the USPA National Team. He was also the top pick in this year’s Pro Padel League PPL 2 draft.

Di Francesco’s path isn’t the typical American one—although it could become a blueprint for future pro hopefuls. Born in New York to Argentine parents, he took a liking to padel by watching and playing with his father after his family moved back to Argentina.

The Road Less Traveled

“I started playing padel when I was seven with my dad, who would take me when he played,” Di Francesco explains. “I watched him first, and little by little I started taking classes and getting more serious. This was in Salta, Argentina. I don’t think we had that in the United States at the time.”

Di Francesco, who also played soccer and dabbled in swimming, soon dedicated himself fully to padel, entering the same pipeline that has produced world-class players like Agustín Tapia, Franco Stupaczuk, and Juan Ignacio de Pascual. Top-flight competition came quickly.

“When I was 12, I had already played in national junior tournaments and my first World Cup,” Di Francesco says. “I played my first professional event at 16.”

He trains in Argentina, but when he’s in America, he’s based in Miami. His brother Leo is a padel coach at a local padel club and he trains with his good friend and mentor José De Armas, who has taken Di Francesco under his wing.

De Armas, a former professional tennis player who is influential in the U.S. padel scene, has nothing but praise for Di Francesco.

As he explains:

“When he’s here, he’s based at my house. We train, but also I try to help him out as much as I can, and make his life a bit easier. He’s obviously a talented kid, and he has a great mindset, very mature for his age. He loves the game and as long as you love the game and are committed to it, then it’s perfect. The sky’s the limit, I think, for him.”

A Partnership That Clicked

Di Francesco’s partnership with Andenmatten, a 23-year-old Argentine, came together serendipitously. The two met at a FIP tournament in Mexico when Di Francesco discovered — just before registration closed — that his intended partner had signed up with someone else. Andenmatten happened to be standing nearby, and the two decided on the spot to play together.

While both typically play on the left side, Andenmatten shifted to the right, and the adjustment paid off. The pair won their first event together—the 2025 Las Vegas Open—defeating Nicolas Xiviller and Sergio Conde 7–6, 6–2 in the final.

They followed that up with another title at a USPA 1000 event in Mission, Texas, where they entered as the top seeds. After cruising through the early rounds and eking out a three-set semifinal win, they defeated Argentine standouts Leo “Tolito” Aguirre and Matías Almada in the final.

A Changing U.S. Padel Landscape

If Di Francesco represents the future of American padel, he’s also seen firsthand how quickly the present is evolving.

“When I played my first USPA tournament in 2024, it was very unbalanced,” he says. “There were maybe five very strong teams, and the rest were just starting out. But last year, the sport exploded in this country. Suddenly there were 12 or 15 teams that could compete. Now you can lose in the early rounds. That didn’t happen before.”

His partner Andenmatten has noticed the same trend:

“My first tournament in the U.S. was this one last year with Vinny. And I feel that from last year to this one, there has been a big change. There are a lot more players. The circuit became more competitive, and it’s continuing to grow with more tournaments across the USPA. I think the growth is very good.”

What Happens in Vegas…

Back at P1 Padel, things progressed smoothly for Di Francesco and Andenmatten, who advanced through their first four matches in straight sets.

But in the final, they faced third-seeded Daniel Díaz and José David Sánchez “Joseda” Serrano — a Spanish team that had previously beaten Di Francesco (alongside longtime training partner Juan Manuel “Guga” Vásquez) at a USPA 1000 event in Miami earlier this year.

In Vegas, the Spanish pair again proved too tough, playing an almost flawless match to win the title 6-1, 6-4.

“It was a combination of things,” Di Francesco said after the match. “We didn’t really have a great start and we could never get back into rhythm. And you know, they’re a great team and they played a great match. We just got outplayed.”

Despite the tough luck in the Las Vegas final, Di Francesco represents the vanguard of American padel.

“He’s always played for the U.S.” De Armas says. “He’s always wanted to represent the U.S. even though he’s Argentinian. We’re lucky to have him.”

You can follow Di Francesco on Instagram @difrancescovinny.

Enjoy this article? If so, please be sure to subscribe to Padel Nation (for free!) to get exciting updates and important insights on the rapidly emerging U.S. padel scene like this one delivered directly to your inbox 2X weekly — or share it with a padel-playing friend.

Subscribe now

Share

Finally, as always, a big thank you to the friends and preferred partners of Padel Nation who help make posts like this possible, including:

Interested in becoming a friend or preferred partner of Padel Nation? Drop us a line here and let’s talk!

Oh, and one other thing… I’ve actually got a full-blown padel book coming out in July. So, if you enjoy the work I’m doing in the U.S. padel space, you can support me by pre-ordering a copy (or two!) online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Many thanks in advance.

Share

Nearly every single day I learn about a new padel club that’s opening somewhere in the U.S. — and now, suddenly, I’m also starting to hear about a fair number of them closing, too.

Case in point, earlier this week, I stumbled across a new eight-court club known as Punto Azul Padel Club that’s coming to Houston. And unlike so many other new clubs out there, the Punto Azul folks actually let people know exactly where they’ll be located and how many courts they’ll have.

(Which is simple — but incredibly important — information that frustratingly few other padel clubs ever make readily available!)

So, as soon as I discovered it, I went to add it to my interactive Google map that tracks (almost) everywhere you can play padel in the U.S.

