Earlier this year, we reported on the impressive early-stage success of Connecticut’s first-ever padel (and pickleball) club, The Sports Haus, in Norwalk. Now, we’re back with some exciting news about another big padel (and pickleball) club that will be opening in the state about 45 miles further up I-95 in Branford.
While Smash Padel and Pickleball Club is similar to The Sports Haus in many ways, it’s also a fairly unique project in the U.S. padel world as I recently learned from a conversation with their incredibly down-to-Earth co-founder Sam Markle.
For instance, whereas most U.S. padel club founders I’ve spoken with come from tennis backgrounds, Markle actually played college basketball in the U.S. before playing professionally in Ireland (where a teammate from Spain first introduced him to padel).
What’s more, whereas many founders I’ve interviewed formerly worked in finance or successfully sold their businesses, Markle is an actual court builder in every sense of the phrase. In fact, he is also the co-founder of Hinding Padel Construction along with the two brothers who own The Hinding Group, which is one of the largest tennis and pickleball court builders in the Northeast.
Bringing It All Back Home
Another notable aspect of Markle’s background is that unlike so many others in the U.S. who have only just discovered padel within the past couple of years, the sport has actually been on his radar for nearly a decade now.
Of his introduction to padel through his Spanish teammate and friend in Ireland, Markle tells me, “I always found it very intriguing how this sport was becoming so popular in other areas of the world, but nobody at home had ever heard of it.”
Despite several stints working in software and tech sales, Markle says padel was always “top of mind” and one day he decided to take action.
He recalls, “I reached out to a padel court manufacturer because I had the vision of potentially opening up my own padel court facility here in the States, and they said, ‘You should really reach out to these guys [the Hinding brothers]. They’re also in Connecticut and they have a similar vision.’
Here we are three years later and we have a three-man partnership to build and install padel courts here in the U.S. And on top of that, we’re building our own facility here locally on the shoreline of Connecticut — that will hopefully be open later this year.”
The Perfect Marriage
Markle delves a bit further into each of his partner’s particular areas of expertise, before explaining, “We kind of have the perfect marriage of having crews who are experienced in installing synthetic grass and turf and crews that are experts in court installation.” Which brings up another unique aspect of this project…
To my knowledge, when Smash Padel and Pickle Club opens it will be the only club in the U.S. that is owned and operated by the same people who actually built and installed the courts (except for perhaps PADELphia in PA, whose owners also have deep court-building connections).
Speaking of courts, unlike so many other clubs around the country — and especially in the Northeast — Smash will feature both two indoor and two outdoor padel courts (though the pickleball courts will all be indoors).
And in order to build buzz around the sport ahead of the launch of Smash, Hinding Padel Construction also erected a temporary court at a local tennis club.
Of this “try-before-you-buy” approach, Markle says, “We did a plated system at the club I belong to here, called Guilford Racquet Club, to garner interest and allow people to play. A lot of tennis players have now already converted into padel players locally.”
Small State, Big Potential
When I confess my lack of geographical expertise about Connecticut and asks if he sees The Sports Haus as competition, Markle casually responds, “We’re close to an hour north from them, so they are definitely a different demographic. Our club is more dedicated to the shoreline area of Connecticut north of New Haven — and they are more in that Fairfield County area. I love what they’re doing and they have a very similar philosophy.”
He then goes on to point out another unique aspect of Smash:
“We’re building out our six pickleball courts in a fashion where we can convert the majority of them into two more padel courts. We started out with plans for more pickleball courts than padel courts, but along with our small group of investors we saw the potential the other way. So, we kind of changed our direction and we are building it in a way that it could be all padel in the future.”
As our conversation continues, I can sense Markle’s immense passion and pride for the project as he tells me about everything from their in-house, husband-and-wife architectural team who grew up playing padel in Argentina… to the club’s planned social offerings… to the recent padel coaching certification program he completed in order to teach others the game.
Ultimately Markle says, “It’s really cool to see that what was once a foreign sport will now be in my backyard. And now I’m fully entrenched in hopefully democratizing the sport across the country. I think there is a mission behind building more of the courts for people to enjoy. Obviously we’ve seen what pickleball can do for people, and I think padel could do the same — if not more.”
Once open you can visit Smash Padel and Pickle Club at 61 East Industrial Road, Branford, CT 06405. In the meantime, you can visit their website or follow them on Instagram for updates.
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