The Courthouse

The single most important fact about this venue is a distinction its own website makes on every page and almost every aggregator flattens. The Courthouse has, in its own words, "6 covered pickleball courts and 4 outdoor padel courts built for serious play". The cover is on the pickleball. The padel is unshaded. Any listing that describes this place as a covered or indoor courts venue is describing the other sport, and in a New Braunfels July that is the difference between a comfortable game and a decision about what time to play.

What is unusual is that the club says so itself rather than letting you find out. Its padel page frames the courts as sun-exposed on purpose — outdoor here means real Texas air and real sun angles, with mornings and evenings playing differently from the middle of a July afternoon, and regulars picking their hour accordingly. That is a more honest sentence about its own courts than most clubs anywhere manage, and it is the reason the four courts being open day and night matters: an after-work match here is as ordinary as a Saturday morning one, and it is the sensible one for half the year.

Padel at The Courthouse is four courts inside a 25,000 sq ft entertainment complex, and the split between what is padel's and what is the venue's is worth keeping straight. Padel's own: the four courts, a Padel Membership at $79.99 a month billed through Playtomic, a Padel Open Play at $10 for 120 minutes every Monday and Wednesday at 7pm, and Coach Mai. The venue's: six covered pickleball courts on a different booking system, a full restaurant and bar with a chef-driven comfort-food menu, sixteen-plus rotating drafts and craft cocktails, a giant outdoor cinema screen and twenty-five-odd TVs, a kids' playground in the middle of the social area, a night market, trivia nights and event spaces for 25 to 300.

There is no published hourly padel rate, and the numbers that look like one are not. The venue's Founding 50 page carries a headline about a court costing $20 an hour and members paying 99 cents, plus a non-member comparison of $40 for two weekday hours and $80 for two Saturday hours — all of it sitting under a pickleball flyer beside the line "Six covered courts — no sun, no rain, no 100-degree afternoons". Those are pickleball's rates. Its own meta description advertises open play "from $12.50", which is again pickleball's floor: padel open play actually prices at $10. So the honest answer for padel is a $79.99 monthly membership, a $10 open play, and an hourly rate you get by asking.

The Founding 50 offer is worth understanding because it is the one route that covers both sports: $99 plus tax for 90 days, billed as three payments, then $49.99 a month, with the $50 initiation fee waived, two guest passes a month, a 15-day booking window and 15% off lessons, leagues and tournaments. The club caps itself at 100 members. Its "CLOSES AUGUST 31" banner refers to that offer closing rather than the venue — this place opened in November 2025 after a year of construction and is running tournaments and a night market.

Non-members book, and padel's route is specific: courts are reserved by the hour through Playtomic, which is where the live availability sits, or by phone. Pickleball and the venue's other courts book through a different system entirely, which is a genuine trap if you follow the site's own reservations page. Membership is sold as a discount rather than a requirement, and the beginner copy assumes walk-up newcomers — you do not need to know the rules before you show up, and the club invites you to ring and say it is your first time. Members book 15 days ahead; no non-member window is published for padel.

Two things to check rather than assume. The hours differ between the venue's own site and the booking system that actually holds padel: the site says 9am to 10pm midweek and 11pm on Friday and Saturday, while Playtomic closes at 9:30pm midweek and Fri–Sat and publishes a holiday row the site does not mention. Since padel books through Playtomic, that is the operative answer. And the padel booking system exposes four courts by name but no per-court attribute tags, so beyond "outdoor" there is no published detail on surface, glass or ceiling — unlike the other two outdoor clubs in this city, whose grids publish all three.

Four courts seat sixteen, and sixteen is the number this venue is sized for. Twenty-one is the ceiling before people are queueing rather than resting.

An hour leaves 50 minutes of play, which is six rounds to 21 points. Book two hours if you want games to 32 — and the club's own open play runs 120 minutes, which is the same instinct.

There is no published hourly rate for padel, so ask when you book and do not budget off the $20 or $40 figures on the site: those are the pickleball courts.

Padel Open Play at $10 for two hours, Mondays and Wednesdays at 7pm, is the cheapest padel in the metro and the easiest first visit. Sixteen slots.

Plan around the sun rather than the roof. The four padel courts are unshaded and lit, so a 7pm or 8pm start in summer is the club's own recommendation in everything but words — and its covered courts are pickleball's, whatever a listing says.

Confirm the closing time on the booking system rather than the website. Padel books through Playtomic, which closes up to 90 minutes earlier than the venue's own published hours.