However, when I did, I also started checking in on some of the nearby clubs in the area only to find that at least three of them have shuttered, including:

• A one-court outdoor facility known as SB Padel Houston…

• A one-court indoor facility known as Houston Padel Indoor, and…

• Most surprisingly, Solarium, an upscale, industrial-chic restaurant, bar, lounge, and event space that offered two outdoor padel courts in addition to pickleball — yet has already closed its doors less than a year after its splashy grand opening, despite being backed by a former MLB pitcher and generally getting very positive reviews from thousands of customers on Google.

Speaking of which, one reviewer recently stated that:

“Solarium is now permanently closed as of the middle of this week. Do not book any further reservations to play or eat there. We had 11am reservations and showed up only to find the pickleball and [padel] courts being torn down. New ownership is coming in and going to repave the courts back into a parking lot for the new restaurant.”

And Houston Isn’t the Only Place This Is Happening, Either

In fact, despite having incredibly lob-friendly 40-foot ceilings, a three-court indoor facility in Oakland, NJ, has now opened and closed its doors not just once, but twice, in the span of about 18 months.

The original club, known as &Padel, made it less than a year before abruptly shuttering and then being re-opened shortly thereafter by another ownership group under the name RaxNJ — which, unfortunately, was also very short-lived, as well.

Meanwhile, the first club to open in the greater Boston area, known as Sensa Padel, turned over operations of its four-court indoor facility (also with very pleasantly high ceilings) to the larger sports club it was housed in, known as Bosse Sports, shortly after I visited there last July while it sought out a new location closer to the city.

And now it appears that Bosse Sports has closed its doors altogether.

Beyond this, I’m also aware of multiple U.S. padel clubs that are now up for sale in California, Florida, and Illinois — and not necessarily because things are going well — in addition to two others that recently changed hands in Los Angeles and Dallas.

The Beginning of the End or Just the End of the Beginning?

Granted, five U.S. padel clubs with eleven total courts closing is a just a drop in the bucket compared to all the big-time club openings on the horizon, like…

• Los Angeles Padel Club, with its seven outdoor courts that should be opening in the next month or so…

• Icon Padel, which will also be opening seven (covered) outdoor courts in Aventura, FL, in the near future…

• PURE Pickleball & Padel, a sprawling racquet-sports facility with 40 pickleball courts and eight indoor padel courts that is set to open next year in the Phoenix area…

• Padel Haus Denver, which is finally getting ready to open its five-court indoor club any day now, and…

• Padel Club Newtown, whose four outdoor courts on the east side of Cincinnati should be open next month with a planned expansion set to add eight additional indoor courts down the road…

Not to mention, all the clubs and courts that are getting ready to open in the greater Salt Lake City area alone.

So, while these closures definitely aren’t good news, at this point they seem to be less of a cause for major concern for the industry as a whole, and instead just more of a reminder that no matter how popular the sport may be, U.S. padel clubs aren’t immune to the economic realities facing all businesses.

What’s more, it highlights the importance of club owners and operators doubling down on programming, building community, and providing their members with an unbeatable experience they simply can’t find anywhere else (much like Alma Padel is doing just outside Chicago).

Enjoy this article? If so, please be sure to subscribe to Padel Nation (for free!) to get exciting updates and important insights on the rapidly emerging U.S. padel scene like this one delivered directly to your inbox 2X weekly — or share it with a padel-playing friend.

Subscribe now

Share

Finally, as always, a big thank you to the friends and preferred partners of Padel Nation who help make posts like this possible, including:

Interested in becoming a friend or preferred partner of Padel Nation? Drop us a line here and let’s talk!

Oh, and one other thing… I’ve actually got a full-blown padel book coming out in July. So, if you enjoy the work I’m doing in the U.S. padel space, you can support me by pre-ordering a copy (or two!) online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Many thanks in advance!

Share

If you pay any attention at all to the U.S. padel landscape, then you’ve probably heard plenty about the fact that:

• Miami has a padel “obsession” (as The New York Times puts it)…

• Burgeoning padel empires like Bay Padel, Ballers, and Padel Haus are bringing courts and clubs to cities like Atlanta, Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Marina del Rey, Nashville, Philadelphia, San Jose, San Francisco, and Silicon Valley, among other places…

• The Pacific Northwest is finally getting in on the action with padel clubs opening soon in Boise, Bend, Kirkland, Portland, and Seattle…

• Privé Padel just opened the 1,000th court in the U.S. at the THesis Hotel Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, and…

• Even Salt Lake City is starting to experience an all-out padel avalanche.

But what you’re likely hearing much less about is all the courts that are popping up across the U.S. at private country, city, and racquet clubs.

In fact, just last week we officially got word that new courts have either opened or are about to at John Newcombe Country Club in New Braunfels, Texas and Fort Wayne Country Club in Indiana (whose new court is being built by our friends at Off the Glass).

Meanwhile, clubs with legendary racquets programs like The Piedmont Driving Club in Atlanta, The Tuxedo Club in Tuxedo Park, New York, and The Philadelphia Cricket Club and Merion Cricket Club outside Philly have all added padel courts in recent years — which, from what I’ve heard, are constantly packed.

To this list you can also add other one-court private clubs, including:

• The Saddle & Cycle Club in Chicago…

• Paradise Valley Country Club in Scottsdale, Arizona…

• La Valle Coastal Club in Rancho Santa Fe, California…

• The Greencroft Club in Charlottesville, Virginia…

• The Edgewood Country Club in Charleston, West Virginia…

Speaking of which, here in the Charleston, South Carolina, the private Daniel Island Club is getting ready to open two new padel courts in the coming days after nearby Kiawah Island Resort added two last year.

