A professional league, called Pro Padel League (PPL), has emerged in North America as the world’s fastest-growing or most ambitious racquet sport. The league is set to begin broadcasting matches to some 75 million households with the start of its inaugural season in March 2023.
PPL was founded in 2021 by Marcos del Pilar, a Spaniard with a background in sales and marketing, and Keith Stein, a Canadian attorney. In addition to serving as the league’s CEO, Del Pilar is himself a former professional player and coach and serves as president of the U.S. Padel Association. With Stein and the rest of his team – Cary Kaplan (CCO), Joel Meyerson (CFO), Nancy Malone (special advisor & operations director), Matt Warren (technology director) and Andreas Kloppenborg (legal counsel) – Del Pilar has laid out a four-year plan to help pádel take root in the U.S. and Canada.
The plan’s novelty with respect to the sport is to adopt the American model of franchise teams in inter-city competition. There will be six teams – Miami, New York, Washington, Los Angeles, San Diego and Orlando, according to the Clúster Internacional del Pádel (CIP) – and all matches will be played at a neutral venue in Miami. Each team will comprise two men and two women. The season will last from May to July, with matches every Saturday and a championship in the last week of July.
Once 2024 rolls around, however, the teams should have their own venues in their respective cities, Del Pilar told the CIP. He also said that the league enjoys the backing of “some important names” who have “a lot of experience with other big leagues in the U.S. and Canada” and plans to broadcast the matches live.
For the moment, there will be seven recorded matches of one hour apiece broadcast on television and 14 highlight reels posted online and on social media.
