Most of you will never have heard of Padel ( Thomas will have though! )
Over the next few years it's going to explode in a massive way in the UK, it's got far more participant sin Southern Europe than any other sport including football. In Spain more than 6 million people play it regularly compared to around 200,000 regular squash players in the UK.
It's exploded in Sweden in the last two years, Zlatan Ibrahimovic loves it and plays it a lot and it built the profile of Padel very quickly there.
Jurgen Klopp has been signed up by the world's biggest racket brand to help promote it in the UK and Germany because it's a sport he loves as well.
My company has been chosen as the major partner for Padel in the UK by two of the biggest world brands and I'm hugely excited by this, I'm actually looking for a site to run this from within the West Midlands so if anyone knows of anywhere vacant they think might be a good spot let me know?
We are contemplating building our own Padel courts as well so that we can create a proper hub for the sport in the West Mids and Worcestershire.
It's a sport for young or old and a very social sport as well, you don't need to have played racket sports before or to be any good so I hope some of you give it a go.
Maybe Thomas can fill you in on how much fun it is?
I'm all ears if anyone has any site ideas, it can be played outdoors or indoors but a ceiling height of around 30 feet is needed indoor.
In the coming years you'll remember where you first heard about this sport
https://youtu.be/P6yfa7rfc6o
I stayed in an apartment block in Spain that had a Padel Court over 10 years ago. Would love to have had a go but it was blistering hot all the time I was there and it looks a high energy sport.
My daughter plays beach tennis in Brighton. Another great game but you need soft sand.
Got an opinion Mick on what sort of raquet they use?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQaMKllvJgY
That vid of one rally is amazing! I'm a big squash and racquetball player so would give it a go.
That’s the best thing about Padel, you can just rock up with three mates or family and play.
It’s not as cheap as other racket sports to start up because the bats are quite technical and time consuming to produce but the price isn’t putting people off.
You can get bats for as low as £29.99 but most people pay around £60 to £70 for a bat and prices go up to £400.
The popularity is so high that the world production is already swallowed up for 2022, in Spain alone they’ll sell 2 million plus bats this year.
I’d not heard of this beach tennis before 923 but I’ll certainly give it more scrutiny now.
To me it reminds me of the scene with Padel at the moment in that there’s a lot of small and funky “start up” brands making bats but like with Padel, they’ll likely die a death because factories are so short of raw materials and production space that they’re refusing to make for small brands and saving the space for the majors.
Goodness knows if councils will help with funding, they should do because it’s potentially a very “urban/street” type sport as you’ll have seen in Spain.
Blue water shopping centre is building courts for outdoor use at the moment I believe.
The LTA are helping a lot with funding and David Lloyd centres are getting into it in a big way.
There’s new courts in Harrogate and some at East Gloucestershire Racket Club and I believe some in Sutton Coldfield but the numbers of courts will grow dramatically in the U.K. in the next few years and rightly so.
Padel is good fun and has been in Spain since the 90’s. Padel works well in activity centres and tennis clubs where the whole family can go so if a tennis court is booked then people usually play Padel or if there’s a person who is not great at tennis then Padel is a good option especially if there’s a family. I don’t think Padel would be over popular if there were stand alone Padel courts and nothing else. At David Lloyd you have tennis players of all abilities and it would work well there as another option because families go and tennis courts could be booked or individuals might want to have a bit more fun. I myself used to play Padel a lot if a tennis court was not available and playing with a child as more fun.
Beach tennis and beach football are fab and can see someone setting up a makeshift beach in a warehouse and starting up a good business.
Pleased for you Mick, sounds exciting.