The young, urbane, health-conscious executives of San Diego’s gigantic tech industry will soon have a new place to play, with Padel N9NE set to open its doors in upmarket Sorrento Valley in April.
The club, situated on a large biotech campus just seven minutes from the ocean, has eight outdoor courts, two of which are stadium courts with heated seating for 500 spectators. Its 45,000 sq ft fitness centre has indoor and outdoor training areas, yoga rooms, climbing walls, two full-size basketball courts, recovery room, golf simulator bays, juice bar, locker rooms, sauna, cold plunge and steam rooms.
A lavish clubhouse will feature a huge viewing balcony, guest firepits, pro shop, Mexican and Filippino restaurants, Amazon lockers, UPS store, Copa Vida bar serving, beer, wine and coffees, and a barbershop. Padel N9NE’s mantra is, ‘Come, play and stay all day.’
The Padel State hooked up with Canadian-born founder, Aaron Hasnain, and Operations Manager, Frederik Wittrup Andersen, a Dane who arrived in the U.S. via Australia. Like many well-heeled young San Diego inhabitants, they are tech guys. Aaron is Vice-President, Business Development & Alliance Management at Gossamer Bio, while Andersen is Revenue Operations Analyst at Pixelz.
Aaron and Frederik are well aware that the so-called ‘avocado on toast’ late-Millennial and Gen-Z demographic they’re surrounded by in Sorrento Valley is their prime customer base, gift-wrapped for padel conversion due to their desire for an active lifestyle and love of new, social experiences.
Aaron tells us: “A lot of these young people were affected most by the pandemic and many now work remotely, so they’re dying to come out, be active, be social, meet new people. There’s this huge untapped market. These are typically people who have a higher disposable income, and they’re spending money on fitness, yoga, spin classes etc. We want to capture a big piece of that market, because we know that when people try this sport, they fall in love with it.”
Padel N9NE won’t be ringfenced for young tech executives, of course. There’s San Diego’s existing racquet sport-playing communities who are also ripe for conversion, plus 50+ age groups, with their empty nests, surplus income and desire to play something social and easy on the body that gets their competitive juices flowing.
San Diego has three existing padel facilities which Aaron calls “more of a lower-brow offering.” He adds: “They have done a really good job of building the ecosystem, but none of them have provided an elevated experience or feel. We’re bringing something more exciting, amenity-rich and premium.”
As you might expect, ‘premium’ means a reasonably substantial monthly membership fee: $199 for unlimited court time, or $349 for unlimited access to all amenities. Guests are welcome, but pay more.
At the time of writing, court foundations are being laid and courts are set to be erected in mid-February, with a ‘soft launch’ of the club sometime in April and a full opening of the clubhouse in August. Courts will be open every day from 6am-10pm and there will be a rough maximum of 800 members.
Let’s belatedly tackle the obvious question; why ‘Padel N9NE?’ Several reasons, according to founder Aaron. The first is perhaps a little corny, but we do agree: “Every time I play padel, I’m on cloud nine!” The next refers to the nine types of overhead padel shot (topspin smash, flat smash, vibora, bendeja, gancho, rulo, bajada, fake smash and the pop-out). Lastly, N9NE refers to the club’s bar and restaurants as the ‘ninth court’ (as in the 19th hole of a golf club).
Aaron says his motivation to build a padel club came from the popularity of the court he built in his back yard getting “a little out of hand!” He says he needs “to give my wife and kids a break” from visitors knocking on the door wanting their regular padel fix.
The idea really started to gain momentum when he partnered with Alexandria, a multi-billion dollar real estate company that builds campuses for life science companies. Their shared vision, backed by a robust investor group, is to build premium padel facilities in these bio tech innovation clusters all over America.
“People are only just hearing about Padel N9NE, but we will be a topic of conversation over the next five to 10 years,” asserts Aaron. “That’s based on our ability to execute on a plan and vision, hiring the right people, the way we set up our procedures, infrastructure and a customer-centric model. All these things, combined with our passion for the sport, are going to make a winning business recipe.
“We’ll bring a very different view to padel. We’re not in the business of cutting corners or doing things on the cheap just to take advantage of this massive padel wave and get our small sliver of it. We’re here to create a dominant and meaningful player in the padel space, which is exciting, profitable and will be here for the long run.”
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