Investment group Yntegra is tapping into a leisure activity considered one of the fastest growing sports worldwide with a new padel court in Miami, and, if players there feel particularly graceful on their feet, it might be because the court floats.
Growing padel market
A game with origins in Mexico, with similarities to tennis, pickleball, and squash, an estimated 25 million players now enjoy padel globally, according to padel.fyi, and padel courts are expected to proliferate at a rate of +26% in 2025. It’s a market worth $327 million back in in 2022 and forecast to grow at 9.6% through 2027, say Brainy Business Research Insights. Padel courts can be rented for as much as $200/hour in New York.
Against this backdrop, it’s easy to understand why Yntegra wants in on the game. Launched after Miami Art Week, the new offshore court floats at South Florida’s Fisher Island – a place claimed to have the highest per capita income in the US. The facility will serve the Miami Harbour community there until it is eventually moved to Yntegra’s Rosewood Exuma development, a 365-acre residential and superyacht marina in the Bahamas, slated for 2028.
Sustainable
Offering 360̊ views of the sky and the sea, and comprising a court, protective fencing, lighting posts and a narrow observation platform for spectators, the whole endeavour measures 5 x 11 x 21 metres and weighs 84 tonnes. Without its own propulsion, it needs to be moved into position by boat, and then anchored.
The court-on-water’s “first-of-its-kind” construction features recycled steel from shipyards “giving new life to maritime components” and operates engine and battery-free, combining an “ultra-luxury experience” with “sustainable, design-forward installation” the group said.
… and exclusive
Only accessible by private boat, helicopter, or ferry, Fisher Island was once the one-family island home of shipping and railroad family, the Vanderbilts. Now occupied by only a few hundred residents, supposedly including celebrities such as Julia Roberts and Oprah, it remains an exclusive retreat, described by Yntegra in press materials as a “tranquil setting” that “offers a serene escape for both physical activity and mental rejuvenation.”
But Miami is not first to serve when it comes to unusual padel courts. From a padel court on a boat in the Persian Gulf, to a cave court in Sweden, an ice island court in Finland, and a mountain court in Italy, padel seems set to find success in every habitat on the planet.
