Padel's American Moment: PPL Opener Puts the Sport on National TV

For one long weekend in Manhattan, padel looked very much like an American major-league sport. The Pro Padel League opened its 2026 season at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York from 9 to 12 July, with all ten franchises in action — and, for the first time in the league's history, a national television audience watching on CNBC.

Matrix and Stingrays take New York

On court, the DC Matrix claimed the men's title at the opener, led by Jofre and Arroyo, while the San Diego Stingrays — with Virseda and Jensen — took the women's crown. From New York, the season moves through five events in total, including stops in Playa del Carmen and Guadalajara, before culminating in the City's Cup finale in Miami.

The Hammerstein Ballroom, better known for concerts than sport, was a statement of intent in itself: padel in the US is no longer content with suburban warehouse courts. It wants prime-time stages.

$15 million says this is real

The money backs up the ambition. In March 2026 the PPL closed a $15 million Series A round led by Left Lane Capital, with Charlotte Hornets co-owner Rick Schnall among the investors — coming on top of a $10 million seed round in 2025. In two years, the league has raised $25 million to professionalise American padel.

It is not the only capital flowing into the sport. Sunrise Padel has raised a $50 million second fund to build courts, and the United States Padel Association projects 20,000 courts and 15 million American players by 2030. Today the count stands at 688 courts across 31 states — which is exactly why investors see so much room to grow.

Jeter vs Butler: the star-power play

American padel has also learned the value of celebrity. January's Reserve Cup in Miami put up a $600,000 prize purse and handed the team captaincies to Yankees legend Derek Jeter and NBA star Jimmy Butler, with world-class players such as Coello, Tapia, Galán and Stupaczuk on court. A second edition followed in Marbella from 18 to 20 June, this time adding a new women's division.

The famous names keep coming. Tom Holland has invested in padel and launched the BERO Padel Classic pro-am, while Lionel Messi, Daddy Yankee and Max Verstappen are among the global stars connected to the sport. Few young sports have assembled a celebrity roster this quickly.

The 2030 bet

Zoom out and the American surge is part of something bigger. The International Padel Federation counts more than 35 million players and over 77,000 courts across 150 countries — 14,000 of those courts added in 2025 alone. The US is arriving late to that party, but with venture capital, national TV and A-list ambassadors, it is arriving loudly.

The next checkpoint comes soon enough: the PPL caravan heads for Playa del Carmen and Guadalajara, and by the time the City's Cup is decided in Miami, American padel will know whether its New York moment was a peak — or just the start of the climb.