“Pickleball is the fastest growing sport in the U.S. It’s growing at an incredible pace. It has millions of players, and then padel is the fastest growing sport in the world,” said Guillermo Ordorica, co-owner of the planned PALA Pickleball + Padel Club in Spring.
Both sports are played with smaller rackets. “The difference is padel is played in an enclosed space that has glass on the back and fence on the sides, and it’s played with tennis rules,” Ordorica told What Now Houston.
Pickleball is played on a smaller-sized tennis court with no walls or fences. Padel is played with a tennis ball, and pickleball is played with a plastic ball. Pala means padel in Spanish, which is the reason for the club’s name—PALA Pickleball + Padel Club.
Ordorica was born in New York and grew up in Mexico. He came to the Spring area five years ago. “I played four world championships for padel for Mexico, and I first wanted to start doing something for padel here in Spring, but there still weren’t enough players. That’s when I got to know pickleball.”
He opened pickleball courts at Grand Sports Club and had great success, but the owners of the property wanted to change the concept to a housing project.
“We decided we needed to do something indoor and that’s where the idea of combining both sports that complement each other came,” Ordorica said. They found the space at 20115 Holzwarth Rd. in Spring and plan to move there from Grand Sports Club. The courts should be open at the Spring Village Center by the end of September.
The 30,000 square feet of indoor space will feature eight pickleball courts and three padel courts. Another 17,000 square feet of outdoor space will house four pickleball courts and three padel courts.
Ordorica said the plan is to add a restaurant or possibly a food truck plus a bar. He hopes to have the restaurant and bar open to the public at PALA Pickleball + Padel Club by the end of 2022.
Friedman Real Estate’s Mark Zeidman and Neha Abassi advised the landlord in the leasing transaction.
