THE PADEL BOOM

Padel is booming across the UK and, in September, LTA announced its new strategy for the sport. One of the main focuses of the strategy is to grow and improve the infrastructure of padel

ennis’ national governing body, LTA, which also oversees padel in the UK, launched its new strategy for padel in Britain in September. The vision outlined in the new strategy is to open padel up to more people across the country and to grow the sport by making it more accessible, welcoming, enjoyable and inspiring.

Building on momentum

The new strategy, which covers the period from 2024 to 2029, maintains the LTA’s focus on growing the infrastructure of padel, increasing and diversifying the coaching workforce and building on the performance pathway as well as increasing visibility and driving participation.

Since becoming the national governing body for the sport in Britain in 2020, LTA has made significant investment towards developing and supporting padel in Britain. In addition to private investment, the LTA and LTA Tennis Foundation have invested £6 million into 40 padel facility projects, funding a total of 75 new courts, as well as the competition structure, performance support and coach development.

In total, since 2019, the number of courts has grown from 50 to 350 and the number of regular players from 6,000 to 129,000. To support the growth, LTA has launched new coaching courses, as well as a performance pathway to support Britain’s best players.

Since 2019, the number of courts has grown from 50 to 350 and the number of regular players from 6,000 to 129,000

Places

The new strategy aims to help deliver the next stage of the sports development with a series of actions that focus on investing in the visibility of padel and its infrastructure, growing the fan and player base, growing and engaging the padel workforce, developing opportunities to widen the appeal of padel and creating a pathway and support for adult and junior performance players.

The commitments for the first phase of the strategy, inclusive of 2024 through to the end of 2026, include growing the visibility of padel to increase awareness from 20% to 40% of the population and interest in playing from 7.5% to 15%. It also includes a target to increase the number of players who play at least once a year from 129,000 to 400,000 and the number of monthly players from 65,000 to 200,000.

From a facility point of view, the strategy identifies a goal of increasing the number of padel courts from 350 to 1,000, while also growing the padel coach and activator workforce from 40 to 700. From 2025 onwards, the LTA will also establish a new Padel Advisory Group (PAG) to help guide the development of the sport across Britain. The group will be open to those from across the industry who want to work collaboratively and share ideas to grow the sport.

Tom Murray, LTA Head of Padel said: “The strategy will help take padel in Britain to the next level. The strategy and tactics that we’ve put in place will truly help to open padel up to many more people across the country, with more funding, facilities and coaches ensuring that the sport is accessible, welcoming, enjoyable and inspiring.

The strategy will help take padel in Britain to the next level

“Having successfully completed the tasks we identified in our 2020–23 Padel Development Plan, we now want to evolve our approach in order to grow padel by making it accessible, welcoming, enjoyable, and inspiring and maximise the sport’s impact to achieve sustainable growth for the future.

“Over the coming years we will maintain our focus on padel infrastructure, growing and diversifying the padel coaching workforce, and implementing a performance pathway that supports current players whilst also paving the way for the next generation. Alongside this we will invest in driving greater visibility for the sport, including exploring opportunities for professional padel events in Great Britain. It’s an exciting time for the sport as it’s set to reach new heights.

“We want to play our part in driving this growth and support the many organisations and individuals involved in padel.”

The strategy can be downloaded and viewed here: [https://www.lta.org.uk/4a6b3b/siteassets/news/2024/september/lta-padel-strategy-2024-2029.pdf](https://www.lta.org.uk/4a6b3b/siteassets/news/2024/september/lta-padel-strategy-2024-2029.pdf)

PILLARS OF GROWTH

In order to achieve its mission and objectives in the strategy, LTA has identified six strategic pillars which it will focus on in the coming years

INVEST

Invest in the visibility of padel and it’s infrastructure

ENGAGE

Engage, grow and motivate the padel workforce

PERFORM

Create a pathway and support for players

GROW

Grow the player and fan base

DIVERSIFY

Develop opportunitites to grow the appeal of padel

LEAD

Lead padel in Britain to ensure it’s safe, inclusive and sustainanble