It’s unlikely that any racket sport is going to squash pickleball, but one is increasing in popularity — and there are new places to play in Colorado.
“In America, padel is just starting to get on the map,” said Colleen Campbell, coordinator of the padel program at Parker Racquet Club, which was the first place to introduce the sport to Colorado, in 2024. “Pickleball is saturated. Padel is the fastest-growing sport in the world.”
Padel originated in Mexico in the 1960s, and then became popular in Spain and around Europe. It’s taken hold in Florida, and is now expanding across the United States. A June report by Playtomic, an app for racket sports, estimated that in 2024, about 30 million people played padel worldwide. This year, padel courts — both indoors and outdoors — are opening in Denver, Aspen and Boulder.
Similar to squash, padel is played with walls around the court, but these walls are made of thick tempered glass, creating a see-through roofless cube on outdoor courts. The floor of these courts is a combination of artificial turf covering silica sand, giving the ball (and your feet) a soft little bounce. And, as the name implies, the game is played with a thick paddle, not a racket. Padel is played over a net, uses tennis balls, and is scored like tennis. The game typically requires four people.
“I think the advantage of padel against tennis or pickleball is that it’s more athletic and more social,” said Manuel Quiroz, who coordinates padel at the Parker Racquet Club. “It’s easy to learn and hard to master. It’s fun and dynamic and another way to be competitive.” He also called the sport “addictive” and “hard not to like.”
Use your brain
At the Aspen Meadows Racquet Sports Center, Jose Carlos Rubia, the head pro and general manager of Wynwood Padel in Miami, was giving lessons one day last month.
Players learn to let the ball hit the glass wall before hitting it — unlike tennis, where a ball past the line is out. This critical difference is a brain workout, too.
“You have to react backwards to go forwards,” Campbell explained. “It’s fun to play off the glass, and it’s good for my brain.”
Alex Rebeiz, owner/CEO of Cascades Tennis, LLC, the management company that runs the center, said, “As a racket sports management company, we are always looking to identify new and upcoming trends to provide to our clients.” Rebeiz noted that they are bringing padel pros from South Africa, Croatia and other locales to lead events on the court this summer.
One of the newest places to play padel is at Cloud 9 Park at 9+CO in Denver. You can rent the equipment on site, and make a reservation through the Aspen Padel Club website — and it’s free during off-peak hours. There is one court for four players outside; a vending machine to rent the rackets will soon be operational.
Evan Brown, founder of the Aspen Padel Club and the visionary behind the court at Cloud 9 Park, gets excited when he talks about it possibly being the first free padel court in the country.
“I want padel to be accessible, and I think it’s great that space was set aside here, rather than for another building, to let people come together to play,” Brown said.
If you want to try it
At the Parker Racquet Club, the padel court is outside. While it’s open year-round, Quiroz said that the courts are closed when it’s raining or snowing. The club is open to the public and offers memberships to play pickleball, tennis or padel. Costs vary for members or guests, and play can include a lesson. There are men’s, women’s and mixed shuttle plays, as well as leagues.
Other places to play:
- Padel Haus Denver is expected to open in the late summer or early fall with five indoor courts in the RiNo neighborhood, encouraging year-round play. There are already Padel Haus locations in New York, Atlanta and Nashville. The site will offer member and non-member court time.
- The Racket Social Club (which also has locations in Texas and Georgia) in Englewood has open play reservations that depend on skill level.
- Smash Padel in Boulder has a free introductory class, then member and non-member rates that fluctuate based on whether a lesson is included or it’s a peak court time.
- The Aspen Meadows Racquet Sports Center is open to the public for lessons and play time, May through early October, depending on the weather.
“I feel that clients who have played racquetball or squash in their past, with a complement of tennis, have been more eager to try padel,” said Rebeiz. “We also have a large international clientele who play it in their respective country, so it’s a bonus for them to see the sport available here in Aspen.”
Padel could be coming to a city near you soon: Olympus Padel is scheduled to open in Colorado Springs in September and Padel Haus in Denver’s RiNo neighborhood will be opening this year.
“The challenge for the padel community is to get the sport known,” said Quiroz. “Ninety percent of people in the United States don’t have any idea what padel is, and they need to get to know the sport. The wave is right now.”