Other private clubs that feature multiple courts include:

• The Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, Montana…

• The Snowmass Club in Snowmass, Colorado…

• The Gozzer Ranch Club just outside Coeur d'Alene, Idaho…

• The Boulevard Tennis and Padel Club in Vero Beach, Florida…

• SH19 at The Stovall House in Tampa, Florida…

• The Cliffs at Mountain Park in Marietta, South Carolina, and…

• The North Hills Club in Raleigh, North Carolina…

… just to name a few.

What’s more, some of the longest-standing courts in the U.S. are at private clubs like The Traditions Club in Bryan, Texas, and The Greens Country Club in Oklahoma City (which is hosting a USPA 100-level tournament next week).

Is This Good for the Sport?

I’d say yes — and potentially also no…

On the one hand, most private clubs in the U.S. are notoriously competitive. So, with dozen of private clubs across the U.S. starting to add padel courts, it’s a fairly safe bet that dozens more will soon likely start feeling like they have no choice but to also add courts — which will undoubtedly grow the awareness and visibility of the sport around the country, not to mention, the total court count.

However, on the flip side, this doesn’t exactly help quell the growing perception that — similar to what many people think about squash — padel is an elitist, white-collar sport that’s generally only available to the small handful of Americans who can actually afford to play it.

It could also very well negatively affect all of the publicly accessible padel clubs that are opening around the country. After all, many private clubs charge a five- or even six-figure initiation fee to join, plus hefty monthly or annual dues on top of that.

So, if you’re already shelling out a small fortune for your family to be members of an elite country club that offers padel courts, how likely are you to also play regularly at a public padel that club that charges hundreds of dollars per month for memberships plus hundreds of dollars per hour for courts?

My guess is not very likely.

What’s more, if I had to guess what percentage of members at an elite-level padel club like, say, Padel United Sports Club in Cresskill, New Jersey, are also members of elite-level country clubs in the surrounding area, I’d wager it’s pretty high.

So, what will happen to PUSC’s membership base if and when those country clubs start adding padel courts?

I suppose only time will tell.

However, as frequent Padel Nation guest author, Hans Helmers, pointed out to me recently, practically every single padel court at a U.S. country club is currently outdoors, and it’s unlikely very many will ever be built indoors…

Which, of course, gives indoor clubs (like Padel United Sports Club) a major advantage — and selling-point — when it’s raining or winter hits.

So, maybe it’ll wind up being a net positive for these clubs after all.

Leave a comment

Enjoy this post? If so, please consider subscribing to Padel Nation (for free!) to get exciting updates and important insights on the rapidly emerging U.S. padel scene like this one delivered directly to your inbox 2x weekly — or share it with a padel-playing friend.

Subscribe now

Share

Finally, as always, a big thank you to the friends and preferred partners of Padel Nation who help make posts like this possible, including:

Interested in becoming a friend or preferred partner of Padel Nation? Drop us a line here and let’s talk!

Oh, and one other thing… I’ve actually got a full-blown padel book coming out in July. So, if you enjoy the work I’m doing in the U.S. padel space, you can support me by pre-ordering a copy (or two!) online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Many thanks in advance!

Editor’s Note: The following guest article is from friend, fellow racquet-sports lover, and author, James (Jim) Zug. When I asked him for a bio for this piece, he humbly responded with:

“James Zug is a veteran squash historian and journalist. He has a Substack newsletter, Spin for Serve, that covers many obscure racquet sports. His book, Squash: A History of the Game, just came out in paperback.” But I’m not going to let him get off that easy…

Because this isn’t just a squash history book, it’s THE definitive squash history book (which also delves into the fascinating history of all modern racquet sports via ancient games like jeu de paume, court/real tennis, and rackets — and has a foreward penned by George Plimpton, no less).

Jim was also a long-time contributor to Squash Magazine and Vanity Fair and has had his racquet-sports writings published by everyone from The New York Times to The Atlantic to Racquet Magazine.

Which is why, in the Acknowledgements section of my upcoming padel book, I thanked him for, “elevating writing about racquet sports to an art form” and inspiring me to (try to) do the same.

Share

Teaching Pros

In the 1970s squash was freaking out about racquetball. It was booming, it was exciting, it was the hot new thing.

Squash was staid, boring, still mostly a private game; racquetball was all about access: public courts, outdoor courts, ease of entry, no clothing rules. Thirty thousand courts appeared almost overnight in the States.

Then racquetball began a slow and steady decline.

Today it is a shell of itself. The U.S. Open has stopped. There are maybe 2,500 indoor courts. Many are empty.

I’ve been a member of two clubs with racquetball courts, a fitness club in DC and a YMCA in Delaware. Neither had teaching pros. In both cases, I watched as the racquetball cohort slowly leached away. You can argue about why racquetball has declined, but for me the biggest reason is they haven’t had enough teaching pros.

They are essential: texting, WhatsApping, calling and cajoling players, setting up box leagues and tournaments, helping with equipment, getting you to come back again for another match. I’ve seen this in the padel world — if there is a pro present and servicing the club, it thrives.

Kids

More than forty percent of the 3,000 squash courts in the U.S. are at high schools and universities. It is a central backbone of the game. Junior squash fuels squash, and then the teams take off. Over two hundred high schools send squads to the National High Schools—it is the largest annual tournament in the world; nearly a hundred middle school teams come to the National Middle Schools; over eighty universities have a varsity or club squash team (or both).

In many countries squash has suffered a decline in recent years, but not in the U.S., and one reason is this continual, institutionalized pipeline of players coming through the school and college systems. Each spring about three hundred people graduate from university having played organized squash. That adds up: a regular outflow of young adults who want to continue getting on court.

U.S. collegiate padel is a good start.

