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Deep Dive: Djokovic and Aman Put Padel in the Blueprint, and the Amenity Is the Validation 🏙️

Editorial cartoon: a recognizable caricature of Novak Djokovic stands on a Miami waterfront, holding a tennis racket and looking up at a gleaming glass skyscraper; a glowing indoor padel court sits in a glass pavilion at the tower's base, and a sign hanging from the tower reads "2031."

Padel didn't get its own building this week. It got something better: a line on the spec sheet of a billionaire-brand tower. Aman Group announced ATMA on Nov. 10, a new ultra-luxury "performance living" brand, with Novak Djokovic signed on as Global Partner to lead longevity, nutrition, racquet-sports and wellness programming. The first stop is ATMA Miami, a 1,049-foot waterfront tower in Brickell from SHoP Architects, with interiors by Studio Paolo Ferrari, stacking a hotel, branded residences and an invitation-only ATMA Club that Aman's own release calls "racquet focussed."

The receipts: a 120,000-square-foot spa and wellness center, plus what Aman describes as "a comprehensive racquet club with indoor tennis, padel and other sports courts" overlooking Biscayne Bay. To be clear, this is not a padel club. Aman didn't give a court count, and Skift reports no room count, pricing or financial terms were disclosed. Completion is scheduled for 2031. But the point isn't how many courts. It's that when one of the world's most exclusive hospitality brands wrote down what "performance living" means, padel was in the sentence. Djokovic put it his way: true performance "is built on balance," and "ATMA Miami will sit at the pinnacle of what performance living can achieve."

The Primetime Take:

Padel graduates the day the people with the deepest pockets stop asking "what is it?" and start asking "where does it go?" Consider that day logged. Aman didn't bolt padel onto an old building or toss a court on a leftover roof. It planned padel into a 1,049-foot tower that won't even be finished until 2031. That's a developer betting the sport is still worth the square footage five years from now, and that's the strongest vote of confidence a "fad" can get.

It also answers the biggest headache in this business. CoStar flagged this week that padel's growth in Chicago could be held back by how hard it is to find the tall indoor space courts need (more on that below). Luxury developers are solving it the easy way: draw the ceiling height in from the start. Pair that with Sinclair and Tennis Channel taking stock in Agassi Sports to chase racket-sports fans, and the money is telling one story this week: racket sports are a premium audience, and padel is riding right along with them.

Is padel the headliner at ATMA? No. Tennis is in the room, and padel shares the bill with "other sports courts." We don't care. The amenity is the validation. When the Aman crowd treats padel like a sauna or a cold plunge, a thing a world-class building just has to have, the sport has crossed over from trend to table stakes.

To read the whole article from Haute Living, click here. For Aman's official announcement, click here.

Quick Hitters of the Week ⚡️

Sinclair and Tennis Channel Get Paid in Agassi Stock, and Airtime Becomes the Check 📺

Agassi Sports Entertainment Corp. (OTCID: AASP), the company built around the Andre Agassi and Stefanie Graf brands, announced Nov. 12 that Sinclair and Tennis Channel will give it $1.5 million in "Media Value" over two years: $1.2 million from Tennis Channel and $300,000 from Sinclair, across linear TV, digital and social. In return, they get 300,000 restricted shares at an agreed $5.00 apiece. That's ad inventory for equity, not a cash check. The airtime is aimed at planned launches: the Agassi App, Let's Play Pickleball and Padel, the World Series of Pickleball, and merch. On that merch front, Agassi also has a Grateful Dead license for pickleball and padel gear, targeting a mid-2027 rollout. Sinclair's Rob Weisbord: "Racket sports are experiencing tremendous momentum."

The Primetime Take:

As we reported Oct. 5, Let's Play was a plan, not a portfolio, from a microcap with limited operating history. It's still a plan, and the company still warns about losses and a business model that isn't proven yet. But now two real media companies are taking stock instead of cash to put Agassi's platforms in front of their viewers. That's progress you can see. Just keep your eyes open: pickleball is at least as central as padel in this slate, so padel is a passenger here, not the driver. Still, when Tennis Channel bets its airtime on racket sports, everyone on the glass wins.

