While the U.S. south is baking in the sun, a different kind of heat is rising across the border. Meet Hector Brown and Arthur Brousse, the visionaries behind the Canadian Universities Padel League (CUPL). They aren’t waiting for permission from university boards or athletic directors; they are building a high-speed, student-led infrastructure that is turning hockey-obsessed campuses into padel hotbeds. From navigating the brutal reality of Canadian indoor real estate to disrupting traditional sports models, these two are proving that the 20x10 revolution speaks every language—even "O Canada."

Primetime: Canada is legendary for its hockey and basketball culture, but padel is a relatively new arrival on the scene. Hector, Arthur—take us back to the exact moment or match where you both looked at each other and realized that Canadian universities weren't just ready for padel, but needed it?

Hector: I started playing padel in the UK in the summer of 2022, before I started university in Canada. I used to play with friends in London and we’d all hang out after, it was a great way of bringing all of us together.

When I started the McGill Padel Club in February 2025, I quickly saw the power of a community-focused, padel club in bringing people together and fostering relationships on and off the court. After we hosted our first two intra university matches against HEC and Concordia we saw that there was strong demand for competitive padel between universities and students were passionate about representing their universities.

We realized that the energy was already there - what was missing was structure. So we built the Canadian Universities Padel League (CUPL) to formalize competitive matchplay between universities. It gives students the chance to represent their schools on the padel court and turns passion for the sport into a national movement. It wasn’t just about starting a league - it was about building the future of university padel in Canada.

Primetime: In your early mission statements, you’ve emphasized the 'social' aspect of the league as much as the 'competitive' one. How are you designing the CUPL to avoid the 'stuffy' reputation of traditional racquet clubs and instead make it the 'coolest' club on a Canadian campus?

Hector: The main idea behind the CUPL is that it is run by students, for students. We want this league to be about creating a structure for high-level, competitive padel within a community of student padel-lovers.

With that in mind, we’re building the CUPL around the students themselves. It’s not just about competition - it’s about creating competitive matchplay, exciting prizes, and engaging content that adds value to their university experience while growing the sport of padel across Canada. Instead of just a league of fixtures between universities, we really want our league to be a vibrant community of students to come together, play padel and enjoy the social aspect of student sport.

Primetime: Unlike the southern US or Spain, Canada’s climate makes outdoor courts a seasonal luxury. Given the high cost of indoor real estate in cities like Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, how is the CUPL working with developers or existing tennis 'bubbles' to ensure students actually have a place to play in February?

Arthur: This is honestly the biggest challenge Canadian padel faces today and probably the biggest one it will keep facing as the sport grows. Indoor courts are a necessity and that drives court fees through the roof compared to many other countries. Coming from France, it was honestly a bit of a shock for me to see how expensive it can be for students to play regularly here.

To address that, we’ve focused heavily on partnerships. We’re incredibly lucky to be working with amazing clubs that believe in what we’re building: Bluezone Courts in Toronto and PadelFVR in Montreal. Alongside that, Schoolyard Social, our tech and founding partner, and Ernest Padel, have played a key role in helping us subsidize court costs for our 64 student athletes during this first season.

Primetime: U Sports (Canada’s NCAA equivalent) is a massive machine. Are you currently knocking on their door for official recognition, or are you intentionally building an independent, 'rogue' league to maintain the flexibility and 'vibe' that makes padel unique?

Arthur: I would never describe it as rogue, but are we looking to be disruptive, transformative and bold in our approach? Yes. For us, independence was really about preserving the vibe and the speed we want CUPL to grow with.

As a McGill student, seeing the university planning to cut around 15 sports by the end of the semester made it very clear that traditional institutional pathways weren’t necessarily the fastest or most realistic route for a new sport like padel, especially when there’s currently no infrastructure on campus. Rather than spending years navigating bureaucracy, we felt it was essential to move quickly, build momentum, and create something student-driven that could evolve organically.

Going independent allows us to experiment, stay flexible, and build a culture that feels authentic to students which is a huge part of padel’s appeal. That said, we absolutely believe in collaboration – it’s in our DNA. We’re currently in discussions with Padel Canada to explore how we could bring more official recognition and alignment in the future. Our goal isn’t to work against existing structures, but to build something strong first, that others can believe in, and then integrate in ways that help grow the sport nationally.