Travel

For adults, the key is travel. Many vibrant squash clubs have plenty of intra-club activity. But the essence of squash has always been getting out of your own home club and playing elsewhere, meeting new people, cementing friendships, getting connected.

In 1903, less than three years after the first squash court arrived in Philadelphia, there were seven clubs with courts in the city, and they decided to organize a league.

Ever since, teams have gone on the road. Singles leagues in two dozen cities are the winter anchor for the game; for cities like Philadelphia and Toronto, the squash doubles league occupies much frontal-lobe attention each winter, with Tuesday nights or Thursday nights being sacred.

Not only do you play for your club but often for your city. Today we have dozens of annual inter-city matches criss-crossing the country. One is the Hahn Cup, started in 1963, between Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Louisville. I live in a city with four padel clubs but so far no inter-club matches.

Or your nation. There is an annual U.S. v Mexico match and a U.S./Mexico/Canada weekend; the granddaddy of them all is U.S. v Canada, started in 1922 (the oldest annual international squash rivalry) and still a major blowout each spring.

There is also continual reinvention: a post-pandemic newcomer is the Trans-Atlantic Masters Squash Test featuring teams from Canada, Great Britain, Ireland and the U.S. Sprinkle in tours, invitational cups, lost weekends and member-guests, and the squash map is thick with women and men driving and flying somewhere to represent someone larger than themselves.

That is why the Anglo American Padel Cup might be the greatest legacy of Bill Ullman’s remarkable tenure as president of USPA.

Olympics

Stop worrying about padel and the Olympic Games.

Squash spent many decades trying to get into the Olympics. There were efforts dating back to earliest days of the Games (especially after the war for Helsinki in 1952). In 1986 the IOC officially recognized squash as a sport, and the first real attempt came right then to get into Barcelona in 1992. Squash failed; badminton succeeded, with rumors of an alleged seven-figure “donation” smoothing the way.

Thereafter, squash’s world governing body and a few large and wealthy national federations spent oodles of time, treasure and sometimes talent attempting to get into the Games.

It mattered not at all. Outsiders thought that it would help when the Games were in a city renowned for squash (Atlanta in 1996; Sydney in 2000; London in 2012; and Paris in 2024).

Nope. Squash ran tremendously expensive campaigns that emphasized how squash fulfilled all the IOC criteria for admission: we are in all these countries, we have gender parity, we have youth, it would be the pinnacle to win a gold medal, etc. Nope.

We almost got in again and again, only to be tripped at the last furlong.

Squash got in for Los Angeles in 2028 based on relationships: who knew who, quiet conversations. If padel gets into Brisbane 2032, it will be for the same reason.

For padel, my advice is don’t waste your three T’s on it. Padel is unlikely to make the Games for the same reason why all the other sports recently added to the Summer Games got in: Does padel bring in big corporate sponsorship? Does it move the needle on television?

Rugby, cricket, golf, baseball, surfing, lacrosse—these are massive cogs in the sports industrial machine and dwarf padel (and squash) in every metric. Even flag football, hitherto unknown outside the States, will be a huge sport in the 2030s because of the world’s biggest sport’s league, the NFL, is behind it.

Instead: get Kevin Vaz, the CEO of JioStar, to fall in love with padel.

The Summer Games are apparently headed to India in 2036, and Vaz is the head of the country’s largest media and entertainment business.

You’ve got time.

Enjoy this guest post? If so, please be sure to subscribe to Padel Nation to get exciting updates and important insights on the rapidly emerging U.S. padel scene like this one delivered directly to your inbox 2X weekly — or share it with a padel-playing friend.

Subscribe now

Share

Finally, as always, a big thank you to the friends and preferred partners of Padel Nation who help make posts like this possible, including:

Interested in becoming a friend or preferred partner of Padel Nation? Drop us a line here and let’s talk!

Oh, and one other thing… I’ve actually got a full-blown padel book coming out in July. So, if you enjoy the work I’m doing in the U.S. padel space, you can support me by pre-ordering a copy (or two!) online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Many thanks in advance!

While all the big, bold predictions of the U.S. having 30,000 padel courts by 2030 are starting to look a bit dubious, the Montauk-based, lifestyle-driven brand Privé Padel just held a posh IYKYK grand opening for what turns out to be the 1,000th padel court to open here in the U.S.

(Which we know thanks to Patricio Misitrano — who may be the only person that tracks U.S. court openings more closely than I do.)

This one-court pop-up, known as Privé at THesis, will be housed at the THesis Hotel Miami in Coral Gables, FL, for the next year — and while the court has been seeing play since Monday, April 6th, Privé held a VIP grand opening this past Thursday, April 9th to officially christen the court.

As part of the festivities, there was a high-energy professional exhibition match that, according to organizers, “brought together tastemakers, athletes, and key figures across Miami’s lifestyle and hospitality communities.”

Positioned just steps from the University of Miami, Privé at THesis has reportedly, “already become one of the city’s most in-demand new destinations” and is “drawing continuous interest from hotel guests, residents, and Miami’s in-the-know social set.”

Given that luxury lifestyle travel magazine Condé Nast Traveler recently dubbed padel “the new it-girl amenity at luxury hotels” and Privé’s focus on marrying upscale travel experiences with access to padel courts around the world via its Privé Passport program, it’s little surprise they chose this venue for their pop-up.

What’s more, with an ever-increasing number of luxury, lifestyle-focused hotels and resorts like…

• The Montauk Yacht Club…

• The Ritz Carlton Key Biscayne…

• The Breakers Palm Beach….

