Yes, We Just Saw a Big Year for U.S. Padel
But not for the reasons you might think...
Editor’s note: The following post is from guest author Hans Helmers, a racquet-sports investor and enthusiast with a background in marketing and management. He is also a partner at InvestTrek Capital, which is helping grow padel in the U.S. through investments in clubs and concepts including Padel Haus, Ballers, Bay Padel, and Padel39.
2025 was indeed a BIG year for U.S. padel.
I don't say that because bold predictions about a large number of new courts or players finally proved true.
(In fact, over the past year, we only built about 400 new courts in a country of 350 million people. That’s not particularly exciting until you examine this more closely.)
It was a big year for U.S. padel because of where clubs were built and what that means for awareness, pricing, and bringing padel to the masses in America.
Padel has been fairly expensive and elite to date because of the cost structure of our clubs. This cost structure is driven by the real estate cost, which is dictated by the location.
The lower risk option has been to build clubs in metropolitan areas with international communities that have awareness of and passion for padel. Yet those are generally high rent areas where populations are dense and land is scarce.
In 2025, we saw more clubs built in Florida, Texas, and California, where padel has already gotten traction.
Even more importantly, we saw padel club founders strike out into new areas. Many of those have lower cost real estate that enables lower padel-court pricing. This geographic expansion simultaneously spreads awareness and provides the opportunity for a broader group of Americans to try this amazing sport.
Clubs spread up I-95 from Miami as though a snowbird drove home to Maine and opened padel clubs all along the way.
Meanwhile, not only did major metro areas like Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Nashville, and Washington D.C. see new clubs opening, but padel entrepreneurs also made their mark in smaller cities across the upper Midwest, the Mid-Atlantic, the South, the Southwest, and the Rocky Mountains.
Thanks to these trailblazers, you can now play padel in places like Baltimore and College Park (MD), Colorado Springs (CO), Eagle Pass and El Paso (TX), Mesa (AZ), Murrieta (CA), Salt Lake City (UT), San Antonio (TX), and Sunland Park (NM).
Where Can You Play Padel in the U.S. Right Now?
We will start to see the impact of these openings in 2026, as people hear about padel clubs near them and get out and play. New padel players will tell their friends, families, and colleagues. Word will spread, and if the club programming is right and the communities are created, thousands of new padel fanatics will be born.
Success at this wave of clubs will blaze the trail for more padel entrepreneurs to open clubs in more diverse areas further expanding the padel universe.
Opening padel clubs in the U.S. has not been easy, but we are on our way. I can only say thank you to the amazing, passionate entrepreneurs who worked incredibly hard to open these new clubs in 2025 — and I’m incredibly excited to see how padel catches on across the country in 2026 as a result.
I also have many questions heading into the new year:
Which new groups will start playing? Will they come from tennis, squash, or pickle? Will seniors see how accessible it is for them? Will juniors find it more fun and exhilarating than their other sports (or their phones)?
What programming will excite this new wave of players? What geographic opportunities will come from the broader awareness that the 2025 clubs bring? What will be the other hotbeds of padel beyond South Florida?
The only thing I know for sure is that there will be some pleasant surprises, twists and turns, and things we never anticipated.
Have thoughts on this post — or where U.S. padel is headed in the coming year? Please let us know in the comments below.
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