Boich and Reserve Padel have been building toward the sport’s American moment since before most people knew how to spell it.
This story appeared in Boardroom’s Summer Issue print magazine and has been adapted for online publication.
In a sport still writing its American story, Wayne Boich has positioned himself as one of its earÂly architects, helping shape the rise of Reserve Padel. His introduction to padel came in 2013 during a trip to Europe, once he had stepped away from competÂitive tennis after a high-level junior and collegiate career. What struck him wasn’t just familiarity, but accessibility: a sport that felt immediately playable yet deceptively layered. “You could be decent more quickly than tennis,” he recalled, but he soon realized there was far more depth once he began competing against top Spanish players in the sport’s epicenter. That realization would become the seed of someÂthing larger.
Back in the United States, where padel barely existed at the time, Boich and a group of former tennis players began playing in Miami. With only a handful of courts in the country, they built an informal ecoÂsystem of matches, exhibitions, and Pro-Am events that steadily drew in newcomers. At first, it was pure enjoyment, but over time, Boich began to see someÂthing more structural forming beneath the surface.
Reserve Padel launched in 2023 with a philosophy that extended beyond building clubs. Instead, Boich describes it as a brand built “on the backs of padel,” designed to evolve into clubs, events, memberships, and a curated network of members who treat the sport as both recreation and social infrastructure. That vision has already expanded into Reserve Cup events in Miami and Marbella, Spain, blending elite competition with hospitality, music, and networking.
Central to the strategy is experience rather than mass scale. Reserve is not positioned as a recreationÂal explosion like pickleball, but as a layered ecosysÂtem where clubs, Pro-Am events, and tournaments shape how members engage throughout the year. As the business grows, it has also moved into real estate and attracted sponsorships from brands like UBS and Aston Martin, signaling a shift from niche sport to cultural platform.
For Boich, the ambition is less about defining a ceilÂing than continuing to build the foundation. “You’re still in the first inning,” he says of padel in the United States.
This story has been edited for clarity and length.
Subscribe for the biggest stories in the business of sports and entertainment, daily.
Boardroom: What made padel feel different from other racket sports?
Wayne Boich: Well, I think it’s a combination of a lot of racket sports. And as you said, being a tennis player growing up, it was a big part of my life from [age) 8 through college. And I didn’t really play that much tennis from early 20s to 38 years old. I started to play a bit more in my mid-30s, and then I played padel at this wedding in Europe. And you felt like, being a tennis player, you could be decent more quickly, maybe, but you also knew that it was very different, with the combination of the glass and the wire mesh and the size of the courts. But what I took from it was it was very exciting. I could quickly tell that you could play at various levels much more easily than tennis, and I got a great workout.
So with that, we went back to the States, and we were looking around for courts, and there were maybe 10 courts in the U.S. at the time, three of which were in Miami. And we started to play, and we played a lot. And it was myself and a bunch of ex-tennis players that got hooked, and we thought we got incredible. And being tennis guys, we said, “Well, the sport can’t be that hard.” And that’s when we went to Spain, which is where it’s the epicenter. And as we went up the scale from the 50th team in the world to the No. 1 team in the world, we realized that this was a real sport, and they kicked our ass all over the court. And with that, we decided, if you can’t beat them, join them.
At what point did it go from being a fun activity to a real business opportunity?
It took a while because I didn’t think about it at all. And I was just having fun playing. It was great exercise. It was cool getting people into the game. In 2017, the main tour owner at the time asked me if I wanted a JV in America to build a tour out in America. I said, “No, it’s not the right time. I’m too busy.”
And then in 2021, I started to think, as it started to take a little bit in Miami, that the combination of what the sport had to offer, maybe what I could bring to the table, and pushing it quickly in the U.S.-and kind of thinking about how padel could be a bit like the new golf, in a way, with the way people want to live their lives and the time it takes to play a good padel match versus golf.
And then in 2022, I did a tournament for the main tour at the time, and it was called the Miami Padel Open. It was great, but I made it much more about an event than the padel and kind of drove everybody there through, Hey, a lot of cool people are going to be there, good business people are going to have great food servicing the event, have concerts at night. So everybody came, and then they saw the sport being played at the highest level.
So they were like, “Wow, this is an incredible sport to watch.” After that, I said, “I really feel like I could start something up that over time could have a lot more to it than just a padel company, if you will.” And I started thinking about, obviously, what became Reserve, and we launched in January 2023.
Why do you think padel is breaking through in the U.S. now?
Well, I think in the States, a lot happened in COVID where people, what they were doing, what they were playing, where they were living, how they were working. And pickleball obviously took a little bit before padel, and it took massively. And I think being outside, whether you’re outdoors or indoors, being with other players, community, exercise-all those things-are very appealing with respect to padel. And I think that it was a catalyst in the U.S.
I think internationally, the folks out of Qatar, that basically in 2022 they decided to get into padel, they created their own tour, they bought out the older tour, World Padel Tour. And so now they’re the main tour. And what they’ve done, which is very, very accretive to the sport, is they quickly internationalized the events. So only a few years ago, 80% of the events on the tour were in Spain and 20% outside of Spain. And now there’s 25 tournaments. It’s the same amount of tournaments on the main tour, but 20 of them are outside of Spain and five are in Spain.
And then of course, you have a lot of athletes and celebrities that are hooked on this game. And with that comes a lot of exposure. When the No. 1 player in the world in padel is playing with Cristiano Ronaldo on the court, Ronaldo’s talking about how great it is and they’re like, “What’s this sport?” It brings a certain level of awareness.
