Racquet & Paddle Sports Meeting Consists of Padel Courtroom - Tennis Industry Information

[Jannette Cuomo]

Will The Sport Of Padel Become A Reality In The USA?™

Considered the fastest growing racket sport in the world, international paddle or padel can be described as a hybrid game that combines the unique characteristics of tennis, squash, and racquetball. Padel is mainly played doubles. The court is one third the size of a tennis court enclosed with wire mesh and glass walls which you can play off when you need to. Rules are a mixture of squash and tennis, and use the same scoring system as tennis. If you have not seen a game or padel court before, check this explanatory video.

I have been following -online- the development of padel in the United States for about two years, and you may agree -or not-the sport does not seem to develop at the speed many of us expected. After some efforts there are a few venues with padel courts mainly located in Huston, TX, Miami, FL (very focused on Spanish speaking market), Los Angeles, CA. A few Spanish entrepreneurs have established themselves in US with hopes to develop the sport, including The Padel Box and Padel Hub who earned an entrepreneurship contest in Spain for their padel internationalization project, and set exhibition courts during the tennis Masters in Miami.. However, the US market does not seem to embrace this sport.

Obviously, The US market seems promising, and serious development of the sport in this market could mean millions of dollars for court manufacturers, importers, distributors, million in sales of padel gear and balls, and millions a year spent on padel lessons. Some reasons why padel does not seem to explode in the US may be:

- Barriers to entry : high requisites to obtain investors visa, high initial costs to develop a new sport (mobile court, exhibitions, etc)

- Poor marketing

- No real interest

- The pre-existance of similar forms of paddle sports like paddle (mainly played in California) or platform tennis.

Developments in Europe

Introduced in the 80’s, the sport has really boomed in Spain and Argentina. Spain counts with nearly 10,000 padel courts (about the same number that Argentina where the game developed earlier), approximately 4 million regular players, and the number of registered players is continuously increasing. Sales of paddles in Spain are nearly four times that of tennis rackets - note that paddles fail quite easier than tennis rackets. Some of the main reasons for this growth include:

- The game is fun at all levels of play and very social.

Less physically demanding: Played doubles (always) in a smaller court - about 1/3 of a tennis court, and thus highly profitable.

Underhand serve (easier compared to the overhead tennis serve)

During the last two years, padel seems to be developing fast in Portugal and padel bags Italy, South of France (Rolad Garros “The French Open” featured padel courts inside its grounds during the Grand Slam tournament.) Developments come mainly from private initiative (not an expansion plan from the sport’s governing body). More and more, tennis club committees understand padel is not a threat to tennis, rather a profitable compliment attracting non-tennis players male and female, and some who dropped the tennis rackets years ago.

I have followed developments in the UK, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, and Holland. These markets seem to "import" the padel concept as many citizens travel to Spain during holidays and may demand padel facilities back at home. In addition, private investors may see a good business opportunities for indoor facilities since courts are smaller and rental paid by 4 people, therefore maximizing expensive indoor space and revenues.