• The Boar’s Head Resort (in Charlottesville, VA — where I’ll be playing at the end of the month), and…

• The Parker Palm Springs (which hosted a VIP padel pro-am during the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament last month and is hosting another during Coachella this month)…

… now embracing the sport, Privé looks to be at the forefront of a massive new trend in the U.S. and around the world, which should help the sport to grow even further.

You can visit Privé at THesis at 1350 S Dixie Hwy, 33146, Coral Gables, FL, daily between 8am and 9pm and the court can be booked via Playtomic here.

Like this article? If so, please be sure to subscribe to Padel Nation to get exciting updates and important insights on the rapidly emerging U.S. padel scene like this one delivered directly to your inbox 2X weekly — or share it with a padel-playing friend.

Subscribe now

Share

Finally, as always, a big thank you to the friends and preferred partners of Padel Nation who help make posts like this possible, including:

Interested in becoming a friend or preferred partner of Padel Nation? Drop us a line here and let’s talk!

Oh, and one other thing… I’ve actually got a full-blown padel book coming out in July. So, if you enjoy the work I’m doing in the U.S. padel space, you can support me by pre-ordering a copy (or two!) online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Many thanks in advance!

Share

A year or two ago, if you asked me to guess which U.S. state would have three padel clubs (and 18 total courts) opening within the span of about a month, I probably wouldn’t have guessed Utah.

Yet, while the Beehive State suffered a devastating lack of snow this winter, they’re about to see an all-out padel avalanche this spring thanks to four clubs that are leading the charge there (with another on the horizon).

These include:

Salt Lake City Padel Club (Woods Cross, UT)

If the greater Salt Lake City area ends up being the padel mini-mecca it looks like it’s shaping up to be, much of the credit for the sport’s boom should go to the pioneering Pedro Bautista and his team at SLC Padel Club, which opened in Woods Cross last year as Utah’s first dedicated padel facility.

Initially, SLC Padel Club featured three indoor courts, but the sport caught on so quickly in the club’s first year that Bautista, who originally hails from Venezuela, recently decided to add a fourth “premium court” that is, “designed exclusively for private corporate events, team-building experiences, and VIP gatherings.”

As Bautista recently told Utah Business for a feature article they ran on his club, after a stint in Florida for college he wound up in Utah about five years ago. And while he was never big into racquet sports, padel has always been on his radar thanks to family that lives in Europe and Miami.

Bautista and his father (who is also named Pedro and lives in Miami) had always wanted to run a business together, and after seeing padel starting to take off across the U.S. they eventually decided to combine forces and bring the first dedicated padel facility to Utah.

From the look of things (including its perfect five-star rating on Google with 109 reviews) SLC Padel Club is already thriving.

Conquer Padel Club (Lehi, UT)

Given the success of SLC Padel Club off the bat, it’s little wonder that the multi-club concept known as Conquer Padel is set to open their second location in Utah (after opening their first in Tempe, Arizona last year).

While SLC Padel Club is due north of Salt Lake City, Conquer Padel Club is instead due south in Lehi, a once small town that has experienced massive growth over the past decade and a half thanks to an ongoing tech boom in the surrounding area known as “Silicon Slopes.”

When it opens (likely sometime in the month or so), Conquer Padel Club will feature seven panoramic indoor courts along with fitness, recovery, and social areas. And if it’s anything like Conquer’s original location, chances are it’ll be pretty swank.

Best of all, in the lead up to opening, Conquer Padel Club is offering “Early Adopter” memberships for as little as $30/month, which you can learn more about here.

Padel Den (Orem, UT)

About 12 miles southeast of Conquer Padel Club, you’ll find the soon-to-open, five court indoor club known as Padel Den in Orem.

Much like Lehi, Orem is a burgeoning tech hub of nearly 100,000 residents — which has resulted in the surrounding Orem-Provo area becoming one of the fastest growing regions in the entire U.S.

Out of the gates Padel Den will be offering a trial membership that allows you to play as much padel as you want for 30 days for just $1 — and based on recent Instagram posts, it appears as though Padel Den could potentially already be open by the time you read this.

Padel Park (West Jordan, UT)

15 miles northeast of Conquer Padel Club, you’ll find another plush soon-to-open club known as Padel Park, which is bringing six indoor Mejor Set courts to the community of West Jordan (which you’ll soon be able to book via Playtomic).

While you may not be familiar with West Jordan (I’d never even heard of it before discovering Padel Park), this Salt Lake City suburb is actually among the three or four biggest municipalities in the entire state with an estimated population of between 115,000 and 120,000 residents.

Unlike other clubs in the area that are opening soon with bargain-basement membership offers, Padel Park will instead be offering:

• 50 “Founding Memberships” (for $2,000 apiece), which get you unlimited play for your first year along with a slew of other perks, or…

• $300/month “Unlimited Memberships” that carry no per-session court booking fees, two-week court reservation windows, and four guest passes per month among other benefits.

The Hive Padel Club (Salt Lake City, UT)

Last but not least, this summer will see yet another padel club open in the region, this one known as The Hive Padel Club.

As you can see in this in-depth behind-the-scenes tour from co-founder and club director, Hollye Shepherd, in addition to four indoor courts and the first outdoor court in Utah, The Hive Padel Club will offer a slew of wellness amenities and design-forward work, lounge, and family areas, plus a gym, pro shop, cafe, and DJ booth.

Too Big to Fail?

Is his interview with Utah Business, Pedro Bautista said he and his father decided against opening a club in the Miami area (where his father lives) because it was already too saturated with padel courts and clubs.

