The Pro Padel League Hits NYC: 2026 Season Opener

Professional padel takes over Midtown Manhattan this week. The Pro Padel League — the world's leading professional padel league — opens its 2026 season July 9–12 at the historic Hammerstein Ballroom, with the defending-champion New York Atlantics playing on home turf and the league's first-ever national television broadcast. Whether you already follow the sport or you've never seen a match live, here's what the PPL is, how to get to the event, who's competing, and where the season goes from here.

What Is the Pro Padel League?

The Pro Padel League (PPL) launched in 2023 and now fields 10 city-based franchises across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

What sets it apart from the individual pro tours is the team format. Each franchise carries a roster of men's and women's players, and every team matchup pairs one women's match with one men's match. You're not watching a single bracket play out — you're watching cities go head-to-head, with international pros and rising North American talent on the same rosters.

The league has grown quickly. The Florida Goats won the inaugural 2024 title; the New York Atlantics captured the 2025 championship. Since 2025, the PPL has raised $25 million to fuel expansion and landed a national broadcast deal — and New York is where that momentum kicks off.

The 2026 Season Opens at Hammerstein Ballroom

New York is the season opener — the first of five 2026 events — staged at a landmark venue. The century-old Hammerstein Ballroom in the heart of Midtown will be transformed into a padel arena for four days, with all 10 teams competing across five group-stage sessions before Sunday's finals.

For a sport still introducing itself to much of the U.S., opening the season in the middle of Manhattan — with the reigning champions based right here — is exactly the kind of stage the PPL has been building toward.

How to Go See It

Here's the practical guide to attending.

Venue: Hammerstein Ballroom at Manhattan Center, 311 West 34th Street, New York, NY 10001 — a block from Penn Station and easy to reach on the A, C, E, 1, 2, and 3 lines.

Schedule:

Day	Session	Start
Thursday, July 9	Group Stage Session 1	5:00 PM
Friday, July 10	Group Stage Session 2	11:00 AM
Friday, July 10	Group Stage Session 3	6:00 PM
Saturday, July 11	Group Stage Session 4	11:00 AM
Saturday, July 11	Group Stage Session 5	6:00 PM
Sunday, July 12	Podium Day (finals)	12:00 PM

Each group-stage session features two team matchups — a men's and a women's match from each, four matches per session. Sunday's Podium Day decides the final placements.

Tickets: Seats are sold through Fever in three tiers — VIP (floor seating closest to the glass, plus lounge access), Courtside Box (reserved hospitality boxes with food and an open bar), and General Admission (first-balcony seating). The venue is all-ages and ADA-compliant, and organizers expect sessions to sell quickly.

Can't make it in person? For the first time, the PPL is on national TV. Through a 2026 broadcast partnership, CNBC will carry the championship match from each event — including the New York final on Sunday, July 12.

The Teams

Part of the fun is that these are cities, not just players. Ten franchises compete in 2026, each fielding both a men's and a women's side. The New York Atlantics arrive as the defending 2025 champions chasing a title defense in front of their home crowd, while off-season moves reshaped the field — the Las Vegas Smash landed the draft's biggest signing in Argentina's Agustín Torre, and several teams retooled their rosters for the new season.

Here are the 10 teams and a few of the players on each 2026 roster:

What a PPL Session Looks Like

If you've only watched padel clips online, a live PPL session is a different experience. Each session puts two team matchups on the glass court, and every matchup is decided across a women's match and a men's match — so momentum swings between teams as the day goes on. Expect fast hands at the net, lobs off the back glass, and the golden-point tension the pro game is known for, all in an intimate theater setting.

Points from the group stage feed the season-long standings, and the top teams ultimately qualify for the City's Cup Finals. In other words, what happens in New York this week matters well beyond this week.

PPL II: The Next Generation Plays the Same Weekend

Here's a bonus if you're coming out: the main rosters aren't the only ones competing. PPL II, the league's new development division launched in 2026, plays alongside the main event in New York.

PPL II is built to identify and elevate the next wave of North American talent. It features 10 pairings — five men's and five women's — each operated by one of the PPL's clubs, competing for more than $350,000 in guaranteed compensation and prize money. It debuted at the Miami Open in March and now travels with the PPL to New York, Los Angeles, and Playa del Carmen. The stakes are real: the top two men's and top two women's pairings earn wildcard play-in spots at the season-ending City's Cup. So while you're watching the pros, you may also be catching a future one on the way up.

What's Ahead This Season

New York is just the beginning. The 2026 PPL season runs across five events:

Event	Dates	Location
Season Opener	July 9–12	New York, NY
Los Angeles	August 13–16	Los Angeles, CA
Playa del Carmen	September 24–27	Playa del Carmen, Mexico
Guadalajara	November 19–22	Guadalajara, Mexico
City's Cup Finals	December 3–6	Miami, FL

Teams bank points at each stop, chasing seeding for the City's Cup Finals in Miami — the single-elimination showcase that crowns the 2026 champion. CNBC carries the final from every event, so the national spotlight follows the tour all the way to December.

But it all starts in New York this week. Tickets for the season opener are on sale now — get yours on Fever.