Business case · Updated 2026
A padel court can earn
$60,000 to $120,000 a year
Padel court profitability comes down to one equation: hourly rate times booked hours. A US court renting at $40 to $80 per 90 minute slot and booking 25 to 35 hours a week grosses $60,000 to $120,000 a year, against a build cost of $40,000 to $75,000 outdoors or $35,000 to $65,000 indoors plus the building. That is a 2 to 4 year payback on the court itself, and a 3 to 5 year payback on a full club once rent, staff and fit-out are counted.
The United States had just over 1,000 courts across 31 states in April 2026, per the United States Padel Association, and added about 330 courts and 250 clubs in 2025, per Playtomic. The question for an investor is no longer whether the sport arrives but how crowded the local market is when it does.
Key figures
- Padel courts USA
- Just over 1,000 open across 31 states, April 2026 (USPA)
- Added in 2025
- 330 courts, 250 clubs (Playtomic Global Padel Report 2026)
- Worldwide
- 58,300+ courts, 20,900+ clubs, 19.4 million players (Playtomic)
- Padel court hourly rate
- $40–80 per 90 min slot; $30–60 per hour peak
- Gross per court per year
- $60,000–120,000 at 25–35 booked hours a week
- Membership
- $100–300 per month typical; $200–500 at premium clubs
- Club startup, 4 courts indoor
- $600,000–1.2 million fit-out before rent
- Payback
- 2–4 years per court; 3–5 years per club
Free to cite with attribution and a link. Full set at courtbaseline.com/reference.
Fig. 01
How much revenue does a padel court make?
Multiply the rate by the hours. At $60 per 90 minutes, a court booked 30 hours a week earns $1,200 a week, $62,400 a year, from court hire alone. Lessons, leagues, memberships and the bar sit on top and at a mature club are 30 to 50 percent of revenue.
The model
What does a padel club business plan look like?
A 4 court indoor club in leased warehouse space, the most common US format in 2026. Numbers are a representative mid-market case, not a forecast for any site.
| Line | Low | High | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Padel club startup cost | |||
| 4 courts installed, indoor | $140,000 | $260,000 | Kit, turf, lighting, install; see padel court cost |
| Building fit-out | $250,000 | $600,000 | HVAC, electrical, slab work, lobby, changing, bar |
| Soft costs and working capital | $100,000 | $250,000 | Design, permits, software, launch marketing, 6 months opex |
| Total padel court investment | $490,000 | $1,110,000 | Before any franchise fee |
| Padel club revenue, year 2 | |||
| Court hire, 4 courts at 25–35 h/wk | $210,000 | $290,000 | $60 per 90 min blended rate |
| Padel court membership, 150–300 members | $120,000 | $360,000 | $100–150 per month, often bundled with court credit |
| Coaching and clinics | $60,000 | $150,000 | Club takes 30–50% of lesson revenue |
| Leagues, events, bar, retail | $40,000 | $120,000 | |
| Gross revenue | $430,000 | $920,000 | |
| Operating costs | |||
| Rent, 20,000–25,000 sq ft | $120,000 | $300,000 | $6–12 per sq ft NNN; the line that makes or breaks the plan |
| Staff | $100,000 | $200,000 | Manager, front desk, part-time coaches on commission |
| Utilities, software, insurance, marketing, maintenance | $60,000 | $120,000 | |
| Padel club profit before debt service | $100,000 | $350,000 | Year 2; year 1 is typically breakeven or a loss |
The spread between the low and high cases is almost entirely rent and membership. A club paying $6 per square foot in a secondary market with 250 members is a different business from one paying $12 in a coastal metro with 120.
What is the padel court ROI and payback period?
Two to four years on a single court added to an existing facility, where the land, the building and the staff are already paid for. Three to five years on a standalone club, with year one at or below breakeven while the member base builds. Operators who report 24 month paybacks are usually counting the courts and not the rent.
The fastest paybacks in the US so far have come from courts added to existing venues: tennis clubs converting a court or two, country clubs, fitness chains and multi-sport facilities. They skip the fit-out and the launch cost and sell to a membership that is already there. A padel court rental business built from zero in leased space, a padel court business with no existing membership, is the slower, higher-upside model, and the padel club cost of entry is mostly rent.
The comparison that matters: a padel court costs about twice what a pickleball court costs and rents for two to three times the hourly rate to four players at a time. See padel vs pickleball for the per-court math.
What are padel court rental rates in the US?
$40 to $80 per 90 minute court booking, which is the standard slot length, or $30 to $60 per hour at peak. Split four ways that is $10 to $20 per player, which is the number that keeps courts full. Off-peak padel court booking price is typically 30 to 40 percent lower, and most clubs sell court credit inside a membership rather than discounting the posted rate.
Rates have held up as courts have multiplied, because padel is a 4 player booking and the per-person cost stays low. The pressure point is weekday daytime, which is where leagues, corporate bookings and lessons fill the calendar.
How do you open a padel club?
Site, courts, software, people, in that order. The site decides the rent and the clear height; the courts are a 10 to 16 week order; the software runs the bookings from day one; the people are a manager and coaches who bring players with them.
How to open a padel club in practical steps: secure a building with 8 meters of clear height and the column spacing for your court count (see indoor padel court); get a stamped engineering review of the slab; order courts from a padel court manufacturer with US installation references; choose padel court booking software before opening, since the marketplace apps are where new players find you; hire a head coach with a following; pre-sell founding memberships during the build.
Padel club software, a padel court booking system and the marketplace apps are one category in practice, and padel club management runs through them. Playtomic and Matchi are the two largest player-facing marketplaces; most clubs run one of them plus a point-of-sale. The booking system matters because the sport is social: players find partners and open matches inside the app, and a club that is not listed is invisible to the people most likely to book.
Is a padel club franchise worth it?
Sometimes, for a first-time operator who wants a tested format, a brand and a supply chain for courts. A padel franchise USA agreement typically costs an initial fee plus 5 to 8 percent of revenue, which is real money on a $600,000 club. Experienced facility operators rarely need it.
What a franchise buys is speed: a court supplier, a design package, software, a membership model and a name that players recognize from another city. What it costs is the royalty and the loss of control over pricing and programming. The US market is early enough that independent clubs are winning in most metros, and the brands that will matter in 2030 are not yet obvious.
How many padel courts in USA cities are there now?
Just over 1,000 open courts across 31 states as of April 2026, per the United States Padel Association, with about 330 added in 2025. Florida, Texas and California lead, with the Northeast and Chicago growing fastest. Worldwide there are more than 58,300 courts, so the US has under 2 percent of the global supply and about 4 percent of the global population.
The USPA projects 10,000 US courts by 2030. Whether or not that number lands, the gap between courts per capita in the US and in Spain, Italy, Sweden or Argentina is the whole investment thesis for padel courts in USA cities right now, and the reason the question to answer before building is how many courts are already within 20 minutes of the site.
FAQ
Padel court profitability, answered
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