But with the number of courts in the greater Salt Lake City metro area shooting up from just three to 22 in only about a month’s time, it might seem like this region could be in danger of becoming over-saturated as well.

However, if you take the time to dig into the World Padel Report 2025 from FIP, you’ll discover that across the world there is one padel court for every:

• 2,515 residents in Sweden 🇸🇪

• 2,820 residents in Spain 🇪🇸

• 5,760 residents in Italy 🇮🇹

• 6,540 residents in Argentina 🇦🇷

• 16,200 residents in France 🇫🇷

• 50,000 residents in Mexico 🇲🇽

Meanwhile, in a place like Doral, FL (just west of Miami), there is now approximately one court for every 1,925 residents — which, admittedly, does seem a bit worrisome.

However, when you consider the fact that the greater Salt Lake City-Provo-Orem metro area has an estimated 2.9 million residents and only 22 padel courts (or one court for every 131,818 residents), it seems as though the Utah padel market may have a long runway ahead of it yet.

Like this article? If so, please be sure to subscribe to Padel Nation to get exciting updates and important insights on the rapidly emerging U.S. padel scene like this one delivered directly to your inbox 2X weekly — or share it with a padel-playing friend.

Subscribe now

Share

Finally, as always, a big thank you to the friends and preferred partners of Padel Nation who help make posts like this possible, including:

Interested in becoming a friend or preferred partner of Padel Nation? Drop us a line here and let’s talk!

Oh, and one other thing… I’ve actually got a full-blown padel book coming out in July. So, if you enjoy the work I’m doing in the U.S. padel space, you can support me by pre-ordering a copy (or two!) online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Many thanks in advance!

Editor’s Note: The following post is a (slightly edited) excerpt of an article penned by guest author Scott Matulis, a long-time public relations pro who was once the PR Director for the Worldwide Senior Tennis Tour. He discovered padel in Las Vegas in 2024 and can now hit balls off of the glass occasionally. He is the author of the LinkedIn and Substack serial novel The Applicant.

Also of note: For the third strait year, P1 Padel will be hosting the Playbypoint Las Vegas Open this April 24 - 25 — which is a USPA 2000 level tournament with a $25,000 total prize pool.

Share

I moved to Las Vegas in April of 2024 for a job. And, like a lot of tennis players who suddenly find themselves in a new city, the first thing I did was start driving around looking for courts.

One afternoon I was cruising down Buffalo looking for the All-American Tennis Club when I noticed several glass-walled padel courts that looked vaguely familiar.

“Man,” I thought, “I’ve seen that on YouTube. Those guys are nuts.” Also: “I could totally do that.”

I pulled into the parking lot and walked inside to check it out.

One of the staff members gave me a quick introduction to the sport and signed me up for an entry-level round-robin event called “Courts and Coffee” that the club holds every Sunday morning.

He was a tennis player, too. Padel, he explained, was a great landing spot for aging tennis players like me who still wanted to compete but weren’t particularly jacked about the wear and tear of hard courts or chasing drop shots into the doubles alley. I’ve had both my knees replaced so that sounded good to me.

The next morning I showed up and put the hammer to a fair number of beginners who had not spent the last 50 years hitting tennis, pickle, and racquet balls. About 25 of us played a four-round, 90-minute Americano format tournament. Courts and teams reshuffled every twenty minutes, giving me the chance to meet just about everybody.

No pressure. No USTA-league-type weirdness. Just people playing, socializing and having a good time.

Almost two years later, I’ve got a place to spend several nights a week with an ever-increasing group of friends from all over the world — some of whom have been playing padel most of their lives, and some of whom, like me, discovered padel in the middle of the desert.

Actually, almost none of them are like me. Meaning: an aging American tennis player from the suburbs of Southern California. The only two I’ve met are Casey from San Diego and John, who oddly enough grew up a mile away from me and played tennis for a rival high school in my hometown (who I will say we crushed regularly).

The three of us share two things: a love of padel and a love of half-priced drinks at the Rustic House after a three-set match.

Most nights though, I’m the only American on the court or at the table. Which has forced me to confront the fact that my flippant attitude toward high school Spanish was a huge mistake. Even though I grew up in SoCal, I thought, “who am I ever going to meet that speaks Spanish?”

Now just about everybody I meet speaks Spanish. And even though I am sure my friends from Argentina, Spain, and Brazil are goofing on me, I have absolutely no idea what they’re saying.

But the Real Secret of Padel Isn’t the Sport Itself — It’s the Community It Creates

In 1989, American sociologist Ray Oldenburg introduced the concept of the “third place” in his book The Great Good Place.

A third place is a gathering spot separate from home and work where people can relax, build friendships, exchange ideas and feel part of something bigger than themselves. A place where everybody knows your name.

Think neighborhood pubs, coffee shops, barber shops and “Norm!” A lot of them — Elks clubs, the general store, the soda fountain, and the pool hall — are not nearly as popular as they used to be. But people still need a place to unwind.

I’m a huge believer in the need for a third place, especially now that I live in a whole new town.

P1 Padel in Las Vegas is exactly that.

The People

The first thing you notice about P1 is the mix of people.

My regular playing group includes players named Pablo, Jorge, Chava, Casey, Alex, Sarah, Michael Smith and Zoltan, as well as more Scotts than I’ve met in my entire life.

Zoltan is from Hungary. He and his childhood friend Daniel came to the United States to play college soccer. Neither of them had ever picked up a racquet before discovering padel. Neither had Alex from England. Now all three of them can hang with anybody at the club.

There’s a picture on my phone of me with Zoltan’s mom that he took of us when she came to visit him. I also have a photo with Chava’s grandmother and sister when they came to town a few months ago.

