Fashion mogul Jacobim Mugatu once described breakthrough model Hansel as “so hot right now”, and the same could be said about pickleball and padel; two sports that most of us didn’t know existed until a few months ago. We speak to pioneer Darren McMullen about the boom and how he’s riding the wave.
The rise of padel and pickleball globally is indisputable. Anyone whose algorithm has been infiltrated by the sport will have witnessed a steady stream of announcements about participation records breaking, celebs getting in on it, and luxurious courts popping up in luxurious locations.
The facts speak for themselves – there are over 30 million padel players around the world with an estimated 30,000 courts in the US by 2030, while pickleball is considered the fastest-growing sport in Australia with participants increasing nearly each year since 2023. It feels like every couple of weeks we’re losing someone to the court, with group chats around the country rapidly dividing into two categories: those who are obsessed with these sports, and those who simply haven’t tried them. Within those group chats, one facility comes up more than any: Racquet Club.
Spearheaded by actor and presenter Darren McMullen, along with Lee Ritson and Tristan Dougan, the rapidly expanding pickleball and padel venture was born in 2023 and has nestled its way to the pinnacle of these sports in Australia. With world-class facilities in the Entertainment Quarter at Moore Park, a pickleball court in the middle of Westfield Bondi Junction, and a massive centre opening in Canberra in one week, you’ve gotta wonder how it all started for them.
“I became really obsessed with tennis during COVID, because it was one of the only things you were allowed to do,” McMullen says. I used to go out for hours on end hitting balls from a ball machine and became quite good and addicted to the sport. My friend had been playing a lot of padel and was trying to get me down to play. I thought initially, this is a ridiculous game, I don’t want anything to do with this.”
Eventually he succumbed to his mate’s hassling and, after one match, was hooked. “It’s a multi-dimensional game – you know, people playing outside the cage and off the glass and trying to work out different angles. It’s not just a simple go-over-the-net-and-hit-between-the-lines kind of game, which I absolutely love.”
Padel and pickleball facilities in Europe, the US and the Middle East lean heavily into the idea that these sports are social. Music, drinking, ice baths and saunas are the kinds of things that have helped attract diverse audiences – this is the stuff that Darren couldn’t find in Sydney, which led to him opening up the Moore Park courts… on a pop-up basis.
“Everyone thought it was mad, because potentially we could lose a lot of money if it only stayed there for three months,” he says. “But I just really had a feeling that something big was going to come out of it. I just built the club that I wanted to spend time at. I didn’t really worry about what other people wanted.”
The buzz since opening hasn’t slowed. The likes of Coldplay, Billie Eilish, Mumford and Sons, Pat Rafter, Steve Smith, Warren Gillian, Michael Vaughan have all graced the courts at Moore Park, but for Darren, Racquet Club isn’t about exclusivity or VIPs. “People aren’t intimidated to rock up without any friends and meet new people there. So I’m really happy with the culture – that happened very organically.”
So why are we Aussies flocking to the courts? “I think Aussies have obviously really excelled in racquet sports throughout the years. For a very small country, they’ve certainly had some of the greatest tennis players of all time,” Darren says. “It’s a pretty smooth switch if you’ve come from tennis to play padel or pickle. Tennis players would find it quite easy to pick up a padel or pickleball racket initially. I think the reason they’re both so addictive is that they’re easy to learn, but hard to master.”
About 80% of attendees at Moore Park are newcomers or first-timers, and naturally there are occasional teething issues. “People often rock up to play Padel having bought all the fancy new gear only to realise they’ve bought a Pickleball racket which is actually, confusingly, called a paddle. Go figure…”
“My staff were getting so sick and tired of answering the question what’s the difference between pickle and padel that they begged me to do a little video to explain to people. That’s when the alter ego Reginald Archibald Montague the iii was born. We started releasing little videos about the history and differences of the two sports and people seems to get a kick out of it. Now he has taken on a life of his own.”
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Darren has even invented an alter-ego to help educate newcomers to the sports.
It’s crazy to think that Darren, who’s been a regular feature on our TV for over two decades, has actually had to put his acting on pause while he navigates the rise of Racquet Club. It’s evidence of his passion for these sports and how much enjoyment it brings him.
“I didn’t expect it to blow up the way it did, and the side hustle became the full-time hustle. I really have no time to be doing any shows at the moment. That’s not to say I don’t want to in the future – I definitely do. I think once we have a few centres up and a good routine going and they’re all well-staffed, then I’ll start focusing back on my acting and hosting career… Off the back of this, I would like to do more sports-based TV.”
That might be a little while away, with Canberra on the verge of opening, there’ll be Gold Coast Racquet Club and Brisbane Racquet Club coming soon, plus two more centres in Sydney before the end of the year… So it’s safe to say, pickleball and padel aren’t going anywhere – join us now or risk a life of forever being on the outside of the group chat.
Head here to learn more about Racquet Club and book a hit out!
