𝐒𝐨, 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐎𝐀𝐓 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐥? 🐐
The King of Tennis is worried about the future of his sport. Citing the economic advantages of the two new trending racquet sports, Novak stated that grassroots tennis clubs are going to "convert all the tennis courts into padel or pickleball." Is he right to be fretful?
Padel is indeed more economical than tennis—you can fit 2.5 padel courts into a tennis court. This means more players on court and greater revenue for clubs.
𝐋𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐄𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐲 🚧
Tennis has long been seen as an elitist sport due to its highly technical nature. Simply put, to become a good player, you need a lot of lessons—a luxury most can't afford.
On the other hand, on a technical level, padel has a much lower barrier to entry. Players can start enjoying competitive matches as soon as they grasp the basic rules of the game. Padel is a game for all.
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐥𝐢𝐩 𝐒𝐢𝐝𝐞 - 𝐏𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐬 𝐄𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐲 ☮
Many tennis clubs view padel as an upstart, an inferior version of their beloved sport. Whilst we believe this to be categorically false, the opinions of tennis club committee members aren't going to change anytime soon.
Some clubs think more progressively. Rather than seeing padel as a threat, they see padel as an opportunity. Tennis isn't on the rise; in fact, it has seen reduced participation in recent years—tennis courts are often lying empty. More entrepreneurial clubs see padel as an opportunity to convert SOME of these 'dead weight' courts into more profitable space while simultaneously broadening their offer to members.
In Spain and Italy, otherwise known as 'The Old Padel World' (to coin Ben Nichols' phrase), padel is an established national sport. In both countries, tennis is doing better than ever.
With Carlos Alcaraz, Lorenzo Musetti and Jasmine Paulini, both nations are being represented in the semi-finals at Wimbledon and Jannik Sinner is the world number one. Tennis is very much alive, but due to how technical it is, it remains a sport reserved for the wealthy.
Lots of questions remain for the future of these two sports in the UK, but one thing's for sure—padel is here to stay.
If you are involved with a tennis club (or any other sports club for that matter) and see the opportunity in padel, please feel free to reach out to [email protected].