Primetime: A huge portion of early padel adopters are former high-level tennis players looking for a second life. What is your message to the varsity tennis players at schools like McGill or U of T who are curious about padel but afraid it might take away from their primary sport?

Arthur: We’re already seeing a lot of varsity tennis and squash players show interest in padel and competing. In fact, some of the players in the very first edition of CUPL are coming directly from strong tennis and squash backgrounds, including athletes from Concordia and HEC.

Our message to them is simple: padel isn’t here to replace your primary sport, it’s its own sport entirely. While there are transferable skills, especially in movement and racket control, the tactical dimension, use of walls, positioning, and team dynamics make it a completely different experience. Many athletes actually find that padel complements their training rather than taking away from it. We’re also seeing a rising number of professional tennis players incorporating padel into their training, which speaks to its value in developing reflexes, anticipation, and decision-making under pressure.

Ultimately, we’re not asking athletes to choose between sports; we’re inviting them to discover a new one that stands on its own and brings something unique to the university ecosystem. For racquet sports, we should see them as a collective – the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts, here.

Primetime: Canada is geographically massive. How are you handling the logistics of inter-provincial play? Will we see a 'National Championship' weekend where East meets West, and how do you solve the travel-cost barrier for student-run clubs?

Hector: In our first edition of the league starting February 2026, we are keeping the league fixtures played within provinces. We have 4 Universities from Ontario and 4 from Quebec - each represented by three men’s and a women’s team - and, playing internally to minimize travel-costs and build up the sense of community within each province.

Our aim is to integrate into Eastern and Western conferences as we move into our second and third phases of the League in the academic year 2026-27. This will consist of Universities competing intra-provincially. We understand that there will be some travel-costs associated with this, thus we are working with partners to really try minimizing these costs for students and reduce the barriers to play padel between provinces.

A ‘national championship’ weekend is our aim for next season and we’d like to integrate every University Padel Club in Canada. Then we’ll finally be able to see the champion pair and who takes the glory for their university!

Primetime: Starting a league from scratch while (presumably) still being deeply embedded in the sport yourselves is a grind. What has been the single biggest 'bureaucratic wall' you’ve hit while trying to pitch padel to university athletic directors, and how did you break through it?

Hector: I think with padel still being a relatively new sport in Canada and the US, a lot of people still don’t quite understand the sport and still ask ‘is it pickleball!’

The way we have tried to pitch the university club aspect to directors is to show them that the demand is there organically. For example, the McGill Padel Club is the fastest growing sports club at McGill, purely through numbers of players and growing organically through demand for the sport. With student padel clubs now being established all across the country, it’s clear that students want to play and compete.

We are creating this league because padel is a sport that students love, want to play and that padel will have a permanent place in the future calendar of the Canadian University sports scene.

Primetime: We’ve seen big moves in Canadian pro padel recently, including Edward Rogers’ investment in the Toronto Polar Bears. How does the CUPL intend to 'feed' into this professional ecosystem? Is there a vision for a 'Draft' or a clear pipeline for CUPL stars to turn pro in Canada?

Arthur: At these early stages, our focus isn’t on building a direct professional pipeline or draft system yet. The priority right now is developing the base of the sport among young people and helping create talent from the ground up. One of the ways we’re doing that is by planning to introduce a second division, which will give less experienced but highly motivated and talented players the opportunity to compete, improve their game, and grow within a structured pathway.

Our belief is that a healthy professional ecosystem can only exist if there’s a strong grassroots foundation underneath it. If CUPL succeeds in expanding participation and raising the level of play across universities, then naturally some players will progress toward higher levels. However, for now the emphasis is on development, accessibility, and building a sustainable player base.

Primetime: If we’re sitting here a year from today, what are the three 'hard numbers' (number of schools, number of players, or number of courts) that would make you say the CUPL’s first phase was a success?

Arthur: First, we would love to see one truly nationwide event bringing students from across the country together. That moment where East meets West would represent a major milestone for the collegiate padel community and show that the sport has reached a national scale.

Second, success would mean seeing 100% of universities that have a student padel club actively participating in CUPL. The goal is to create a unified collegiate ecosystem rather than fragmented local initiatives.

And third, one of our biggest priorities is accessibility. If we can keep participation costs at $0 for students while continuing to grow - supported by partnerships, sponsorships, and better transportation solutions that allow teams to travel more easily - then we’ll know we’ve built a model that can truly scale.