Beyond pickleball: Nashville's sports entertainment options grow with Padel, mini golf

Beyond pickleball: Nashville’s sports entertainment options grow with Padel, mini golf

Posted by author January 31, 2025 Sports

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Pickleball, a tennis-badminton combination sport, lured many adults back into recreational sports in recent years.

That was just the beginning of the easy-to-play social sports cultural phenomenon.

New, upscale racquet sports clubs like padel and putting entertainment centers are booming in Nashville and other cities nationwide.

The trend is part of a global $2.24 billion adult recreational sports industry that’s headed toward $3 billion by 2028 as adults seek out new opportunities for social connection, according to online market research company ReportLinker. Reasons cited for the rise also include climbing disposable income in the U.S. and increased “fitness awareness” among young adults.

This projected market growth is accompanied by dozens of sporty entertainment options opening their doors in Nashville and across Middle Tennessee, ranging in levels of intensity and competitiveness.

Recreational sports serve as the building blocks for social skills, self-esteem and discipline for over 50% of kids in Tennessee, according to the Aspen Institute’s 2024 State of Play report. But as children become adults, their involvement in athletics typically tapers off — opting to watch sports games from the couch rather than participating in them.

Here’s a look at some of the new businesses capitalizing on the burgeoning demand for adult social sports clubs in Nashville with low barriers-to-entry like pickleball, padel, mini golf and putting.

Nashville’s new Pickleball Kingdom

While new sports entertainment centers are growing, pickleball is still trending.

At of the start of 2025, there are 68,458 pickleball courts in the U.S. Pickleheads database, and over 18,000 of those were newly added in 2024.

The infrastructure for the sport is on the rise in Nashville too. Racquet sport giant Pickleball Kingdom has five locations opening in the Nashville metro area in the coming year, and two are already up and running.

Pickleball Kingdom’s Hendersonville and South Nashville locations both launched earlier this month. The South Nashville spot is over 40,000 square feet with 14 indoor courts, a pro shop and a designated “community room.” The Hendersonville location offers similar amenities in its 39,000-square-foot facility with 12 courts.

“This is the perfect place to celebrate pickleball’s spirit of fun, fitness, and camaraderie,” Hendersonville franchise owner Steven Kilbas said in a statement. “I’m eager to create a space where players of all ages can connect, stay active and grow their love for the game.”

Padel poised to become the next pickleball?

Scott Mitchell, general manager of Sensa Padel and longtime racquet sports pro, no longer sighs when groups approach his courts in Nashville’s Germantown neighborhood with confusion. He’s used to it.

“We’ve had people with tennis rackets and pickleball paddles show up. We’ve had people come out here with soccer balls,” he said. “Educating and the awareness of the sport, that’s been the toughest. But with that, the growth here has been crazy already.”

The second location of Boston-based padel club Sensa opened inside the Neuhoff District in October 2024 and has steadily built up a customer base through open play nights, intro classes and an open area for socializing.

Padel, the racquet sport best described as a mix between tennis and squash, originated in Mexico in the 1960s and swept across the globe through the 90s and early 2000s. It’s recently made another resurgence, and companies like Sensa are hoping to finally popularize the sport in the United States by launching clubs in major cities like Nashville, New York and Miami.

“What’s happening to pickleball in the U.S. is happening to padel in the rest of the world,” Sensa CEO and founder Aditya Khilnani said. “For context, there are about 35,000 to 40,000 padel courts globally now, and there’s only a few hundred in the U.S. But what’s happening is, every week, there are new clubs opening.”

Because of the attractive social and strategic aspects of the game, Khilnani predicts there will be five to 10 padel clubs in every major U.S. city within the next two years.

Nashville’s second padel club is already on its way. New York-based Padel Haus plans to open its new Wedgewood-Houston location soon with eight courts, shared work spaces and a juice bar and cafe. The grand opening is slated for Feb. 20.

Padel Haus CEO and founder Santiago Gomez said he’s excited about the trajectory of racquet sports in the U.S. as a whole, but the growth potential for padel exceeds other options in his eyes.

“The growth complements each other,” Gomez said. “The difference that I see is that there are, today, plenty of pickleball public courts, and all you need to play pickleball is go to the park, buy it in Walmart, and get a piece of chalk and you can draw lines. Padel is not the same.”

Padel requires glass walls around each court that players can hit the ball off of, and Gomez said the cost of just one of his padel courts is about $60,000.

“People want to come here, play and pay premium prices,” he said.

Putting practice without heading to the links

Variations of golf alternatives, from mini-golf to putting games, aren’t new to Nashville, but they are popular.

Dallas-based driving range company Topgolf opened in Nashville back in 2017, and since then, plenty of others have followed bringing concepts that incorporate tech innovations, bars and restaurants. Upscale mini-golf Puttshack opened in the Gulch in 2023, and a new golf experience called The Putting Zone recently announced plans to launch its flagship in Tennessee this fall.

While places like Puttshack stick to recreational mini-golf, The Putting Zone will offer an 18-hole course meant to replicate outdoor golf course conditions. New golfers will be welcome, and so will serious golf enthusiasts, leagues and tournaments.

“We’ve created something truly special with The Putting Zone,” The Putting Zone founder and CEO Bill Ricigliano said in a statement. “This concept has been years in the making, and it’s designed to serve every golfer—whether you’re sharpening your skills for competition or enjoying a round of fun.”

Hadley Hitson covers business news for The Tennessean. She can be reached at hhitson@gannett.com. To support her work, subscribe to The Tennessean.