Sep 30, 2026 · 35 min · 9 segments
Padel has exploded around the world. The bigger question now is what comes next.The International Padel Federation says the sport has grown to approximately 38 million players, 85,000 courts and…
Conner SchenkHost
And kind of going on the heels of that, just being in the States, you're saying it's on its way, kind of it's coming over.
Where do you think the delay was in the disconnect? Not even a disconnect, but how it's taken so much longer to kind of
get up here in the States? It's really interesting because the UK, the last four years have been transformative for this sport.
There's one country, Sweden, where it's been the kind of boom and bust case study of like how not to build paddle.
But Everywhere but Sweden, I would generally say, has built this because there's been a demand for it.
It's where any brand or business or sports league or tour internationally wants to try and crack.
So you ask anyone and paddle the kind of holy grail of what they want to do, like get into the US and make this a big sport.
Why hasn't it been? I think pickleball is the simple answer of like that's that's distracted people.
And in a good way, it's, you know, it's great to see something taking off, a new sport taking off in this day and age.
And I think that has been, you know, it's a homegrown sport and Americans love obviously like, you know, creating their own, which, you know, pickleball has been that.
And it's kept people kind of, you know, it's become this participation phenomenon, which is what paddle has done in other countries.
However, paddle, as I'm sure we're going to talk about, is now emerging here and in where it goes.
And kind of going on the heels of that, just being in the States, you're saying it's on its way, kind of it's coming over.
Where do you think the delay was in the disconnect? Not even a disconnect, but how it's taken so much longer to kind of
get up here in the States? It's really interesting because the UK, the last four years have been transformative for this sport.
There's one country, Sweden, where it's been the kind of boom and bust case study of like how not to build paddle.
But Everywhere but Sweden, I would generally say, has built this because there's been a demand for it.
It's where any brand or business or sports league or tour internationally wants to try and crack.
So you ask anyone and paddle the kind of holy grail of what they want to do, like get into the US and make this a big sport.
Why hasn't it been? I think pickleball is the simple answer of like that's that's distracted people.
And in a good way, it's, you know, it's great to see something taking off, a new sport taking off in this day and age.
And I think that has been, you know, it's a homegrown sport and Americans love obviously like, you know, creating their own, which, you know, pickleball has been that.
And it's kept people kind of, you know, it's become this participation phenomenon, which is what paddle has done in other countries.
However, paddle, as I'm sure we're going to talk about, is now emerging here and in where it goes.
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