Case Study: How to successfully integrate padel into your existing sports club

Tennis club owners, coaches and committees are furiously scratching their heads and worrying about the threat of padel

One club in the south of England, Winchester, embraced the challenge and are now being handsomely rewarded for their risk taking.

Post-pandemic, sports clubs and in particular tennis clubs saw a huge rise in membership in the UK and USA thanks to the ‘safe’ aspects of the sport and the desperation of the population to get outside and exercise after months of little activity.

This created revenues for those clubs the like of which hadn’t been enjoyed before.

Around the same time, the sport of padel started to grow in popularity in the UK. Already established in Spain, France and Scandinavia, padel blended the benefits of squash and tennis in a fun, easy to play, outdoor environment.

It’s easy to learn as there isn’t the technical aspects of tennis such as serving plus the racket has no strings which again makes learning quicker.

With the glass walls in-play it was appealing to squash players and with it being ‘doubles only’ then the social aspects of the sport are strong.

So the Winchester committee took the plunge and used their post-pandemic revenue boost to invest in 3 padel courts. the courts were built on 2 existing hard tennis courts at the cost of approximately £100k ($125k).

The ground works were done by a local builder who had to install a steel ring-beam into the foundations and then the padel courts were purchased as kits from a supplier in Italy. Once delivered the builder could then build the padel courts and secure them to the ring-beam foundations

Fast forward a couple of years and the club is delighted to have acquired 250 dedicated padel members with many more existing members making the step across to play padel alongside their existing sport of tennis or squash. The padel players pay a small annual fee of around £150 ($200) and then pay around 320 ($25) per hour to book the padel courts, which are floodlight until 9pm.

These new padel courts have around 80% capacity every week, even in the winter.

One of the most exciting elements of the success for this club has been the influx of new members who hadn’t previously considered the club because they were pout off by the challenges of the sports on offer.

Tennis is a difficult sport to learn especailly if you haven’t mastered it at a young age, whereas squash can be seen as dangerous, dark and sweaty!

The new members playing padel enjoy the fact that pretty much from the first point you can have a competitive game that is fast and exciting even if you are complete beginner.

The small court, small rackets and doubles format also mean that you can play padel even if you aren’t the most athletic of people.

What can be learned for tennis, squash and other sports clubs from this case study?

1. Existing sports clubs have already proven that they can encourage and acquire members and they will have learnings on member retention strategies and an existing team of experts in place, so adding a new sport should fit into those systems

2. Padel appeals to a different demographic who will get hooked quickly on this fast, fun, sociable and easy to play sport

3. Revenues from court fees and high court usage can potentially pay back an investment within a few years leaving your club with a healthy net profit once the initial capital outlay is payed off

4. Cross over usage from other racket sports is highly likely. Younger age groups will want to try something new and fun whereas older age groups will be encouraged by the ease of play