What You Need to Know About the First-Ever "National Padel Month"
A deep dive with the USPA...
At this point, it seems that everything on Earth now has its own day, week, or even month…
This includes bagels (January 15)… hats (also January 15)… ice cream (all of July)… Star Wars (May 4)… Kurt Vonnegut (November 11)… aardvarks (March 19)… leaving work early (June 2)… avocados (July 31)… yoga (June 21)… negronis (September 21 - 27)… and sobriety (dry January) — just to name a few.
And beginning this October you can add padel to this list thanks to a new initiative that was recently unveiled by the United States Padel Association (USPA) and is largely focused around three main components:
The U.S. Open Padel Championships — which, for the second straight year, will be played at Padel Haus Atlanta (October 2 - 5) and “bring together the nation’s top players and international contenders for a high-stakes tournament that showcases the athleticism and excitement the sport delivers at its highest level.”
The USA Padel Awards: A new tradition designed to “honor the players, coaches, clubs, and advocates who have driven the sport’s remarkable growth and helped put American padel on the world map.”
Learn-to-Play Programming: Whereby participating clubs across the U.S. will host structured introductory clinics, open courts, and beginner-friendly programming throughout October, lowering the barrier to entry for anyone curious about playing padel for the first time.
As you can see, there’s obviously a lot to unpack here. Which is why I recently hit up USPA President Bill Ullman and Executive Director Scott Colebourne to learn more.
Here’s What I Found Out…
When I ask what the impetus for National Padel Month was and if they modeled it after any similar initiatives in other sports, they explain:
National Padel Month is an initiative that we have talked about for the past couple of years internally, and we've also received requests from others within the industry to designate a specific month to celebrate padel.
Many of those working in padel at the moment have had experience in other sports that have had a National Month designated for their particular sport. We are definitely using lessons from these sports in the rollout for National Padel Month.
Scott, in particular, adds:
One of the most important aspects of National Padel Month is the collaborative communication efforts from all stakeholders on the delivery side of the sport.
Clubs, equipment manufacturers, court manufacturers, brands involved in padel, as well as the USPA, will all band together to promote the sport like it's never been seen before, with the intent to bring awareness of padel to a much greater audience that has never heard of the game before.
We're all making very large efforts to communicate and create new players. By combining these efforts around one specific month, our combined voices will have a much greater impact.
Timing Is Everything
With a packed padel calendar that continues to get even more so all the time, I ask about why they chose October in particular for this initiative, and Scott tells me:
October was our first choice due to the U.S. Open occurring. It also has great positioning, with many parts of the country experiencing a change in weather that either signals that indoor play is about to begin or that it’s cooling off enough to allow more outdoor play.
October also provides a great opportunity [weather-wise] for newcomers to visit clubs and sign up for Learn-to-Play programs.
We have strong relationships with over 80% of the clubs in the USA, and we anticipate a majority of them having a learn-to-play program that we can promote through all of our communication channels.
We’re also inviting those clubs not directly affiliated with the USPA to run similar programs and join together to promote padel. As a governing body, we are not focused on USPA padel. We’re focused on padel in the USA.
An Uphill Battle?
When I ask about the challenges facing organizing a national initiative like this for a sport that is so relatively new to the U.S., they concede that there are plenty of obstacles they’ll have to navigate, telling me:
The biggest challenge that we face in everything related to padel in the USA is awareness of the sport. If you've played or watched padel, there's a good chance you love it, but the majority of the USA still has no awareness that the sport exists.
A potential challenge that others may see is an ability to create cohesiveness within the industry. However, we have seen that not only in the player community, but also in the club community, there is a great willingness to work together to promote the sport. I see that as one of the strengths of padel.
Ultimately, it’s clear they believe the juice will be more than worth the squeeze, though, with Scott adding:
The upside opportunity for National Padel Month is enormous. We feel that this is the right time in the sport’s growth in the USA to have the first National Padel Month.
The Golden Point
In closing, I ask them at what point — be it number of clubs participating… number of new players they get on court… or some other metic — will they consider National Padel Month to be a success.
According to Scott:
Success will be defined by [several] factors including the number of new players we get on the court, and then we'll continue to stay in communication with the clubs to gauge how many of these players became regular players at the club.
In addition to defining success in the number of new players, we want to create a groundswell of interest in padel to expose the sport to new spectators, create fans, and bring awareness of the sport to those outside of padel.
What we've experienced is that if you've played it or seen it, there's a good chance you love it, but we're still in the small stages of awareness for the sport in the USA.
While there’s certainly no arguing that final point, there’s also little doubt that the USPA’s National Padel Month initiative will help raise awareness of “the world’s fastest growing sport” in the world’s largest sports market.
And, as Scott points out, if they can manage to get a significant amount of people to try the sport out for the first time, we’ll likely have a lot more rabid players across the U.S. very soon.
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