Padel in 2021: how Britain is embracing one of the world’s fastest growing sports

2021 has been a significant milestone year in the history of padel in Britain, with new courts being built around the country enabling thousands more people to have a go at what is fast becoming one of the world’s new favourite sports.

Here we hear from LTA Head of Padel, Tom Murray, looking at how the sport has developed and what is to come next year and beyond…

The background

Although considered a relatively new sport, padel has been around in Britain for longer than you might think. The British Padel Association was founded 29 years ago by a group of passionate British expats seeking to compete in the 1992 World Padel Championships, but it is only really in recent years it has started to make its exciting mark on the British sporting landscape.

In 2019, when there were just over 50 padel courts in Britain, the LTA announced it would integrate British Padel into the organisation’s day-to-day operations, and in November last year it became the National Governing Body for padel after Sport England, Sport Scotland and Sport Wales officially recognised the sport as a discipline of tennis.

The nature of padel is that it is fun, flexible and easy to play. The strategic move to bring padel under its operations aligned to the LTA’s vision to open up tennis and find new ways to grow participation, and integrating it into the LTA provided an immediate platform to facilitate the organic growth of the sport.

Since then, courts and players in Britain has grown exponentially and the landscape for padel in Britain at the end of 2021 is in a very different place.

“Growing a minority sport essentially from scratch in a country that loves its mainstream sports is a challenging task”, says Murray. “To drive that, we put in place a padel development plan to outline what needed to be done to help scale up the sport. This past year has all been about us building the game, with a primary focus on developing the overall infrastructure of the sport – the number of padel courts, a workforce, and a structured player pathway.”

New heights for padel courts and participation

Murray says that infrastructure presents the biggest opportunity to continue the growth of padel, but it also provides the main obstacle.

“The demand for courts, in 2021 and moving into 2022, is huge, which is the main driver of growing participation in padel.

There are now just shy of 150 padel courts in Britain, spread across 66 venues including tennis clubs, as well as leisure partners and padel only operators, while the latest participation data shows there are now 89,000 active players, with monthly participation around 15,000.

“The pandemic has interfered greatly with projected growth for 2021, with the planning process for projects affecting the delivery of many of the courts we anticipated being delivered this year.

“Our target for 2022 is to add another 100 courts. As highlighted within the Padel Development Plan this will mainly be achieved through organic growth e.g. within tennis venues helping to grow padel sustainably, however new sectors including padel only operators will also play a key role in this next phase”, says Murray.

“Given the stage of development we are at in this country versus padel on the continent, participation numbers are healthy, but are also reflective of the number of courts available. In the Netherlands, for example, there are currently 600 courts and a monthly participation player base of 100,000, which helps to demonstrate the potential that exists for continued growth.”

Integrating padel into tennis venues

One part of the surge in padel participation that has been seen this year has been several existing tennis venues integrating padel into their membership offerings, using the LTA Quick Access Loan Scheme to successfully grow and improve their venue.

“Building padel courts alongside existing tennis courts, creating new, modern facilities, helps in bringing new people into tennis, generating more interest and involvement in the sport as a whole”, says Murray.

“This is an approach we have put in place at the National Tennis Centre too, allowing us to demonstrate how incorporating padel courts alongside tennis facilities can successfully work.”

An example of a club that has done this effectively this year is East Gloucestershire. With significant interest in padel coupled with land availability, the club decided to convert one disused court into three floodlit padel courts. The project cost £250,000, with 50% funded by the club and 50% secured via the LTA’s interest-free Quick Access Loan Scheme.

Sundridge Park in Bromley have also successfully integrated padel into their venue offering, creating a new opportunity for existing members as well as entice new members and widening the demographic of players at their venue.