|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
(Photo courtesy: Wilson)
Padel, a racquet sport with more than 25 million active players in 110 countries, is about to blow up in South Florida.
The company known as Padel X recently opened one of the biggest padel clubs in the U.S. in Downtown Miami at 141 NE 13 Terr., and it’s right next door to the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts.
The Padel X ownership group has opened 10 premium courts at that location, but the momentum won’t stop there. The Miami club is just the beginning. It is the first of three South Florida Padel X clubs to open this year, with Boca Raton and West Palm Beach to follow.
Padel X’s ownership group – including co-founders Juan Pablo Leria and Nalle Grinda, is making a $10 million initial investment on those first three clubs. In addition, within the next five years, the goal is to open 30 Padel X clubs throughout the U.S.
“We believe the ‘Padel Revolution’ in the U.S. is here to stay,” said Leria, who also is the CEO of the company. “We expect to see an explosive growth of padel clubs in the next couple of years.”
“Padel X is a dynamic and innovating brand. Padel has been a rather informal industry in the past decades, and we intend to help professionalize the sport, and that’s why we chose our name. We want to elevate padel to the Power of X.”
Grinda, who is also Padel X’s chief director of sport, played pro padel in his native France from 2004 to 2010. In 2010, he quit his pro career and moved to Miami to work in real estate.
Still, he couldn’t forget about padel and his passion for the sport.
“There was no padel in Miami at the time,” Grinda said. “I started building a few courts, introducing the sport to my friends on the beach. We kept on inviting people to play, and they ended up getting got hooked with the game.”
“Padel is happening now in the U.S., but it’s been happening in Europe and Latin America for the past 30 years,” Grinda said. “This is the fastest growing sport globally today.”
While Grinda has strong credentials as a pro padel player, Leria has more than 20 years of experience managing award-winning wellness clubs, padel facilities and other hospitality-type venues.
The whole Padel X team shares a passion for sports, which makes it a passion project.
Padel is played on an enclosed court, with tempered glass walls behind each end line. Balls are in play off the walls or off the side fencing as long as they bounce once on the court.
Scoring is identical to tennis. The game is most popular in Spain, where there are 3.7-million players, and in Argentina, where there are 2.1 million players.
Amazingly, padel is more popular than tennis in both of those countries.
The sport is catching on all over the world. For example, padel could make its Olympic debut in 2032 in Brisbane, Australia.
Celebrities are getting the bug, too. Argentina native and soccer superstar Lionel Messi, now of Inter Miami, is known to be a huge padel fan. The same can be said of Brits such as retired soccer star David Beckham, now the president/co-owner of Inter Miami, and Andy Murray, a former World No. 1 in tennis. Spain’s Rafael Nadal – on the short list of the greatest tennis players ever – has padel courts at his tennis academy in Mallorca.
Americans are catching on, too. In the U.S., as of the end of 2023, there were 70 padel venues with more than 250 total courts. That’s a huge increase from just 30 padel venues in 2022.
Tournaments also are on the rise. The U.S. Padel Association hosted 15 tournaments in 2022. That number increased to 40 last year. This year, the number of tournaments is projected to rise to more than 75.
Grinda, who said they will start a top-of-the-line padel academy for all level of players, is confident that this sport will be a major hit in the U.S. market.
“We want to innovate with video technology on our courts, our Level Up training program and a vast array of padel tournaments, clinics and experiences,” Grinda said.
Padel X has a pioneering recycling program.
“With the recycled waste from padel balls and plastic bottles, we produce the apparel and furniture in all our clubs,” Leria said.
“Each item will show the number of recycled bottles needed. For example, 10 bottles of plastic for a T-shirt or 1,550 bottles to manufacture one of our iconic benches.”
Leria said padel is relatively unknown for Americans – but not for long.
“We think Americans are going to adopt this sport because it is dynamic, sophisticated, and social,” Leria said. “It’s a cool lifestyle.”
Of the roughly 250 padel courts in the U.S., 80 of them are in Miami. That makes Miami the epicenter of the sport in this country.
Leria sees a big demand for padel courts in Florida with little availability at peak hours between 4 p.m. and midnight. And he believes, as new clubs open in the coming years, players will continue to flock to Padel X because of its superior club experience.
The official court manufacturer of Padel X is MejorSet, which is the official court supplier for Premier pro circuit. Lacoste is the official clothing line of Padel X club staff and is branded on the nets and net posts.
ABOUT US:
For more Miami community news, look no further than Miami Community Newspapers. This Miami online group of newspapers covers a variety of topics about the local community and beyond. Miami’s Community Newspapers offers daily news, online resources, podcasts and other multimedia content to keep readers informed. With topics ranging from local news to community events, Miami’s Community Newspapers is the ideal source for staying up to date with the latest news and happenings in the area.
This family-owned media company publishes more than a dozen neighborhood publications, magazines, special sections on their websites, newsletters, as well as distributing them in print throughout Miami Dade County from Aventura, Sunny Isles Beach, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Brickell, Coconut Grove, Pinecrest, South Miami, Kendall, Palmetto Bay, Cutler Bay and Homestead. Each online publication and print editions provide comprehensive coverage of local news, events, business updates, lifestyle features, and local initiatives within its respective community.
Additionally, the newspaper has exclusive Miami community podcasts, providing listeners with an in-depth look into Miami’s culture. Whether you’re looking for local Miami news, or podcasts, Miami’s Community Newspapers has you covered. For more information, be sure to check out: https://communitynewspapers.com.
If you have any questions, feel free to email Michael@communitynewspapers.com or Grant@communitynewspapers.com.
