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Many successful businesses become staples of their local communities, but reaching that status takes more than quality offerings and sharp marketing. It requires genuine care and a deep understanding of what a region lacks and what it craves. Those principles drive serial entrepreneur Jon Krieger’s latest venture: Padel United Sports Club.
Padel is a doubles racket sport played on an enclosed court, blending elements of tennis and squash. Its defining feature lies in the glass-and-mesh walls that keep the ball in play, adding a fast-paced, social dimension to the game.
Krieger, best known as the co-founder of café brand Bluestone Lane, is now leading the charge to introduce the world’s fastest-growing racket sport to the U.S. And in doing so, he may have cracked the code to monetizing the abstruse “lifestyle ecosystem.”
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Rallying the neighborhood
The Padel United Sports Club reflects Krieger’s broader vision to curate the suburban community of Tenafly, New Jersey. The town of 15,500 boasts an average household income of about $280,000 and a median age of 48.
“Everybody’s basically a young family with kids, but the downtown offerings were horrible,” Krieger says. “The people are there, but they don’t have anywhere to go.”
His original idea was to build a facility for the many young professionals who had moved from Manhattan after COVID.
“Our basic thesis as a business is to curate towns with a trusted, recognizable ecosystem,” Krieger explains. “One where you can plan your entire week around it.”
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