Pablo is from Argentina. Chava’s family lives in Tijuana. Sarah is from the Philippines, teaches special education and goes on padel trips around the world.

Mo is from Lebanon. He worked at the Wynn and was recently relocated to London to help open a casino there. Parisa brought me ice cream after my latest knee surgery.

The next day, Michael Smith — we all call him Michael Smith, never Michael — brought me Tylenol and kept me company before he moved back to Australia.

It’s a great group. And they’re pretty representative of the clientele at P1 regardless of the level of padel they play. No attitude. No “I was ranked number 45 alphabetically in the fourteen-and-unders.” No “our USTA team went to sectionals, so you’re going to have to earn a spot.”

Just people who like to go at it and get better.

The Origins of P1

The club itself was built by an affable English guy named Martin Sweeney who discovered padel when he moved from the U.K. to Spain in 2009. At the time, he was a squash player but quickly realized that in Spain it was much easier to book a padel court than a squash court.

Sweeney explains:

“Like many of us, I immediately became addicted to padel. In 2011, I moved to Dubai and discovered that there was no padel in the Middle East so I decided as a bit of a passion/ hobby to open three courts at Emirates Golf Club.

That facility continues to operate and now has 20 courts. We originally had to call our sport ‘paddle tennis’ as the word ‘padel’ was already under copyright in Dubai.

Real Racquet Academy was born in 2013. I named the club Real Racquet Academy in recognition of the location where I first played padel, which was Real Club, Marbella.”

The Las Vegas club helped put the United States on the padel map. According to Sweeney it was the first purpose-built padel facility in the country and only the seventh club nationally when it opened in 2019.

In 2022, Real Racquet Academy hosted the Seniors Padel World Championships, welcoming 450 players from 16 countries.

Sweeney eventually leased the club to escape-room entrepreneur Simon Davison, who renamed it P1 Padel in 2023. Sweeney still owns the club and plays doubles with our advanced men’s group Sunday mornings.

The Engine of the Community

While the courts draw people in, the community exists largely because of the people running the club.

General Manager Phil Martinez, along with his girlfriend and co-GM Codi Hollomon and a rotating crew of young guys named Jake, Tommy, Anthony and Mane, run the show and make everybody feel at home. All of them know your name.

Phil is the nerve center of the operation — organizing tournaments, running leagues, managing logistics and acting as a conduit between members and ownership. He’ll also fill in if somebody cancels at the last minute, which hardly anybody ever does.

Neither Phil, Codi or any of the other club employees had played tennis or any racquet sport before discovering padel.

But they all play well now, which tells you something about the sport’s learning curve and the fact that they all like being at P1 as much as everybody else does.

The Funnel

P1 has developed a really effective funnel for bringing new people into the community.

The first entry point is often “Courts and Coffee”, the Sunday round-robin that hooked me. Another popular option is “Try Padel”, a one-hour introductory session led by one of the coaches.

For ten bucks newcomers get an hour-long intro to the rules, basic tactics and the social rhythm of the game. Afterward there’s coffee. People usually stick around to watch matches and feel the vibe.

That’s how my friend Michael Smith got started. An Australian who flies planes for Spirit Airlines, he saw ads for P1 on Instagram and decided to give the sport a try.

As Michael Smith remembers it:

“Coach Jeff went through some basic drills and pretty quickly realized I’d played racquet sports before and could hit the ball, so he gave me a little bit more of an in-depth introduction.

He put me in touch with a few guys who were reasonable players that played mornings and I played some social matches with them. From there I started to play men’s night on Monday nights and then signed up for Club Night on Wednesdays and sort of from there decided to improve.

I got to meet some people and find people of a similar level who were available at similar times and started arranging matches.”

Much later, after he was already much improved, he was laid off and started spending most of his waking hours at the club. Granted, he’s a tennis player, but over six months or so he turned himself into arguably the best over-40 player at P1 and started beating the daylights out of the rest of us. He also lost 40 pounds doing it.

“Being newish to America, and certainly new to Vegas, padel became my circle of friends, really, outside of work,” Michael Smith tells me. “Those are the people I know from Vegas.”

The Rhythm of the Club

Most nights the social center of the club isn’t the clubhouse — it’s the patio outside the courts. Players hang around after matches drinking sports drinks, talking trash, and waiting for the next round of games.

There’s a small kitchen serving smoothies and pizza (the smoothies are excellent, Jake’s still trying to get the hang of making the pizza).

Because the club sits next to a Methodist church and a high-end residential neighborhood P1 doesn’t have a liquor license, so if we want a post-match cocktail, we hit the Rustic House.

Still, the club regularly hosts birthday parties, barbecues, leagues and special events hosted and staffed mostly by the players.

As you can imagine, Las Vegas attracts a lot of out-of-town celebrities and a fair amount of them end up on the P1 courts.

According to Hollomon, actor Woody Harrelson has played here. So has DJ Martin Garrix. Formula One drivers — including Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll — have stopped by.

I once played on the court next to the Prince of Qatar.

Even if you’re not a celebrity, if you find yourself in Las Vegas, Phil and Codi can arrange matches for you while you’re here.

Why It Matters

In her book Daring Greatly, Brené Brown writes: “Connection is why we’re here; it is what gives purpose and meaning to our lives.”

In one of his essays, Desmond Tutu says something similar:

“A person is a person through other persons. We need other human beings for us to learn how to be human, for none of us comes fully formed into the world.”

I’ve found both ideas to be true.

Ray Oldenburg called places where people find community third places.

I call it Club Night at P1 Padel.

