Padel Is the Glue — And the Business Case for Why Racquet Sports Belong in Every Health Club

If your club doesn’t offer racquet sports, you might think this article isn’t for you. But I’d argue it’s exactly for you.

Because something is happening — something that will impact how your members play, connect and choose their next club. It’s a shift that mirrors what CrossFit did for community, what boutique fitness did for specialization and what pickleball did for hype.

And at the center of it all? Padel.

This isn’t about chasing the latest trend. This is about owning the next category.

The Untapped Opportunity in Racquet Sports

Tennis is the legacy.
Pickleball is the disruptor.
Padel is the glue — and the future of racquet sports as a unified, investable and highly scalable business model.

Too often, operators view racquet sports as siloed: tennis over here, pickleball over there, squash if you’re lucky. But when we treat these sports as isolated offerings, we stay fragmented — operationally and financially. We become prone to overbuilding, underdelivering or burning out.

But together?

We become a category — a globally investable vertical with long-term retention, robust ancillary revenue and a built-in community component. This is not a fitness trend with a five-year shelf life. Racquet sports have been around for over a century. Padel just gives us the blueprint to scale them better.

Why Health Clubs Should Care

You might be asking: Why should my health club — with no courts today — care about racquet sports?

Here’s why:

• Retention: Racquet players don’t leave. They come 3–5x per week. They play in leagues. They book lessons. They bring friends. They form habits that last decades.
• Revenue Diversity: Court fees, clinics, lessons, tournaments, events, pro shop sales, memberships, sponsorships — every touchpoint adds margin.
• Differentiation: In saturated fitness markets, racquet programming creates instant identity. You’re not just a gym — you’re a destination.
• Demographic Reach: These sports transcend generations. They welcome youth, adults, seniors, and families. Few fitness modalities do that.
• Efficient Footprint: Padel courts are compact, scalable, and modular. Indoor or outdoor, they integrate seamlessly into existing properties — including underutilized turf or court spaces.

This isn’t about cannibalizing your current offering. It’s about extending it — tapping into a thriving, underserved consumer base that’s actively looking for places to play.

Learning from the Past

So how did we get here?

Tennis stalled. It inspired passion but lacked access, scalability and pathways to ownership. We developed great coaches, but rarely gave them a stake. We built clubs, but rarely future-proofed them.

Pickleball surged. It was fast, fun and accessible — the perfect storm for rapid adoption. But with low barriers to entry came fragmented operators, inconsistent programming and overbuilt local markets. The hype led; the infrastructure lagged.

Padel offers a second chance. It’s the sweet spot — dynamic enough to draw in younger players, but social and approachable for older demographics. And it’s globally proven: in Spain, padel has more registered players than tennis. In Mexico, the market is booming. In the U.S., it’s just getting started — and the timing couldn’t be better.

A Model Built to Scale

At Blue Chip Sports Management, we’ve been building racquet ecosystems for over 15 years. We’ve learned what works, what scales and — most importantly — what sticks.

With Epic Padel Inc., we’re leveraging those lessons to build something bigger:

• Multi-sport clubs that integrate tennis, pickleball, padel, and fitness
• Recurring revenue streams from coaching, events, tech, and memberships
• Smart infrastructure that aligns investment with long-term returns
• Brand partnerships and programming that deepen engagement across age groups and interests

We don’t just operate courts. We build systems — and we build them to last.

Padel Is the Gateway — Not the End Game

Here’s the real insight: this isn’t about padel versus tennis or pickleball. This is about padel as the gateway to an entire racquet sports strategy.

It’s the unifier. The glue. The model that shows us what modern racquet clubs can be:

• Less siloed.
• More social.
• Tech-integrated.
• Revenue-driven.
• And deeply community-focused.

If you’re a health club operator, ask yourself: What if the future of my club isn’t more treadmills — but more tribes? Tribes that meet on courts. That train together. That stay for years, not months.

Final Serve

We’re not betting on a fad. We’re building the infrastructure of the future.

So whether you have five courts, zero courts or just a blank wall and a vision — now’s the time to rethink what’s possible.

Padel is here. The racquet sports category is coalescing. And the next era of health club growth might just be spelled: P-A-D-E-L.

Are you in?