Is Reserve built for a curated audience or mass participation?
Listen, I think padel going to everybody and anybody is a great thing. You want it in the cities, you want it in schools, you want it at the parks, and it’ll do that. It won’t do it like pickleball has. Everybody likes to ask me that question: “Oh, there’s 30, 40 million playing pickleball.” Padel’s not really set up with a goal of that.
But yeah, I think you want it to grow as best you can. You want it to be for everybody. At Reserve, what we’ve done is set up a company that has clubs, courts, events like Reserve Cup, apparel, memberships, and Pro-Am invitationals.
Do you see Reserve as U.S.-first or global?
Of course, it was started in Miami, which is the vortex of padel and where I’m from. When I started the company, it wasn’t about building a couple of padel clubs. It was about building a brand that started on the backs of padel.
Make it best in class from the pros to the welcome, to the events, to the Reserve Cup, to the invitationals. And as I always said, the opportunities for the brand will come along that you won’t really expect.
So yeah, I think setting up the brand in the right way, putting it in a position to capitalize on everything padel has to offer and then add in what we can do through our business was always part of the plan.
What does success look like for you personally with this venture?
Well, I mean, fortunately, we’re in a position now after three years where a lot of people within our network of members, which is growing fairly quickly, they kind of love and see what we’re doing, and you have a lot of attraction to trying to invest in the company. I’m very, let’s just say, discerning about taking in money, because fortunately, we’re in a position that our clubs make money, and it kind of funds everything that we’re trying to do right now.
And we’re in a position now where we’re going to launch the real estate side of things, and people kind of know about it. So from where I’m sitting, to be able to tie in a real estate component to Reserve and our clubs and our wellness and what we’re doing, we’re at a point now where I don’t know what the limit is. I just know that it’s very exciting.
I know that I’m attaching something to the business that can be very profitable. I think talking to some of our members about a couple of the deals we’re contemplating doing, there’s a lot of demand, a lot of attraction to it, which we love. So right now we’re in build mode, and we’re not really thinking about the numbers too much, but it’s an exciting time.
What are the Reserve Cups?
With respect to the pro-level tour we do, we started up the company, as I said, in January/February 2023, launched with our first club on the water, and then through 2023, we were talking about how to bring the pros here in the right way and understanding that you needed some sizzle because the pros aren’t that well known yet.
So we basically wanted to re-create what I did in 2022 before I started the company, and we came up with Reserve Cup, which was an idea to bring a select amount of players — only 16 of the best in the world — and do a three-day event that also had a lot of fun around it. And we did that. The players loved it. Our members loved it.
We also complemented the tournament with Pro-Am events during the day because all of our members love to play these Pro-Am events. It’s very intoxicating. So we always complement our Reserve Cup events with Pro-Am events. Then we expanded it to Marbella last year, and it was a hit.
We had 4,000 people. It was packed every day. It was in Puente Romano [Marbella], a great hotel and resort. We’re bringing it back this year, June 17 to 20. It’s going to be great. It’s filled with four or five days of fun and padel and Pro-Ams and great dinners. You have quasi-meetings, kind of like a cool conference coupled with great padel. So we’re excited about that. Miami and Marbella’s Reserve Cup has been great. It’s been great for the brand, and I think it’s been incredible for the padel.
How has sponsorship and brand interest changed in padel?
From a brand standpoint, we quickly got to the point where it’s a financially viable event, because I’ve met and worked with these sponsors and explained that this isn’t Madison Square Garden. It’s 2,000 people in Miami and 4,000 in Spain. But you have a few hundred people that come to this who are perfect clients.
We were fortunate enough to bring on sponsors including UBS, who’s a core sponsor of ours, Discovery Land Company, Aston Martin, Alo, and others. Cities have also started to support the events financially as they see what it brings, which is important.
What role have celebrities played in padel’s growth?
I mean, Jimmy Butler loves to play. He’s the honorary chairman of our Reserve Cup events. Mark Wahlberg loves it now. Beckham, obviously, we play quite a bit. They’re all coming through, playing, hanging out. The DJs, the F1 guys. Lando [Norris] loves to play. He loves to wear the Reserve hat on the F1 show. And I told him he’s giving me the best free advertising I could get.
Where do you see padel in 10 years in the U.S.?
Well, I think as a sport, I’d love to see it be in the U.S. something that is many, many cities talking about it and saying, “Wow, nobody knew about this sport 10 years ago,” which
is exactly the conversation you’re having in Miami, New York, L.A., and Texas.
It’s really become part of the culture of a lot of people, but you’re still in the first inning. It’s, like, at no colleges, it’s in very few high schools, there’s just not much there yet. So I think if you say in 10 years that you’re in a lot of schools, a lot of cities, a lot more events, a lot more pro players living here, that would be success.
And then as Reserve, I think you’ll look back and say it’s really incredible what they created off the backs of padel and all that it had to offer in creating the brand that they have that turned into all these different things over time.
Read More:
Gotham FC Is Hosting the Largest Women’s Sports Event in NYC History
Jazz Chisholm Jr. Opens Up on Free Agency, Yankees, Knicks, & Michael Jordan
Michael Rubin on How Fanatics Fest Has Become Sports’ Biggest Annual Gathering
The Jaylen Brown Trade Changed Everything for the Sixers
A24 Built Its Brand on Artists; Now It’s Betting on AI
