New padel club set to make a racket in Syosset as chain aims to grow popularity of European sport on Long Island
A rendering of the new padel club set to open at the Long Island Sports Hub in Syosset next month. Credit: Padel&
A new European sports club chain is hoping to give pickleball a run for its money as it aims to grow the presence of padel in the United States with the opening of a new location on Long Island.
Padel&, a fledgling chain of padel courts with one recently opened in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, plans to open a 20,000-square-foot, four-court location on the second floor of the Long Island Sports Hub, an indoor sports complex in Syosset, according to the chain's management. The sports club, which will offer monthly memberships for $149 a month, is scheduled to open Nov. 15.
The chain's Greenpoint club, at 73 West St., is its first facility in the United States.
Potential competitors of the chain include East Hampton's Brisas and Hampton Racquet sports clubs, Privé Padel in Montauk, and Racquet Lounge and Triangle Tennis Club, both of Southampton, according to the United States Padel Association.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
- Padel&, a fledgling chain of padel clubs, is planning to open in Syosset next month.
- Typically played with two teams of two, padel uses a smaller court than tennis and incorporates elements of squash.
- Padel is expected to grow exponentially nationwide in the next two years due in large part to investments in new courts and clubs dedicated to the sport.
Padel, invented in 1969 by Mexican tennis enthusiast Enrique Corcuera, according to the International Padel Federation, is a racket sport played on an enclosed court smaller than a tennis court but larger than a pickleball court. It combines elements of squash and tennis and allows players to use perforated paddles to hit balls off the walls toward opponents.
“I would say padel is kind of right between pickleball and tennis,” said Olof Sandros-Alper, club manager of Padel in Greenpoint, which opened in July. “You run a little more, it’s a little more competitive and there’s some more strategy.”
In addition to the courts, which measure 66-by-33 feet, the Syosset club will feature a sauna, cold plunge, lounge area, pro shop, locker rooms and showers, Sandros-Alper said.
The company’s owners are hoping to transfer the popularity of the sport in Europe stateside, said Sandros-Alper. Syosset, he said, was a good testing ground given its more affluent residency and established interest in racket sports like tennis and pickleball.
The median household income in Syosset was $187,936 in 2023, higher than Nassau's median income of $143,408 and Suffolk's $128,329, according to Data USA, an aggregator of public government data.
Padel& opened its first padel court in the U.S. in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, in July. Credit: Padel&
Padel& was founded by Swedish brothers and entrepreneurs Markus and Rikard Hellqvist, who launched Padel United of Sweden in 2018, Sandros-Alper said. That company was later merged with PDL Group in 2022, another Sweden-based padel chain, which grew the company’s total number of club locations to over 100.
While the company did not announce any specific plans for additional locations on Long Island or in New York City, Sandros-Alper said Padel& wants to grow the sport regionally.
“I think that if we get as a good of a reception as we have in Greenpoint … we’ll be looking to copy and paste this in the tristate area and the northeast and from there go beyond,” he said.
Padel growing in popularity
The padel market has grown in recent years, though popularity of the sport has largely been concentrated in Europe and Latin America, according to a 2025 research report from Madrid, Spain-based Playtomic, a racket sports app that connects players with clubs, and a division of PricewaterhouseCoopers of London.
Last year, 3,283 new padel clubs — roughly nine a day — opened across countries, representing a 26% increase from 2023, according to Playtomic research. In the United States, 352 padel clubs opened last year.
While the number of padel courts remains lower than in Europe, industry observers anticipate exponential growth in the sport and number of clubs in the next two years, according to the report.
The global padel industry, valued at $250.75 million last year, is expected to grow to $397.76 million by 2033, with an annual growth rate of about 8%, according to Market Growth Reports, a global market research firm.
“We anticipate padel will be among the fastest-growing sports in the country over the next few years," Alex Kerman, senior director and head of research at the Silver Spring, Maryland-based Sports & Fitness Industry Association, said in a statement.
However, Kerman said, club operators may find it harder to identify suitable real estate given the requirements of the sport.
“Pickleball benefits from its accessibility — you can play it virtually anywhere. ... Padel, on the other hand, requires specialized courts with walls, which are more expensive and less widely available,” he said.
More than 19.8 million Americans played pickleball in 2024, up sizably from the 3.5 million who played the sport in 2019, according to a 2025 report from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association. There were nearly 70,000 pickleball courts in the U.S. in 2024, according to stats from USA Pickleball, the official governing body for the sport in the United States.
Still, Kerman said there is room for growth for padel, especially as more courts are built.
“We expect the sport’s growth to accelerate significantly once parks and recreation departments begin building dedicated padel courts,” Kerman said.
