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Can padel overtake pickleball in popularity? Yes, say those who love the new sport

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4 months ago

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Can padel overtake pickleball in popularity? Yes, say those who love the new sport

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A few months ago, someone in New Jersey looking to play padel — a racket sport that combines elements of tennis and squash — would have had to cross the river to New York to find a court.

Now, there are three clubs open in the state, with more to come in the next year.

Players and club owners say the sport owes its growing popularity in the region to its fast pace, long volleys and the community that builds around it.

“Over the past year, it’s been crazy,” said Will Persson, a 28-year-old player who lives in Fair Lawn. “We’re seeing so much investment in the sport. There are all these new clubs popping up.”

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Padel, pronounced “PAH-del” or sometimes “paddle,” depending on who you speak to, was born in Mexico in the 1960s and later brought to Spain, where it is now the second most played sport behind soccer. Since 2020 it has boomed in popularity in Europe, the Middle East and Latin America, and it is quickly growing in the U.S., particularly in Florida, California and New York.

It’s a doubles game that’s played on a court that looks like a small turf tennis court enclosed by glass walls. Players use a fiberglass racket, slightly shorter than a tennis racket, with holes instead of strings.

Scoring is similar to tennis, but serves are hit from below the waist instead of overhand, and the ball — like a tennis ball but somewhat depressurized — can be played off any of the four walls.

In June, Padel United Sports Club opened in what was a vacant warehouse in Cresskill, with seven courts and a 10,000-square-foot wellness area with a saltwater pool, steam room, sauna, and cold plunge and hot therapy pools.

Jon Krieger, a co-founder and part of the group behind Fat Choy in Englewood and Spring House in Tenafly, said that before the club opened, there was already a waiting list to join.

Walid Idriss, a co-owner of And Padel in Oakland, which also opened in June, had been looking to open a club since he was introduced to the sport two years ago in Florida and became “really addicted,” but it took a while to find a suitable building with high enough ceilings.

The club boasts 40-foot ceilings, the highest of any in the area, Idriss said, and is led by Ashraf Yassin, a coach of the U.S. national squash team. 

Membership in the United States Padel Association has grown from 325 members in 2021 to 1,750 members in 2023 to more than 2,500 members this year. Those numbers represent about 5% of the total number of padel players in the U.S., according to the association.

That pales in comparison with the estimated 13.6 million pickleball players in the U.S., according to the 2024 Sports & Fitness Industry Association, but Idriss said he sees padel overtaking pickleball in popularity in the U.S. within the next five years.

“It doesn’t matter your age, if you’re an athlete or beginner, you can get in the court and you can play,” he said. “The learning curve is very short, but the more you play, the better you get.”

In Morristown, Centercourt Club & Sports opened three indoor padel courts in May. The club opened another three outdoor courts this week.

“It’s the perfect timing. People love the sport,” said Richy Bailey, the director of padel at Centercourt and the former head coach of the Finnish national padel team. Bailey moved this spring from Spain, where he had played the sport since the early 1990s.

“Everything is looking like it’s got the making for a big explosion of courts everywhere here,” he said. “I see the faces of everyone trying it out here — the sport’s going to continue to grow.”

Brad Hoffman plans to open his club, CrownPadel, in Princeton by Labor Day. He and his partners are in discussions to open another five CrownPadel locations in North Jersey and Westchester within the next year or so.

“Our motto is ‘padel for the masses.’ We want to make the sport accessible to everybody,” he said.

The clubs will be operated by HiPadel, a company that runs padel clubs in the U.S. The founder, Miquel Montero de Quadras, who came to the U.S. from Spain two years ago, called padel “the chess of racket sports.”

“It’s relatively easy to start playing padel, but it’s relatively difficult to master,” he said. “You have fun the first day, then you realize someone plays completely differently than you, and you start learning all the different shots.”

Persson grew up in Leonia, playing a mix of racket sports — tennis, platform tennis and squash. He played college tennis at Stevens Institute of Technology and more recently competed in national pickleball tournaments.

He first played padel in 2022 when Padel Haus opened in Brooklyn and had played the sport sporadically until this spring, when clubs began opening in New Jersey.

More: Two massive pickleball complexes to open in North Jersey in next year

“People love racket sports. It’s such a wave right now,” he said. “Pickleball has done an unbelievable job for the whole racket sport industry, getting people playing. Padel takes it to the next level. It’s a cool evolution for a lot of people. It’s more athletic.”

The points in padel tend to be longer and more complex than in tennis because the walls keep the ball in play. Because it’s a doubles game and played on a smaller court, padel is inherently social, Persson said.

“It’s a community sport. Similar to pickleball, it brings people together,” he said. “That’s what’s drawing people to play — it’s a great chance to meet new people, socialize with friends and have a good time.”

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