The announcement of the inaugural Anglo-American Padel Cup, which will be held at Padel Haus Dumbo from 9th – 11th May 2025, marks a new chapter of the 173-year-old sporting rivalry between the US and UK.
Winston Churchill famously said that “America has no better friend and no more dependable ally than the United Kingdom”. However, when the respective teams of the US and UK line up to face one another next May in the inaugural Anglo-American Padel Cup, as with many of the sporting rivalries between the two countries, it will no doubt be fiercely contested down to the very last point.
These two countries have enjoyed a sporting rivalry like no other for 173 years, and yet it is the padel court that is about to become the newest frontier on which they get to battle it out. This rivalry stretches right back to the likes of the first America’s Cup in 1851, followed by the introduction of the Davis Cup in 1899, and the inaugural Ryder Cup in 1927. Unlike these these iconic sailing, tennis and golf showpiece competitions, in which both countries have long been powerhouses, on the padel scene they are merely the “new kids on the block”, according to Ben Nichols’, one of the co-founders of the tournament.
The beauty of the tournament lies in the fact that this old rivalry is being played out on an entirely new stage, Bill Ullman says.
The Faces behind the Anglo-American Padel Cup
Cage91 got the chance to sit down with Co-Founders of the innovative competition, Bill Ullman and Ben Nichols, each of whom are deeply involved in the sport from their respective east and west sides of the Atlantic.
In what must now be considered a full-circle moment, the two padel enthusiasts first crossed paths at Padel Haus’ first club in Williamsburg, Brooklyn two years’ ago, unaware that this very club operator would soon be their host of choice for the first annual Anglo-American Padel Cup. With both having spent significant time in each other’s countries – Ullman living in the UK for a number of years and Nichols’ having worked frequently in the US throughout his career – they fittingly describe themselves as an “Anglophile” and an “Americanophile” respectively, both loving the time they have spent on each others’ sides of ‘the pond’. Ullman and Nichols clearly have an ambition to be realised when it comes to growing the profile of padel.
They fittingly describe themselves as an “Anglophile” and an “Americanophile” respectively, both loving the time they have spent on each others’ sides of the pond.
Both credit their previous backgrounds in racket sports to finding and falling in love with padel. Ullman, since accidentally finding padel while on a golf and tennis holiday with friends, has gone on to represent the US in padel in multiple senior Pan American events. Nichols’ has become the go-to man for growing the brand of padel in what he likes to call the New Padel World – in every day parlance, consider this the new and emerging padel territories – since launching his padel PR company, Padel 22 exactly two years ago.
Padel Haus Dumbo
Ullman describes securing the venue as a huge item to have ticked off their list. When the teams face each other for the first time next May, it’s hard to imagine a better venue for it than Padel Haus Dumbo, which in another first, recently hosted the first ever US Open Padel Championships, just 13 miles south-west of another famous US Open venue, Flushing Meadows. Padel Haus’ Dumbo facility boasts four world-class, year-round indoor padel courts, a professional padel academy for all ages, as well as a Brooklyn-wide renowned juice bar caled Juice Haus, a social lounge, and NY’s only padel atelier.
Padel Haus is run by the visionary Santiago Gomez, a serial entrepreneur who began life in the restaurant business and became widely recognised when his award-winning Mexican restaurant Cosme earned accolades as New York Times’ Restaurant of the Year as well as a place on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. Gomez is now best knowns as ‘the man who brought padel to New York City, given the vision he jumped on as New York emerged into the post-pandemic world. He now owns three padel locations throughout the city. Ullman tells us:
“He (Gomez) has done a wonderful job in building the padel community in and around New York. He’s a true visionary, and, put simply, there couldn’t be a better venue for our inaugural Anglo American Padel Cup.”
Life at the Moment
It’s not difficult to imagine that organising the very first Anglo-American Cup is a big undertaking, navigating uncharted waters through a series of complicated details of how the event will be run and managed in two countries that are still in start-up mode, establishing the bare bones of their padel infrastructure.
Cage 91 took a deeper look into what it takes to organise such a monumental event, revealing the current reality for those at the helm. Ullman explained that he and Nichols are currently focused on three key areas. First, they are working on selecting captains for each category, who will then
assemble their respective four-person teams in both men’s and women’s categories. Second, they are seeking sponsors whose values align with the event, who understand Padel’s rapid growth in the US and UK and “who understand and appreciate the incredible sporting history between these two famous nations”. Lastly, and crucially for Ullman, is creating an unforgettable experience that goes well beyond the padel court. At the heart of his vision is to create an event that not only runs smoothly, with well-planned schedules and procedures, but also serves as a social occasion where enthusiasts from each nation can connect over their shared love of padel and make new trans-Atlantic connections, friends and padel partners for life.
“We are seeking sponsors whose values align with the event, understand Padel’s growth in the US and UK and who understand and appreciate the incredible sporting history between these two famous nations”, Bill says.
Growth and Future Ambitions
Ullman summed up the padel scene in the U.S. with three words: “continued rapid growth.” Describing the shift that’s occurred in 2024 he shared, “It feels like every other week a new club is being built or announced.” To illustrate the immense growth potential for padel in the U.S., he often references the following example: “Spain, with a population of 43 million, has 20,000 padel courts. The U.S., with 330 million people—eight times the size—has roughly only 400 courts. We’re easily going to see tenfold growth here.” Nichols echoed this sentiment, emphasising that, in the UK, “demand for padel is light years ahead of the supply…the sport is only just beginning its ascent.” The main pull, the Englishman said, is “the beautiful dynamic between it [padel] being a sport that is “quick to pick up but hard to master”. “When you pick something up quickly, you enjoy it quickly. And there lies the secret to its success”, Ben added:
Demand for padel is light years ahead of the supply…the sport is only just beginning its ascent.
Fueled by the excitement of this storied rivalry, the future of this event looks incredibly promising, and, play their cards right, Ullman and Nichols’s Anglo-American Padel Cup is poised to draw in many new players and fans, not least because of the the sizeable British expat community in New York, and, similarly, the strong base of American expats in London. With its innovative, perhaps ironic, twist on an almost two-century-old transatlantic sporting rivalry, the arrival of the Anglo-American Padel Cup feels like a landmark moment for the sport, a reference point for padel’s fast-developing narrative. From New York to London, this eagerly anticipated Anglo-American Padel Cup already has a sniff of the ‘were you there?’ about it. Time will no doubt tell.
