Sidewall Social Opens In Marrickville, Bringing The Booming Sport Of Padel To Sydney’s Inner West

If you’ve spent any time in Europe recently — or have a friend who came back from a holiday suddenly unable to shut up about padel — you’ll probably know the sport is having a bit of a moment.

Now, Sydney’s Inner West is getting properly in on the action, with purpose-built indoor padel club Sidewall Social opening in Marrickville this month.

Taking over a historic industrial building at Unit B2, 20–28 Carrington Road, Sidewall Social has five indoor courts — three doubles and two singles — alongside coaching, competitions, social play and a hospitality space for the very important post-game debrief.

Padel, for the uninitiated, has become enormously popular across Europe, the Middle East and Latin America, while Australia is still relatively early to the party. Sidewall Social is hoping to change that, pitching itself at everyone from people who have never picked up a racquet through to experienced players.

The idea is also pretty straightforward: yes, come and play sport, but maybe make some mates while you’re there.

“We wanted to build a place where people come for a game but stay for the community,” co-founder Andrew Fineran said.

“Padel is incredibly easy to pick up, genuinely social and a lot of fun. We’ve created a club that’s welcoming, inclusive and designed for everyone, whether it’s your very first game or you’ve been playing for years.”

And Marrickville feels like a fairly natural place for that kind of venture. The suburb’s old industrial areas have been steadily filling with breweries, hospitality venues, creative businesses and places to spend a Saturday afternoon, while still retaining plenty of the warehouses and industrial architecture that give the neighbourhood its character.

Co-founder Mark Longhurst said that combination was part of the appeal.

“Marrickville has an incredible creative energy and a strong sense of community,” he said.

“We’ve embraced the industrial character of the space while creating a space that’s welcoming and built for people to enjoy together.”

Sidewall Social officially opens this Friday

The club will mark its official opening on Saturday 22 August, with an event running from 11am until 11.30am at its Carrington Road home.

All are welcome, and media, government representatives, community leaders will be there for an official ribbon-cutting ceremony, alongside an exhibition padel match and the chance for guests to actually get onto the courts and give the sport a crack themselves.

Sidewall Social’s arrival comes as padel continues to find a bigger Australian audience. Former tennis champion Pat Rafter and Socceroos legend Tim Cahill are among the Australian sporting names to have embraced it, joining international converts including David Beckham, Serena Williams and Tom Holland.

Which is fairly impressive company for a sport many Sydneysiders are probably still Googling.

But if padel really is Australia’s next sporting obsession, the Inner West now has somewhere to find out what all the fuss is about — inside an old Marrickville warehouse, naturally.

Find out more here.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Sidewall Padel (@sidewallpadel.au)