Swing Racquet + Paddle Raleigh: 15 Padel Courts, 2028

Every padel story out of the Southeast eventually runs through one construction site in northwest Raleigh. Swing Racquet + Paddle is a $125 million, 44-acre racquet sports campus going up at Brier Creek, and its plans include 15 padel courts — more than any padel venue in the country outside Florida.

It has also, as of August 2026, moved its opening to 2028.

The biggest padel build outside Florida

Fifteen courts is a lot. For scale, only one venue in our US database has more: Ultra Padel Club in Miami, at 29 courts, already open. After that the list drops off fast — PELOTA Padel Club outside Houston at 13, Padel39 East Austin at 12, The Set and Urban Padel in Doral at 12 apiece.

So the honest framing is this: Swing would be the second-largest padel venue in the United States, the largest anywhere outside Florida, and by some distance the largest padel project currently under construction.

The project at a glance

The timeline moved. Again.

This is the part worth being blunt about. Swing has been publicly projected to open in 2024, then 2026, and now 2028. The current date comes from the company's own announcement on 18 August 2026, which describes the Raleigh flagship as "set to open in 2028."

That announcement also explains part of the delay: Swing has been named the exclusive North American home of Club Roland-Garros, the French Tennis Federation's lifestyle platform, and will import European red clay to build courts to Roland-Garros specification. It is the only such club in the US. Adding a Grand Slam's clay program to a campus mid-build is not a small change order.

The construction news is genuinely good, though — all permits are approved and significant work is underway. This is a project being built, not a rendering.

Our club page still carried a late-2026 date until this piece; we have flagged it for correction.

What is in the plans, and what is not

Reporting from the 2024 groundbreaking put the campus at roughly 100 courts and playing spaces: 28 tennis courts, 25 pickleball courts, 15 padel courts, four beach courts, and a ping-pong lounge. Coverage in August 2026 listed 16 padel courts rather than 15 — a small refinement, but we have not seen it confirmed by Swing directly, so we are holding at 15 and will update when the company publishes a breakdown.

Because right now it does not publish one. Swing's rebuilt website markets "five racquet sports" and gives no court counts at all. That means one thing padel players want to know is genuinely unanswered: whether the padel courts will be indoor, outdoor, or a mix. In a climate like Raleigh's — hot, humid summers, real winters — that distinction decides how many months a year those courts are worth booking. We are not going to guess it.

Why 15 courts in North Carolina

North Carolina has four open padel clubs today, totalling 17 courts across the state. Swing alone would nearly double that number on one site.

That sounds implausible until you look at the market. The Research Triangle has three Tier 1 research universities, a large tech workforce, and one of the fastest population growth rates in the country — plus an unusually deep tennis and pickleball base to convert from. Raleigh projects $360 million in economic impact over five years and around 300 jobs from the campus. Padel's US growth has mostly followed money and Latin American communities into Florida and Texas; Swing is a bet that it also follows racquet-sports culture. Our Southeast padel growth update tracks how that thesis is playing out regionally.

A racquet campus is a different animal

Almost every club we cover is padel-first: four to eight courts, a coach, a bar, a community that shows up. Swing is the opposite shape — padel is one code of five, sharing a campus with 28 tennis courts and 25 pickleball courts.

That cuts both ways. The upside is the largest crossover funnel in American padel: thousands of racquet players already on site, one glass court away from trying it. Tennis players in particular convert well, and the transition is more awkward than most expect — our tennis-to-padel guide covers what actually changes. The risk is the usual one for multi-sport venues: padel gets the leftover prime-time slots. Which way Swing goes depends on programming decisions nobody has announced yet.

If the economics interest you, we have broken down what it costs to build a padel court and what opening a padel club in the US involves. Fifteen courts is a serious line item even inside a $125 million budget.

Where Raleigh plays padel right now

Two years is a long time to wait, and Raleigh's current options are thin. The city has exactly one padel facility: North Hills Club, a private country club with three outdoor courts and a 4.5★ rating. It is members-only, so for most people in Raleigh there is no padel to book today. Our Raleigh padel guide has the current picture.

The state's public padel is in Charlotte, two and a half hours southwest. Charlotte Padel Club in Matthews was North Carolina's first, with six outdoor courts and a 4.9★ rating built on free intro clinics and player matching. Epic Padel @ Prosperity Athletic Club added five outdoor courts in September 2025, and Charlotte Indoor Tennis Club covers the indoor option. The Charlotte guide breaks them down. On the coast, The Club at Midtown is bringing three courts to Wilmington much sooner than Swing arrives in Raleigh.

What to watch before it opens

Four things will tell you whether Swing lands as the padel destination its court count implies:

• The final padel number. Fifteen or sixteen, confirmed by Swing rather than inferred from 2024 filings.
• Indoor versus outdoor. The single biggest factor in how usable those courts are year-round.
• Access model. Swing markets itself as publicly accessible, but whether padel is pay-and-play, membership-gated, or both is unannounced.
• Phasing. On a campus with roughly 100 playing surfaces, padel may not open on day one.

And the obvious caveat: 2028 is the current date, from a project that has already moved twice. We track Swing on its club page and will update the record as the company confirms details.