Sport is thriving, but also needs help

Tom Walker, Editor

Looking at the most recently published data, it is probably fair to describe our sector as a “mixed bag”. According to Sport England’s latest Active Lives study, the number of people playing sport has never been higher, with nearly two thirds (63.7%) of adults meeting the CMO’s guidelines of 150 minutes of activity a week.

Meanwhile, LTA data shows that the number of people who played padel at least once during a year more than tripled in 2024 (up to 400,000 from 129,000 in 2023). More impressive still, is the growth over the past five years: in 2019 just 15,000 people played padel at least once during the year.

Yet, Active Lives also tells us that long-standing inequalities remain – and in some cases have increased. While activity levels among the most affluent have increased by 1.6% since 2016, they have fallen by 2.5% among the least affluent.

At the same time, a Swim England/ukactive report shows that more than 500 swimming pools have been forced to close permanently since 2010. One of the reasons is clear-running a sports facility has never been more expensive. As a result, the concerns over increasing financial pressures, ageing facilities and rising operational costs has led to the National Sector Partners Group writing to PM Keir Starmer, urging his government to back the sector in the Spending Review through a “sustained plan for investment”. It is sometimes hard to decide which of the two aspects to focus on, in order to best promote investment and interest in our sector – whether to celebrate the thriving parts and opportunities in our sector, or to highlight the challenges within it. The thing is, they are often intimately interconnected.

The success of padel shows that there is definitely a demand for sport. Padel is seen as fun, social, inclusive and takes place in clean, welcoming spaces. You can learn more about the reasons behind padel’s success in the first issue of PadelNation, published as part of this magazine (see pages 46-81).

Could the way padel is thriving – and attracting new players of all ages and backgrounds – teach other sports anything? Answers on a postcard, please (but email will do too: [tom@nationmedia.uk](mailto:tom@nationmedia.uk)).

Tom Walker, Editor

Tom Walker Editor T: +44 (0)7796 512769 E: [tom@nationmedia.uk](mailto:tom@nationmedia.uk)

John Challinor Publisher T: +44 (0)7971 043396 E: [john@nationmedia.uk](mailto:john@nationmedia.uk)

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