Today, the Pro Padel League (PPL), North America’s first professional padel league, is announcing their 2024 season schedule including an increased prize money purse of $1 million. Bringing padel to both the East and West coasts of the United States where the largest audiences of the sport are located in North America, the 2024 season will be highlighted by an expanded schedule, a new team competition format, more than double the hours of viewer content, and will feature many of the world’s top padel players.
“We are extremely excited to continue to deliver on our commitment of developing padel in North America and being the catalyst for growth across the continent,” said Marcos del Pilar, PPL Commissioner. “The PPL has tremendous momentum right now and there’s incredible energy behind the sport.”
The only professional sports league to showcase the best male and female athletes, this season some of the most decorated and iconic padel players from around the world will compete in the PPL. For the 2024 season, over 80% of the newly signed PPL players are ranked top 50 in the world. These include Pablo Lima (former No. 1, Flowrida Goats), Juan Martín Díaz (No. 1 for 14 years, New York Atlantics), Fede Chingotto (current No. 7, New York Atlantics), Miguel Lamperti (former No. 2, San Diego Stingrays), and twins Mapi and Majo Sánchez Alayeto (former No. 1, Flowrida Goats) amongst several other top ten players in the world.
For the 2024 season, ten teams will compete for the chance to lift the PPL Cup including the Las Vegas Smash (2023 Champions), Cancun Waves (2023 Finalists), Miami Padel Club, Flowrida Goats, San Diego Stingrays, Los Angeles Beat, Arkansas Matrix, Toronto Polar Bears, New York Atlantics, and Houston Volts. Additionally in 2024, the PPL will increase the total number of matches played by over 400% to nearly 100, expand their viewer content by nearly 300% to over 200 total hours, and engage new markets for PPL franchises.
This season, all ten teams are scheduled to play the four PPL regular season matches in 2024. The first two regular season events of the 2024 season are scheduled to take place in Florida from April 1-6 and April 8-13. The last two regular season events are set to be held in Southern California from August 12-17 and August 19-24 with more information on the venues to be announced in the upcoming weeks. Following the regular season events, the top eight teams in the standings will advance to play in the PPL Cup Final in New York at the end of 2024. The competition format at each event will include men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and a mixed doubles match.
“At this time of exciting growth for the sport, we are elevating our product to create exceptional opportunities for padel players as well as entertain, inspire, and provide value to our fans,” commented del Pilar. “The energy in, and around, the new top-level players signing with the PPL for the 2024 season has exceeded our expectations. We always believed that North America would drive the excitement and value of padel on a global basis. With the 2024 calendar, the PPL will deliver unbelievable competition, new business revenue opportunities, and increasing television network coverage.”
The mission of the PPL is to create the most compelling version of padel for sports fans in North America with the new league providing the biggest stage for professional padel players across the continent. The PPL is the first of its kind, and the only professional padel league in the world, to feature team-based competition in a unique and engaging, city-based, franchise format.
The next big thing in North America, padel is a high-octane sport and is a mix of tennis and squash that has become one of the fastest-growing sports in the world. Since 2021, there has been a 400% expansion globally in active players, and a 60% growth in padel court construction with nearly 100 new courts opened every week. In the U.S., the United States Padel Association (USPA) is committed to growing the number of players to over 10 million and the number of courts to over 30,000 by 2029. In conjunction with the USPA, the PPL will play a large role in growing the sport in North America.