Just this past week, we published an article about how surprising the lack of padel clubs in the Phoenix area is. Perhaps equally surprising, though, is the fact that El Paso, Texas will soon have more padel clubs than states like Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington, or Virginia currently do.
This is thanks to a trio of clubs scattered around El Paso including Padel Club El Paso (which just opened last weekend), Padel 9 Nine (whose nine courts are going up as we speak), and Padel Paso (which we only recently became aware of in the past few days and still looks to be a ways off from opening).
Of course, given El Paso’s proximity to Mexico — where padel was not only invented but is currently also much more popular and well-known — it makes sense that this border town would have more clubs than say Columbus, Indianapolis, or Seattle (all of which are bigger but don’t have any padel clubs yet).
Even so, I personally still find it surprising that Texas’s sixth-largest city will be roughly on par with cities like Dallas, New York, San Diego, and San Francisco in terms of the number of clubs they offer, and for the time being at least, will rank ahead of major cities like Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, and Philadelphia.
Granted, those cities will likely also see explosive growth over the coming year thanks to the likes of Alma Padel (which is opening soon in Chicago’s new padel riviera), Ballers (which is bringing multiple racket sports to an old power plant in Philly) and Padel Haus (which has plans to eventually open in Atlanta and Denver).
But for now El Paso looks to be an unlikely leader when it comes to the growth of padel in the U.S. And a trip to the “Sun City” may wind up being on the itineraries of more padel addicts in 2025 than anyone might have ever predicted. In fact, I look forward to visiting soon myself.
Want to get cutting-edge padel news and updates like this delivered directly to your inbox each week? Simply click here to sign up for our free “State of the Game” newsletter now.
