Can't agree that padel will overtake pickleball. Pickleball is a social sport played as doubles. Pickleball can easily use municipal tennis courts to play on, or to repurpose. Don't think we will see many padel courts in the parks. The cost of installing pickleball courts is significantly less than padel. Playing pickleball generally costs significantly less than padel. The pickleball infrastructure is becoming more robust. The sport has 2000+ ambassadors in the U.S. Thousands of indoor pickleball courts will be added each year - I estimate over 20,000 indoor courts over the next 5 years. As someone else mentioned in comments, pickleball appeals to all ages. I don't really see that happening with padel. Pickleball participation is growing in high schools and colleges and is set to explode. Pickleball will be big internationally. There is significant money and resources flowing into China, India, Australia, and many other countries. The English Open this week had 2,000 participants, up from 400 two years ago. Pickleball is reaching a tipping point internationally. Padel is a great sport and will have dual pickleball/padel players. I just think it is likely to pull more players from tennis than pickleball.
Interesting article! PADEL-LUX Pickleball has done wonders for the racquets community bringing more and more players back to the clubs, all while encouraging new racquets players to join the movement.
Richard Walsh
4mo
It will never overtake pickleball between the masses 😉 professionally its more fun to watch but for everyone, its got no chance
Chris Adamson
4mo
I don't think pickleball is going anywhere given the difficulty of building padel courts versus the cost of pickleball courts. That being said, the advertising and viewability of padel is massive already(money makes the world go round). Pickleball has done a great job of bringing in players but lacks big time in views. Most pickleball players have little interest/knowledge of the pro scene and are just happy to play something. It'll be interesting to watch it all unfold. I plan on playing both as much as possible regardless.
Rene Prats
4mo
Great explanation David… pickleball is about creating communities and breaking down barriers. 10-90 age range for pickleball and dont need to be an athlete to play. “We live to Play” Diadem Sports
Scott Smith
4mo
Agree David!
Without trying to incite or insult Padel devotees, the truth is, Padel will not come close to overtaking pickleball and anyone who says so is just trying to get attention-grabbing headlines or trying to get potential investors to take their venture seriously. At the risk of sounding arrogant or delusional myself, I firmly believe pickleball will FAR surpass all other racquet/paddle sports in participation. By magnitudes. Tennis may always have its elite status as the most athletically challenging and exclusive reputation, but that is also exactly why PB will dwarf tennis in popularity and participation. That and the excellent points regarding infrastructure you already made. And not only all that, PB has the potential to actually help achieve significant benefits to society as a whole. Both in health and fitness as well as people finding healthy ways to make new friends and connect with community. No other sport is able to offer these benefits to the degree that PB has and will continue to do. It is truly a juggernaut in every sense of the word.