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Padel: The Unexpected Lifeline Reviving Britain’s Tennis Clubs
Tim Farthing
December 01, 2025
Across the UK, tennis clubs once battling shrinking memberships, degrading facilities and aging demographics are discovering an unlikely saviour: padel. What began as an experiment on disused courts is now reshaping club economics, altering membership profiles, and prompting century-old institutions to rethink their futures.
The trend is no longer anecdotal — it is structural. After years of financial strain, many clubs are reporting their strongest participation and revenue numbers in a generation, powered almost entirely by padel.
Purley Sports Club: A Case Study in Rapid Turnaround
Few examples illustrate the impact more clearly than Purley Sports Club in South London. Founded in 1904, the club faced severe financial distress only three years ago. Today, after converting two lawn tennis courts into floodlit padel courts, occupancy is 95% and a waiting list is in place.
Vice chairman Toby Young is direct: padel has been “massive” in stabilising the club’s finances. Court-fee revenue has funded long-delayed infrastructure repairs — “leaky roofs, drainage issues” — and attracted a demographic tennis has struggled with: adults in their 20s and 30s, who now make up half of its padel section.
The sport has also driven secondary spend.
“We’ve had more members using the bar and restaurant, and some have joined tennis and squash after discovering the club through padel,” Young says. “Three years ago, we were close to shutting our doors. Now we’re back on track.”
Limpsfield, Four Oaks, East Glos: The Pattern Repeats
In Surrey, The Limpsfield Club tapped into the “padel whirlwind” in 2021, replacing little-used mini tennis courts with two outdoor padel courts and triggering a wave of new membership. Head coach Robin Engelbertink says padel delivered what the board wanted most: diversification.
At Four Oaks in Sutton Coldfield, two long-abandoned shale courts were repurposed into padel courts in 2023. The club has since rebranded to Four Oaks Tennis & Padel Club and is now attracting members from neighbouring tennis clubs.
East Glos Club in Cheltenham used a patch of unused land to install three courts (with LTA loan support). The pay-and-play model brought in newcomers who, after playing multiple times a week, converted to full membership. With consistently high utilisation, the club expanded to seven courts, including the county’s first singles court.
A senior industry consultant who advises several UK multi-racket venues told Racket Business:
“The clubs seeing the biggest turnaround are those that replace dead assets — derelict shale, red-gum or underused hard courts — with padel. The return on investment is uniquely fast for a racket sport.”
The LTA: “Forward-Thinking Clubs Are Winning”
LTA president Sandi Procter has watched the pattern unfold nationwide.
She says clubs adding one to four courts tend to see the strongest results:
“Many have told me padel has brought their club together because squash and tennis players are all playing padel and loving it.”
The financial impact is equally important:
“Some clubs recover their investment within 24 months — sometimes faster — and bar income increases too.”
This is consistent with internal LTA modelling shared with Racket Business: several multi-racket venues are now generating more rental revenue from two padel courts than from eight to ten tennis courts.
When Padel Meets Resistance — Then Wins the Room
Not every club embraces padel without friction. Kingsley Tennis Centre in Hampshire faced vocal opposition when a failing indoor tennis dome was proposed for conversion into a modern seven-court padel centre. Local tennis purists warned it would “destroy the club’s identity.”
But the club was deteriorating: weeds growing through courts, outdated facilities, and limited indoor offering. After the conversion by Advantage Padel, something unexpected happened — many former tennis members rejoined.
“The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive,” says shareholder Steve Summers. “Members are relieved the facility has a new lease of life.”
A coach at a Midlands club undergoing its own conversion — speaking on background — told us:
“Most of the resistance evaporates the moment the courts open and players try it. Boards fear cannibalisation. What actually happens is revitalisation.”
Will Padel Hurt Tennis? The Data Says No
The most common fear among traditionalists: padel will cannibalise tennis participation. Procter doesn’t buy it — and neither does the data.
The ITF’s Global Tennis Report shows global participation climbing from 84.4 million to 106 million players in five years. Tennis is growing, not shrinking.
Procter frames padel as additive:
“Tennis can be a tough sport for some. Offering easier racket sports keeps clubs relevant.”
She notes her own mobility limitations:
“I can’t play competitive tennis anymore, but I can play walking tennis, padel, pickleball and table tennis. I want to be at a club that offers all of those.”
This reflects a broader shift in consumer behaviour identified by the European Racket Sports Observatory:
Multi-racket membership is rising fastest among 30–55-year-olds, who prefer clubs that offer padel, pickleball, tennis and fitness under one roof.
The New Playbook for Club Survival
From regional clubs to historic institutions, the trend is unmistakable:
Underused land → revenue-generating padel courts
Aging membership → influx of 20–40-year-olds
Declining bar/restaurant spend → sustained secondary revenue
Fragmented sections → unified club culture
A senior figure at a major UK club operator summed it up bluntly:
“Padel isn’t the enemy of tennis. It’s the reason some clubs still have tennis at all.”
Boards that once debated whether padel was a threat are now debating how many more courts they can fit.