Last Updated on July 21, 2026 by Drew Pierce
I spent time at FanaticsFest 2026 this year, two out for the four days at the Javits Center in New York City, and joined over 200,000 fans moving through the doors between Thursday and Sunday. Superstar athletes everywhere. Panels, autographs, brand activations the size of small cities. It’s become one of the biggest fan festivals in the country, and it just added a whole extra day to keep up with demand.
You know what I didn’t see anywhere on that show floor? USA Pickleball.
You know what I did see? Padel.
Let me explain, because this isn’t a “pickleball bad, padel good” post. I don’t do rivalry content. I think both sports are great, I think both deserve to grow, and I think there’s plenty of room on the court (and in the racquet-sport conversation) for everybody. But watching one sport show up and one sport sit this one out taught me something, and I want to talk through it.
What the Padel Booth Actually Did
The setup was simple and smart: two targets, twenty balls, and a leaderboard. Whoever hit the most targets won a trip to a Padel event in Miami.
It wasn’t the biggest activation at FanaticsFest…not even close. It didn’t have the foot traffic of the marquee installations or the big-name sports brands. But there were people at those targets pretty much every time I walked by. The staff were friendly, patient with total beginners, and happy to explain the sport to anyone who wandered up.
Full disclosure: I picked up that Padel paddle and thought, whoa, this is heavier than what I’m used to. Different sport, different tool, different feel.
For the record: I went 9 for 20. One shy of the towel they were giving out for a qualifying score. So close. If Padel runs this activation again next year, I’ll be first in line for a rematch…I’ve got a towel to win.
Here’s the part that matters, though: while I was airmailing balls past the target like a rookie, Padel was quietly doing three things at once:
- Getting a paddle in a new hand. Sampling is the best marketing there is.
- Collecting an email and a name for follow-up marketing, tied to a prize people actually wanted.
- Making it a game, not a demo. A leaderboard and a trip to Miami is a much stickier pitch than a pamphlet.
That’s a smart, low-cost, high-conversion booth. Somebody in Padel’s marketing department earned their paycheck this week.
So Where Was Pickleball?
I looked. I asked around. I didn’t find a USA Pickleball presence anywhere on the floor.
And that stings a little, honestly, because pickleball is the American sports growth story of the last five years. We’re the fastest-growing sport in the country. We’ve got Major League Pickleball, celebrity owners, ESPN coverage, a Ben Stiller movie in the pipeline, and a $350 Tesla paddle that made national news for being ridiculous. We are, by every metric that usually matters, part of the conversation.
Except at FanaticsFest, we weren’t in the room. And with 200,000+ people walking that floor, a huge chunk of them exactly the demo pickleball wants (families, casual sports fans, people who’ll try anything with a prize attached), that’s a lot of paddles that never got put in a lot of hands.
This isn’t a “gotcha.” It’s a genuine missed opportunity, and it’s a fixable one. So as somebody who spends an unreasonable amount of time thinking about this sport, here’s my pitch to USA Pickleball for next year.
5 Ways USA Pickleball Should Show Up at FanaticsFest 2027
1. Bring a quick, low-footprint game — a wall or skinny singles against a pro. Full doubles courts take up space FanaticsFest doesn’t always have to spare, and Padel’s target game worked precisely because it took under a minute per person. USA Pickleball could run the same low-friction math a couple of different ways: a pop-up dink wall where anyone can feel a paddle and a ball in under a minute, or a skinny-singles rally against a touring pro, with a prize for whoever holds the longest rally of the day. Either way, it’s fast, it’s approachable, and it doesn’t require a full court or a waiting line to work.
2. Get real collab star power involved. This is a room full of “meet your sports heroes” energy, and pickleball has more crossover appeal than almost any sport out there to tap into that. Think limited-edition custom paddles from a celebrity and a paddle brand — a Trevor Noah x Adidas paddle. Or an exhibition match pulling in athletes from other sports entirely, like Larry Fitzgerald taking on Drew Brees for a few points. FanaticsFest is already built around “athletes and celebrities you didn’t expect to see up close.” Pickleball should bring names that make people stop walking and start filming.
3. Make the follow-up something people actually want. USA Pickleball can go a step further than Padel: film a quick video of each person playing and text it to them afterward, something they’ll actually want to share with friends. Or hand out a fun, informal skill “pre-ranking” on the spot, a beginner DUPR-style number people can brag about or try to beat next time. Either one gives USA Pickleball a natural reason to follow up, and gives the person a reason to come back next year and improve on it.
4. Join Fanatics Games. This is the exactly the kind of stage pickleball should be fighting for. This year fans watched Tom Brady sink jumpers, Roman Reigns line up putts, and Justin Bieber air out a pitch — none of them exactly known for those sports, and that’s the point. Why not hand them a paddle and run a speed-serve challenge? That would create some “watch a superstar try something new” magic that makes Fanatics Games work, and it puts pickleball on the same stage as basketball, wrestling, and baseball instead of off in its own corner. There was something cool about Mike Tyson holding a padel paddle.
5. Show up where membership actually starts. FanaticsFest isn’t a pickleball crowd walking in it’s a sports crowd, which is exactly the crowd USA Pickleball needs to convert. Membership growth doesn’t happen by preaching to people already playing three times a week. It happens by putting a paddle in the hand of someone who came for the Knicks and leaves curious about the kitchen line.
Two Sports, No Competition
I want to be really clear: I’m not writing this to knock Padel. If anything, I left that booth impressed, and a little bit inspired. The Padel folks were kind, welcoming, and clearly having a good time — proof that a small booth with a smart idea can punch way above its footprint. Padel and pickleball aren’t fighting for the same finite pie. Both sports are still explaining themselves to most of the country. There’s room for both to grow, side by side, at the same events, in the same conversations.
But growth doesn’t happen from the sidelines. If pickleball wants to keep its spot as America’s breakout sport, it needs to be in the rooms where 200,000 potential new players are already standing around with nothing to do but wander from booth to booth.
Next year, I want to walk the FanaticsFest floor, see two paddles waiting for me, and have to choose which line to stand in first. That’s a good problem to have. Let’s go get it.
P.S. — Padel folks, if you’re reading this: thanks for letting me embarrass myself at your target game. The paddle’s heavier than mine, but the vibe was lighter than I expected. I’m coming back for that towel next year. See you at the next FanaticsFest… hopefully standing next to a pickleball booth.