The Largest U.S. Metro Areas That Still Don't Have Padel (Yet)
There's only a few at left this point...
The other day a long-time friend of mine from the squash world asked me if there was anywhere he could play padel on an upcoming business trip to Omaha, NE (obviously, he’s not aware of the U.S. padel map I created!).
When I told him that there weren’t any courts there that I was aware of, he seemed both disappointed and surprised — which surprised me.
Granted, I’ve only been to Omaha once about 15 years ago (for the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting), but it has never registered to me as being a big enough city that you’d be surprised there wasn’t a padel club there yet.
So, I decided to look it up — and, as it turns out, the greater Omaha metropolitan statistical area (MSA) now has over 1 million residents, making it the 56th biggest MSA in the U.S. Shows what I know!
This also got me wondering what other large U.S. metro areas still don’t have padel yet.
Here’s What I Learned…
Thanks to Jam Padel opening earlier this month in the greater Seattle area (which is the U.S.’s 15th biggest MSA with about 4.2 million residents), the 30 largest MSAs in the U.S. now all have at least one padel club to speak of.
However, several of these currently still only have a single club at the moment (that I’m aware of, anyhow) including:
Detroit (the 14th biggest MSA with about 4.4 million residents) — which is home to ZMash Padel, a club with eight indoor courts in Sterling Heights, MI…
Minneapolis-St. Paul (the 16th biggest MSA with about 3.8 million residents) — where you can find The Heights Racquet & Social Club and its three indoor courts in Mendota Heights, MN…
Baltimore (22nd biggest / 2.9M residents) — where racquets phenom Chris Haley opened BMore Padel, a four court outdoor facility in Pikesville, MD…
Portland (26th biggest / 2.5M residents) — which is now home to the first padel club in the state of Oregon at Foundry Padel, a four court indoor club in the Cathedral Park neighborhood of Portland, and…
Las Vegas (29th biggest / 2.4M residents) — which surprisingly still only has one club (the long-standing eight court outdoor facility known as P1 Padel) despite the generally favorable climate, its deep tennis roots, and recently being ranked as the 7th best sports business city in the U.S. by Sports Business Journal.
Then there are a handful of smaller MSAs that all surprisingly have at least one padel club, like Lancaster, PA (No. 105)… Melbourne/Titusville, FL (No. 89)… my childhood hometown of Colorado Springs, CO (No. 79)… Stockton, CA (No. 77)… and Columbia, SC (No. 71).
Meanwhile, El Paso, TX (No. 70), my current hometown of Charleston, SC (No. 66), and Tucson, AZ (No. 52) all have two or more padel clubs, despite not even being in the top-50-biggest MSAs in the country.
The Five Biggest U.S. Metro Areas That Still Don’t Have Padel (Yet)
Rounding out the top 50 biggest MSAs that don’t yet have any padel courts or clubs are several quite notable ones, including:
No. 32 Columbus, OH — With 2.25 million residents and one of the largest, most-sports-obsessed universities in the U.S. (Ohio State), it’s quite surprising that Arch City doesn’t have padel yet (though I have heard rumors that one of the clubs who finally brought padel to Ohio may be working on something behind the scenes).
No. 37 Virginia Beach/Norfolk, VA — A sprawling, coastal area with roughly 1.8 million residents and no padel to speak, at least until Padel Foundry opens its doors there next year.
No. 38 Jacksonville, FL — Another sprawling coastal city of approximately 1.8 million that will soon be getting its first padel club thanks to Conquer Padel and the five indoor padel courts they are planning to open there.
No. 45 Memphis, TN — A city of roughly 1.45 million residents known for its barbecue, deep musical roots, and twice-daily, red-carpet-marching ducks — but not padel, unfortunately. Given its demographics, low median income, and high poverty rate, I’m not sure I see that changing anytime soon — but a rapidly growing latino population may well help prove me wrong.
No. 47 Fresno, CA — Where 1.2 people currently reside in California’s Central Valley. While Fresno is far more commonly associated with agriculture than racquet sports, a deeply rooted tennis community and rapidly growing pickleball scene may make the area ripe for padel.
The Final Frontiers
Beyond that, a few more fairly large padel-less MSAs where I could personally see the sport thriving include:
Birmingham, AL (No. 48)… Buffalo, NY (No. 51)… Tulsa, OK (No. 53)… Rochester, NY (No. 54)… Omaha, NE (No. 56)… Honolulu, HI (No. 57)… Knoxville, TN (No. 60)… Winston-Salem, NC (No. 85)… Madison, WI (No. 86)… and Durham/Chapel Hill, NC (No. 93).
Then, finally, there’s the handful of delightful smaller cities where I’d selfishly love to see padel take root, like Portland, ME (No. 102)… Wilmington, NC (No. 112)… Santa Barbara, CA (No. 124)… Savannah, GA (No. 126)… and Asheville, NC (No. 134).
If anyone brings padel to any of these places, I may well have to move there and be your first member!
Where do and/or would you like to see padel pop up next around the U.S.? Let us know in the comments below.
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