You can visit P1 Padel at 1876 S Buffalo Dr, Las Vegas, NV 89117 between 7am and 11pm on weekdays and 7am and 9:30pm on weekends. You can call the club at (702) 575-1700 or book a court via their website.

Enjoy this article?

If so, please be sure to subscribe to Padel Nation to get exciting updates and important insights on the rapidly emerging U.S. padel scene delivered directly to your inbox — or share it with a padel-playing friend.

Subscribe now

Share

Finally, as always, a big thank you to the friends and preferred partners of Padel Nation who help make posts like this possible, including:

Interested in becoming a friend or preferred partner of Padel Nation? Drop us a line here and let’s talk!

Oh, and one other thing… I’ve actually got a full-blown padel book coming out in July. So, if you enjoy the work I’m doing in the U.S. padel space, you can support me by pre-ordering a copy (or two!) online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Many thanks in advance!

Share

Dear Padel Nation readers,

March was arguably the most eventful month in the entire 32-year history of U.S. padel thanks in large part to:

• The second-ever Premier Padel tournament being held on U.S. soil in Miami — which featured packed stands and jaw-dropping points like this one…

• The third edition of RacquetX taking place in Fort Lauderdale, with padel predictably stealing the show yet again (despite the rise of new challengers like TYPTI)…

• Padel being featured on Good Morning America for the second time in a segment about teenagers playing padel at Nicol NJ as part of “The Balance Challenge," an initiative aimed at helping kids build a healthier relationship with screens…

• Leading U.S. business publication Inc. magazine featuring an in-depth article on the rise of U.S. padel and Padel United Sports Club co-founder Jonathan Krieger, which declares that “entrepreneurs are flocking to tennis’s cooler cousin”…

• A whole slew of big U.S. padel investments being announced, most notably the Pro Padel League raising $15 million in a round led by Rick Schnall, co-chairman and governor of the Charlotte Hornets of the NBA…

• All-time padel legend Fernando “Bela” Belasteguín playing his way across Southern California before heading on to Miami for the Premier Padel P1, and…

• The National Padel League hosting its National Finals and crowning a number of National Champions from around the country.

Meanwhile, we saw new padel courts and clubs added everywhere from Chicago (at my friend Alex Vainberg’s new venue Proximo Padel)… to New York City (at SPORTIME Randall’s Island)… to Katy, Texas (at the newest — and perhaps most impressive — Racket Social Club location yet)… just to name a few.

We also got word of splashy new clubs coming to locations across the U.S. including San Jose… Palm Beach… and Chicago (at what looks like it could easily become one of the most iconic padel venues anywhere on Earth).

And, last but not least, we got expansion news from Salt Lake City Padel Club and a brand-new court from Privé Padel at the THesis Hotel in Coral Gables, Florida (which, according to Patricio Misitrano, is the U.S.’s 1,000th!).

On a personal level, it was also an incredibly busy month, largely spent knocking out the final chapters of my forthcoming 21-chapter padel book, which you can pre-order on Amazon here or from Barnes and Noble here.

Oh, and I also managed to publish a few U.S. padel articles, too, which you can find directly below.

Thanks for reading and play up!

ae

««« Reebok Joins Padel Party Via GLDN PNT »»»

Big name brands like Rolex, On, and Golden Goose have all been getting into the padel game lately (namely via partnerships with World No. 1 Arturo Coello) — and to that list you can now add the nearly 70-year-old iconic yet irreverent sports-culture brand, Reebok.

This is thanks to a recently announced collaboration with leading padel fashion brand and Padel Nation preferred partner, GLDN PNT. Everything you need to know about this exciting new development (including how to get your hands on some of their limited-edition gear) can be found here.

««« The Ultimate Show Stealer at RacquetX? »»»

Last month, I traveled all the way to Goshen, Indiana in the middle of winter to see something I think has the potential to completely re-shape the U.S. padel landscape going forward — and this month, what I saw there debuted at RacquetX.

Here’s what you need to know.

««« Padel Set to Pop in the Pacific Northwest »»»

Three new states (Idaho, Oregon, and Washington) will soon get their first-ever publicly accessible padel courts thanks to (at least) four new padel clubs.

This includes Pacific Padel in Seattle — whose co-founder, Pablo Arcuschin, wrote a great guest post we published this month entitled, “From Courts to Culture: What Actually Makes a Padel Club Successful,” which you can read right here.

««« The “Hidden” Key to U.S. Padel Growth? »»»

In yet another great guest article we published this month, Rodrigo Fernández —who is the co-founder and CMO of Kraken Padel Club in Dallas — explored one of the biggest (yet least talked about) drivers of padel growth in the U.S., which may well also hold the key to the sport’s future here in the States. Check it out here.

««« Padel Pro-Am Heats Up California Desert »»»

While pro tennis has always been the main reason for racquet-sports fanatics to head to the California desert in March, the recent Palm Springs Padel Pro-Am proved that padel has a place in the conversation, too — as you can see for yourself here.

(And this month there will be even more padel pro-am action in Indio, CA, thanks to an exciting collaboration between Padel Up, Playbypoint, and Siux — so be sure to stay tuned for more details!).

… and that’s a wrap — until next month, at least!

Please be sure to subscribe to Padel Nation to get exciting updates and important insights on the rapidly emerging U.S. padel scene delivered directly to your inbox — or share it with a padel-playing friend.

Subscribe now

Share

Finally, as always, a big thank you to the friends and preferred partners of Padel Nation who help make posts like this possible, including:

Interested in becoming a friend or preferred partner of Padel Nation? Drop me a line here and let’s talk!