To read the full announcement, click here. For the SEC filing, click here.

CoStar Says Padel Is a Chicago Real Estate Story Now, and Proximo Is Raising the Roof on Eight Courts 🏗️

When CoStar writes about you, landlords are paying attention. Ryan Ori's Nov. 10 piece is headlined "Padel follows pickleball into the Chicago real estate game," with the dek: "Operator plans two more clubs as specialized space requirements could constrain growth." That operator is Proximo Padel, already open in Logan Square. Next up is Goose Island, which Proximo is targeting for December 2026: seven super-panoramic courts plus what it calls the Midwest's only singles court, for eight indoor courts in total, under 25-plus-foot ceilings. The Chicago Business Journal calls it "the nearly 30,000-square-foot facility" with "eight indoor courts." A third club in Northbrook is expected to open in mid-2027.

The Primetime Take:

This is the landlord validation narrative jumping a weight class. A trade outlet that covers commercial real estate is treating padel as a property category with its own rules, and the biggest rule is height. You can't put glass courts just anywhere, and the tall boxes that can hold them just found a new kind of tenant. Proximo's plan to go from one open club to three is how a city's padel scene grows up. Logan Square proved the demand. Goose Island tests the scale.

To read the whole article from CoStar (subscription), click here. For the Chicago Business Journal, click here. To check out Proximo Goose Island, click here.

Multi-Club Is the New Normal: Padel Nation's Empire Count Keeps Climbing 🗺️

Austin Edwards is back with Part 3 of Padel Nation's Emerging Empires series. Citing the Misitrano Consulting U.S. Padel Report 2026, he counts 27 U.S. operators with more than one location. Part 3 adds four more: 46 courts at nine locations in eight states, "with a reported 11 more locations coming between them." Racket Social Club leads with four locations and 17 courts, under the same Racquet 360 umbrella as the National Padel League. Conquer Padel has Tempe and Lehi open, plus a website pipeline starting in Jacksonville, after its original five-club Phoenix plan shifted. Epic Padel runs Charlotte and Milwaukee; its Tysons and Salt Lake City plans faded, and a Midlothian, Va., club is reportedly next. And Chicago's Proximo is about to make it two.

The Primetime Take:

As we reported Oct. 11, Part 2 covered four operators running 67 courts across 13 locations in five states. Part 3 keeps filling in the map, and what we love is that Edwards writes it honestly. Plans change, website pipelines shrink, and he says so. That's the real story of U.S. padel right now: running more than one club isn't rare anymore, but an announced city isn't an open club. The operators to watch are the ones who turn website pins into courts.

To read the whole article from Padel Nation, click here.

USA Padel's 2027 Circuit Gets a Sponsor, a Map, and a Real Ladder 🐰

USA Padel unveiled the 2027 USA Padel Circuit by Psycho Bunny: ten flagship events running from USA 1000s and 2000s through the U.S. Open Padel Championships at Padel Haus Greenpoint in Brooklyn (Oct. 8–10) and the season-ending Circuit Finals Dec. 10–12, with the host still to be announced. The calendar opens Feb. 12–14 at Ultra Padel in Miami and hits the Rio Grande Valley, Las Vegas, Austin, San Diego, Nashville and Chicago (Alma Padel, Oct. 22–24) before a second Miami stop at Padel X Miami. USA Padel says combined prize money will exceed $250,000. CEO Scott Colebourne: "Ten host cities, real prize money, and a pathway from the amateur to the professional game."

The Primetime Take:

Here's the part we like best: every stop is hosted by a club. That's how you build a sport from the ground up. The kid grinding at her local courts can look at this calendar and see the next rung. A title sponsor's name on the whole thing says brands want in on that ladder too. Miami gets two stops, and Chicago gets a USA 2000 the same year Proximo is targeting its Northbrook opening. Funny how the circuit keeps showing up where the courts are being built.

To read the full announcement from USA Padel, click here.

Got a padel story we should be chasing? A club opening, a deal, a court going up in your town? Hit reply and tell us. We read every one.